Devotion #8 – Matthew 5:10-12

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” If baptism is a public proclamation of a private, internal decision to follow Christ, then persecution is the measuring stick by which a Christian knows the spirit of the living God dwells within him. Make no mistake; Jesus’ final installment of the Beatitudes carries with it the most bone-chilling of promises, that to live for righteousness’ sake, there is an assurance of persecution that validates a man’s life unto Him. For just as Paul instructed Timothy, “indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12), we too must heed the same warning that to live for Christ does not mean a life without rejection from the world and even within the church itself (which can be most destructive). Rather, we yolk with Christ under the promise that “the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:16-17). It is imperative to know that this Beatitude does not say we are blessed if we suffer for being good or noble. The world embraces those who do good things but shuns the righteous, because righteous living convicts and from God’s perspective condemns those who live in contrary. How then do we apply the truth of Scripture in this light? Let us begin with the words of Christ who proclaimed, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). We must always be on guard for those who would seek to destroy us for speaking Biblical truth in love rather than sugar-coating truth or spinning it in a way where the power of the Word is diminished or even contradicted in sinful justification. For as Scripture warns, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Proverbs 27:6). Therefore, we must know up front that righteousness draws a line in the sand and those who choose to stand in opposition to God’s Word will inevitably turn against us when we live righteously. Yet in the big picture we are comforted that “the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (1 Peter 3:12). Therefore, we have access to the Son of God who paid the penalty for our sins and an obligation that we will stand on His behalf before man. The Bible states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Consequently, “So everyone who acknowledges me (Jesus) before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). Christ and His Word are inseparable. So whether you stand for Him and who He was, or for Holy Scripture which is what He said, you stand in unison on the foundation of righteousness which polarizes those who live for the world and its self-idolatrous way of living. Bottom-line, persecution is not an easy pill to swallow. Being hated is not our goal when we take up our cross and follow Christ. Yet Jesus firmly reminds us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19). Moreover, He instructs us to embrace persecution as an opportunity to bear witness to His name by speaking truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). “Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:14-19). For the man who lives for Christ and righteousness’ sake, lost souls are motivation enough to compel him to endure all the fiery trials that life can bring in order that men would be won for Christ and lives transformed through the power of His Word. He may get burned in the process, but that wound is only momentary because He has perspective that life apart from Christ is “vanity and striving after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). He hears the voice of the Savior calling, “But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded” (2 Chronicles 15:7) and he responds faithfully, resting in the promises of God and the kingdom of heaven that awaits.

Devotion #7 – Matthew 5:9

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” We live in a hostile world. It seems everywhere we turn today there are people, groups and nations at war with one another on a range of political, social, cultural and religious grounds. Yet this trend is nothing new to mankind, for opposition has stood the test of time and continues to thrive in a post-modernistic world that clings to self-truth. Is there not an answer to this madness? Praise God there is, for as Christians we believe God has provided us with the tools necessary to facilitate peace. Therefore, we must look no further than the Word of God that “is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (Psalm 119:105) and the Holy Spirit who “searches everything, even the depths of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10) for counsel and direction. As we have studied previously, the Beatitudes build upon one another. Therefore, a man who seeks to be a peacemaker humbly seeks God’s grace for his salvation, mourns the destructive power of sin in his life and the lives of others, casts aside his selfish desires in meekness, pursues righteousness passionately, shows mercy to others in light of the infinite mercy God has given him, and seeks a purity of heart that overshadows his entire life. He cannot fathom attaining a level of true peace without living out the first five Beatitudes. They provide support to his peacemaking and enable him to seek and promote peace at the expense of himself because he has been made holy and righteous through humble repentance unto God and living out the Gospel through his own life. Specifically, a man who is a peacemaker is one who is meek, for he has only one concern which is the glory of God amongst men. Scripture admonishes, “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14), because peace can only be pursued with a heart that is motivationally pure. Moreover, one’s heart must be devoid of self which directly incorporates meekness and results in a denial of self-interest and self-concern. A peacemaker must be neutral, able to check his emotions and sensitivity without becoming defensive. Stated plainly, “the peacemaker is one who is not always looking at everything in terms of the effect it has upon himself…He has seen himself and has come to see that in a sense this miserable, wretched self is not worth bothering about at all. It is so wretched; it has no rights or privileges; it does not deserve anything” (Lloyd Jones). Jesus stated, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:24), which means you must sacrifice your idolatrous love of self so that the glory of God may be revealed in your pursuit of peace, regardless of the repercussions it may have on you. Practically, a peacemaker is one who is “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19). He is calculated in his thoughts and actions because he knows that “anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down” (Proverbs 12:25). More importantly, he is grounded in the authoritative truth of God’s Word for he knows that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12), meaning he is not the ultimate source of peace but a facilitator of peace for the Most High God. He is willing to be used by God because his posture is low and his heart is pure. The New Testament speaks emphatically “that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another” (1 Corinthians 12:25) and the peacemaker not only takes that to heart but produces peace within the body. The apostle Paul pleaded for this cause when he said, “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10). Division within the church family is of supreme importance to God and cannot be minimized as simply difference of opinion. For the seeds of gossip and casting judgment have no place in the life of a Christian man and a peacemaker seeks to destroy discord amongst the body and bring unity under the umbrella of God’s glory as revealed in His Word. Bottom-line, “the peacemaker is the man who does not talk about people when they are offensive and difficult. He does not ask, ‘Why are they like that?’ He says, ‘They are like that because they are still being governed by the god of this world. That poor person is a victim of self and of Satan; he is hell bound; I must have pity and mercy upon him.’ The moment he begins to look at him like that he is in a position to help him, and he is likely to make peace with him. So you must have an entirely new view of the other person” (Lloyd Jones). That is how a man lives out the Gospel and is transformed into a peacemaker. Are you that man?

