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Three Kinds of Persecution
There is always a price for living a kingdom life, but the fruit of it is forever. When we give up our earthly life, we inherit (Matthew 5:10—the eighth Beatitude), the kingdom of heaven.
Here are the three kinds of persecution Jesus identified in Matthew 5:11:
- Insult: From oneididzo in the Greek, it means to cast in one’s teeth. People will say things about us, use unkind words when our names come up. They did it to Jesus (Luke 22:64-65).
- Persecuted: From kioko in the Greek, it means to pursue, drive, or chase away. It finally came to mean to harass or treat evilly. This is an attitude of being willing to be persecuted. It is that lack of fear, that lack of shame, that presence of boldness that says, “I will be in this world what Christ would have me be. I will say in this world what Christ will have me say. And if persecution results, let it be.”
- False Accusations: Jesus said people will “falsely say all kinds of evil against you.” John MacArthur says, “I don’t mind if they don’t like me or what I say, but when they claim I say things that I don’t say, that’s hard to take. Then you try to defend yourself over something you never even said.” Godly living provokes ungodly men to be resentful.
Are You Paying the Price?
Christians in America today are heroes—with their own TV shows. American Christians are the presidents and the congressmen and the famous athletes and the actors and the singers.
We live in a day when Christianity, like never before, is engaged in an act of self-glorification that must be repulsive to God. We are manufacturing celebrities as fast as the world is.
What happens to those who willingly stand up for Jesus Christ? The Bible promises, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” If we are willing to pay the price no, God says the glory that shall be revealed is incomparable. Doubled blessed are the persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom, and all that the kingdom could possibly contain.
As John Stott put it in The Beatitudes: Developing Spiritual Character:
When we undergo persecution, we are to rejoice as a Christian should rejoice and even “leap for joy” (Luke 6:23). Why? Partly because “great is your reward in heaven.” We may lose everything on earth, but we shall inherit everything in heaven, not as a reward for merit, but freely.
The kingdom is the gift of the Beatitude. Did you notice that the promise of the first Beatitude was the kingdom of heaven and the last Beatitude ends with the same promise? What this really says is the major promise of the Beatitudes is that you become a kingdom citizen now and forever.
Persecution is a verification that you belong to a righteous line. It’s the climax of Beatitude living!
May your tribute be like the one paid to John Knox, the Scottish preacher: “He feared God so much that he never dared to fear any man.”
May you know the great joy that comes when an examination of your heart reveals Beatitudes character as the direction—even if not the perfection—of your life.
