Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are you when
people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you
because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven,
for, in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Verses 11-12 explains
and sheds light on the last of the eight Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount
(5:3-5:10). In this, the greatest sermon ever preached, we will find
that Jesus talked about many things that were not relevant to the lives of the
ones that were present at the time. This would indicate that Jesus was speaking
to people down through the ages, as well as the ones present that day.
In verse 10 the
persecution is because of righteousness itself, not that any of us have any
righteousness in and of ourselves (Romans 3:10), and verse 11 shows that
the persecution is because of Jesus Himself. This might show that the lives of
Christians then and now should be lived following the example of Jesus. It was
not too many years after this sermon that the persecution began, the study of
Acts and the writings of Paul and other New Testament writers show that with
crystal clarity.
James talked about
this in his writing, (James 1:2). This assures us that even though we
might go through trials and tribulations now, the reward that will come later
in heaven is much greater than any suffering we might go through here on this
earth. Moreover, we are in great company, the Prophets that came before, went
through much persecution. The ones that are persecuted are done so because of
the values found in these beatitudes, as well as the gospel itself. The
Christian values are opposite from the standards and ethics of the world, and
people lash out at what they do not understand. The persecution we go through
is not as drastic as what the prophets of old had to endure, however, if no one
is speaking ill of us, we must ask ourselves one critical question. Are the
traits, morals, and ideals of the beatitudes reflective of the way we
live?
Since the Prophets of
the Old Testament, people with a direct message from God had to go through
great persecution (Hebrews 11:37) it should not come as any surprise to
us that we will have to endure some maltreatment in this life. This is not to
say that we can be compared to the Old Testament Prophets, but we are carrying
out the same objective. They, the Prophets of Old, brought forth the Word of
God and we as followers and believers in Christ Jesus are supposed to be doing
just that, bringing forth God’s Word to a lost, dark and dying world.
When one decides to
turn their back on the ways of the world there will be some among the worldly
crowd that will not understand what surrender to Christ Jesus means. Not that
we will have to endure the same form of persecution that God’s prophets went
through, but some in the world will view us as different and some might even go
so far as to say that we are strange. Any slander, disparagement or
vilification that we will go through because of the Gospel of Christ Jesus is
only temporary, and eternal life makes it worth it all (Acts 5:41; Romans
8:18).
No comments:
Post a Comment