Devotion #6 – Matthew 5:8

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” One would be hard-pressed to find a passage of Scripture that is more difficult to apply than Matthew 5:8. Our fallen self, wretched of sin on a consistent basis simply wages war in opposition to it. Yet Jesus Christ did not hesitate in declaring that the ultimate prize of seeing God face to face will be reserved for those whose hearts are unconditionally pure. What an amazing statement, although finding such a man may be rare today even within the church. For “who can say, ‘I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin?’” (Proverbs 20:9) Nonetheless, it is evident from Christ’s mouth that such a level of spiritual character does exist and therefore we should aim to seek it passionately for our sanctification. This subject matter is so potent though that a man dare attempt to wrap his head around this concept because it strikes a cord between a man’s true self and his perceived and hopeful self image. For instance, no man seeks to be an adulterer or abusive husband/father, yet he will allow seeds of lust and anger to take residence in his heart and remain stifled but not eliminated. What makes him think that if he allows lustful or angry thoughts in his mind that they will not overtake his heart and manifest themselves in destructive levels of behavior? Don’t be so foolish! A man cannot separate his thoughts and behavior from a discussion of purity. They are all interconnected and sin drives a stake in the heart of any man desiring to live a life of purity and divides it. Remember that Jesus spoke these words to a mixed crowd, including Pharisees, addressing the ultimate impact of Pharisaical behavior (i.e. religious hypocrisy) in His closing remarks on the Beatitudes when He calls out how they suppressed the truth of God’s Word and “persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:12). Nothing brought out the righteous anger of God more than the Pharisees’ behavior because of the impurity of their hearts, and nothing is of greater importance to God than our hearts, for they are the core of our being, our inner man and willful self. Therefore we must heed Christ’s warning: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean” (Matthew 23:25-26). Charles Spurgeon offers this thought as well: “If your language should be chaste, yet, if your heart is reveling in foul imaginations, you stand before God not according to your words, but according to your desires; according to the set of the current of your affections, your real inward likes and dislikes, you shall be judged by him.” As men of character we cannot allow our inward thoughts, attitudes, affections and desires to be inconsistent with God’s Word, nor can we place disproportionate emphasis upon our heads and not our hearts. The church is full today of over-inflated theological giants who can recite verses by memory and expound in depth upon the truth of Scripture yet never apply a single word within their hearts. We cannot fall into that trap and as D. Martyn Lloyd Jones states, “reduce the way of life and righteousness to a mere matter of conduct, ethics and behavior.” Our focus is not external but emphatically and purposefully internal to the core. I have heard it said that there is nothing that comes out of the mouth of a drunk that wasn’t there to begin with. Jesus spoke a similar sentiment: “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:18-19). This magnifies the fact that “the heart is always the core of all our troubles. But the terrible, tragic fallacy of the last hundred years has been to think that all man’s troubles are due to his environment, and that to change the man you have nothing to do but to change his environment. It overlooks the fact that it was in Paradise that man fell. It was in a perfect environment that he first went wrong, so to put man in a perfect environment cannot solve his problems” (Lloyd Jones). But if you can say, “I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Matthew 7:22-23), then you are aware that purity of heart is the battleground between God and Satan in your life, and you have the choice to either live in hypocrisy and never see the face of God or cry out in humble depravity, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Matthew 7:24-25). My advice: choose purity of heart “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7) and inevitably you WILL see God for your heart WILL be made clean and pure by the blood of Christ.