Matthew 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Jesus said, “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” Paul affirms, “Yes, and all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” 2 Timothy 3:12, These statements have no exceptions built in.

There is not a Christian alive who lives the sort of life described by Jesus in these Beatitudes who will not face some form of persecution. This is not persecution for being some kind of nut, or being obnoxious. It’s persecution for righteousness’ sake. It’s persecution for being aligned to Jesus, and that is why this text is the most searching of all and binds up the Beatitudes. If Christian’s are not being persecuted in some sense, then where is the righteousness of God displayed in them?

Jesus’ words about persecution are relevant today.

It has often been said that everywhere Paul went he started either a revival or a riot, and sometimes both.

In the early years of the church, the persecution Christians suffered was almost entirely sponsored by Jews. Later, of course, far worse persecution was generated by the Roman Empire, until at the beginning of the fourth century the Emperor Constantine switched sides

Persecution Since the Death of Stephen in Acts

Don Cormack’s moving and probing account of Christian sacrifice and martyrdom in Cambodia, especially under Pol Pot reveals a serious persecution. Pol Pot’s attempt to form a Communist peasant farming society resulted in the deaths of 25 percent of the country’s population from starvation, overwork and executions, about 2 million.

The Killing Fields at Choeung Ek, a mass grave, discovered there in 1980, was one of the first proofs to the outside world of what had occurred during Pol Pot’s regime.

By law the Communist state requires Christians to worship only in congregations registered with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. It is a state-sanctioned Protestant body for the organization of all Protestant churches in China. In 2019, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted that as a Christian in China, your Bible may have been rewritten by the Chinese government, your church shuttered or demolished, and your pastor imprisoned. In an ongoing effort to “Sinicize” religious belief (make religious belief Chinese in character), the communist Chinese government arrested more than 5,000 Christians and 1,000 church leaders.

Fast forward to December 2018. Social media were abuzz with reports and prayer requests for Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, a central region province in the People’s Republic of China. The church’s pastor, Wang Yi, was arrested, along with his wife, the elders, deacons, and dozens of members.

Persecution Where We Live

How could Paul make a statement like this? “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” He makes it on the basis of a deep conviction about the nature of Christianity and the nature of the sinfulness of man. He is convinced that there is such a tension between the message and way of life of Christians on the one hand and the mindset and way of life of the world on the other that conflict is inevitable.

This conviction is rooted in the nature of fallen man and the nature of the new creation in Christ. Therefore it does not go out of date. It is still true today. Sooner or later a deeply God-centered Christian will be mistreated for the things he believes or the life he lives.

The Reason Persecutions Come

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Matthew 5:10

Righteousness is connected to a relationship with Jesus, it means, you suffer because of Him.
True righteousness, a seeking for and living a life for Jesus, is not done for its own sake, but for Jesus’ sake. It’s this attachment to Jesus that gives our righteousness its distinct character.

Here is the Rub, if righteousness means, being merciful and pure and peaceable by relying on Jesus and living for his glory, why would anybody persecute that?

The answer is found in Luke 16:14–15.

Jesus has just said, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Then comes the persecution, v14, “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they scoffed at him.” There is the persecution and part of its explanation: “they were lovers of money.” In other words, Jesus’ attitude toward money is an attack on their love of money.

Here we find the root of persecution with its two poles. One pole is the love of something evil or untrue and the other pole is the need to justify that love. This is the root cause of persecution, it is the standard operating procedure for self-justification, and the root of all persecution.

A Life Devoted to Righteousness Will Be Persecuted

If you cherish chastity, your life will be an attack on people’s love for loose living.
If you embrace temperance, your life will be a statement against the love of alcohol.
If you live simply and happily, you will show the folly of luxury.
If you walk humbly with your God, you will expose the evil of pride.
If you are punctual and thorough in your dealings, you reveal the inferiority of laziness and negligence.
If you are spiritually minded, you will expose the worldly-mindedness of those around you.

The Responses to a Righteous Life

When you desire to be godly and follow the righteousness of Jesus in his strength and for his glory, there are two possible responses people can have who stay around you. These are described in John 3:20–21.

20 For every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are worked in God.

The two options are persecution or conversion.

What about all the unbelievers in my life who are neither converted but they are not persecuting me, they are nice to me. There are at least two possible explanations.

One is that your light is under a bushel. You are keeping the stumbling block of the cross well concealed (Galatians 5:11; 6:12–13). You don’t let your distinctive values show.

The other is that you are letting them show and the people around you are moving toward one or the other of these two polls: persecution or conversion. Neither of these have to happen immediately.

We should all examine ourselves to see if we are playing a kind of cowardly Christian incognito. If we are, we should repent and resolve to be more sincere in the expression of who we really are. But we must not assume that, because there is no persecution right now and no conversion right now, the fault must lie with us. The gestation period for the new birth may be nearing a happy end. Or the storm may be ready to break against you.

The Blessings of the Persecuted

Matthew 5:11“Blessed, fortunate, are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad.”

What can possibly justify the command to be glad when we are hated and mocked and tortured and killed? Jesus does have death in view here. This is what they did to the prophets (Matthew 23:30; 1 Kings 18:13; 19:10; Nehemiah 9:26; Jeremiah 26:23).

Rejoice and be glad, this is the talk of one who has seen something and tasted something and knows something about a reality that most people have never tasted or glimpsed.

Jesus can say this because he knows beyond any shadow of a doubt that the reward of heaven will more than compensate for any suffering we must endure in the service of Christ. This mystery is contained in a miracle, namely, the miracle of faith, the bedrock assurance that heaven is a hundredfold compensation for every pain.

Jesus Wants Our Heart to be Toward Heaven

Jesus wants us to desire the reward of heaven more than the reward of the world. There is no other way that we can rejoice and be glad at the loss of our earthly joys.