What is the context?
Jesus begins His answer with a warning about deception. Many will claim to be the Christ and lead people astray. His disciples need to test those claims rather than follow someone simply because that person speaks in His name.
He then addresses wars and rumors of wars. His instruction is not to be alarmed, because these things must happen while the end is still to come. He goes on to speak of nations and kingdoms in conflict, famines, and earthquakes in various places, calling them the beginning of birth pains. The movement of His answer matters: suffering is real, yet its appearance is not permission to announce that the end has arrived.
The birth-pain picture describes distress before what is coming. These verses do not give a start date, a calendar, or a method for calculating the end from reports of disasters. Luke 21:8–11 gives a related warning against people announcing that the time is near and against being terrified by conflict. Jesus prepares His followers to remain discerning and steady.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Christians commonly understand these verses as warnings against false messiahs and fearful conclusions drawn from conflict and calamity. They differ over how the events relate to Jerusalem's fall and the period before Christ's final return.
Wesley on 24:4–6 begins with events surrounding Jerusalem's destruction while allowing that some words reach further into the future. The US Catholic bishops' notes on 24:4–8 place the calamities within the suffering that precedes the end of the age. Neither explanation makes every report of war an announcement that the end has already come.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The image of birth pains has a hopeful parallel in Romans 8:18–25. Paul describes creation groaning while awaiting freedom from decay, and believers waiting for the redemption of their bodies. This is a related picture of suffering before God's promised renewal, rather than a timetable identifying every event in Matthew.
1 Peter 1:3–9 grounds living hope in Jesus' resurrection even while believers grieve through trials. 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 likewise offers encouragement through the promise that those who belong to Christ will be with Him. The larger hope rests in His saving work and promised future, giving His people reason to remain faithful through uncertainty and suffering.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.