Persecuted and Reviled
“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.
Matthew 5: 10-12
In Matthew Chapter 5, during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus delivered eight teachings called The Beatitudes. Beatitudes comes from the Greek word beatus, meaning happy or blessed. Each Beatitude names a virtue and lists an eternal reward for that virtue.
Matthew 5: 10-12 are possibly the most difficult lessons in the Beatitudes to comprehend. The main audience of the Sermon on the Mount were the disciples. In verses 5:10-12, Jesus is talking about something that has not happened yet. The disciples had not yet been reviled or persecuted because of righteousness or because of their relationship with Jesus, but Jesus knew that this would occur. In verse 5:12 he reminds the disciples that the Old Testament prophets were often reviled and persecuted. History tells us that all of the disciples were reviled, persecuted, and most were executed for their faith.
Jesus knew that Christians throughout the ages would also be taught His words in the Beatitudes. He intended each of these contradictory-seeming lessons to apply to our lives today. These last two beatitudes are perhaps the most difficult to carry out as believers in Christ. Today, Christians are openly criticized and reviled even in societies like The United States, where the very foundations of our government are based on Christian principles. In other parts of the world Christians are openly imprisoned and even executed for their faith.
For most of us being reviled or persecuted involves social media posts ridiculing our faith, or political candidates espousing positions that contradict the teaching of Jesus and criticizing those who follow Him.
Jesus promised that ours would be the Kingdom of Heaven and our reward will be great there when we suffer for His sake, and that we should be happy to be reviled and persecuted here in this life. Lord, I pray that I can live up to this standard.