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.