Exegesis:

legō de humin ‘I say to you,’ cf. on 3.8.

pas hos an homologēsē en emoi ‘everyone who acknowledges me.’

homologeō ‘to acknowledge,’ ‘to confess,’ here with en, probably an Aramaism. To acknowledge Jesus means to acknowledge allegiance to Jesus.

emprosthen tōn anthrōpōn ‘before, or, in the presence of men,’ i.e. publicly, here and now.

kai ho huios tou anthrōpou ‘the Son of man on his part….’ For ho huios tou anthrōpou cf. on 5.24.

homologēsei en autō emprosthen tōn aggelōn tou theou ‘will acknowledge him before the angels of God,’ i.e. in the eschatological judgment the Son of man will answer for him.

(V. 9) ho de arnēsamenos me enōpion tōn anthrōpōn ‘he who disowns me before men.’ de marks transition and contrast. arnēsamenos is in the aorist because, from the standpoint of the final judgment, it refers to an act in the past. enōpion is equivalent to emprosthen (v. 8). For arneomai cf. on 8.45. To disown Jesus means to deny allegiance to him.

aparnēthēsetai enōpion tōn aggelōn tou theou ‘will be disowned before the angels of God,’ in the eschatological judgment Jesus will not answer for him. aparneomai is equivalent to arneomai.

Translation:

Every one who acknowledges me…, the Son of man also will acknowledge … The structure of this verse may have to be recast, e.g. ‘when a person acknowledges me…, the Son of man on his part will acknowledge him…,’ or in co-ordination, e.g. ‘let anybody acknowledge me…, and I the Son of man will acknowledge him…’ (cf. The Four Gospels – a New Translation).

Acknowledges me is often rendered by a descriptive phrase, cf. e.g. “confesses publicly that he belongs to me” (Good News Translation), ‘say openly … that they have believed on me’ (Tzeltal), ‘approves me’ (West Nyanja, a term explained as “to utter response in chorus, or in a speech approve, by word of mouth or by clapping of hands, the words of the speaker, to … do the part of an approver and say, ‘yes, yes, we say so too’ ”; also used for ‘to confess,’ in the sense of reciting the Creed); or by comparable expressions in direct discourse; or again by, ‘declares/mentions my name’ (Kekchi, Sranan Tongo), ‘talks my good name’ (Northern Grebo), ‘testifies to me’ (cf. e.g. Zarma, Pohnpeian), ‘takes my side’ (Shona 1966), ‘speaks for me’ (Ekari).

(V. 9) He who denies me … will be denied …, or, ‘when a person disowns/rejects me…, he will be disowned/rejected, or, I will disown/reject him….’ To deny can often be rendered by the opposite or negative of the expression used for “to acknowledge”, e.g. ‘not be willing to acknowledge’ (Thai 1967), ‘say I do not (or, don’t want to) believe,’ etc., ‘pretend not to know’ (Ekari); in Zarma one uses ‘to take oath,’ nearly always with negative connotation: to swear that it is not true, or that one will not.

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.