Right Persecution
Matthew 5:10
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
In our final blog post in this series on the Beatitudes we come to the one that probably gives us the most pause. “Blessed be the persecuted? No thank you!” If it is true that the Beatitudes show us the character of the true Christian then the conclusions follows that the true Christian is someone who is persecuted. In other words, to follow Jesus means that you are opening up the door to persecution in your life. But what exactly does this mean? That is what we are going to explore in this post.
1) Christianity Opens us Up to Persecution
The first thing we need to realize is that this beatitude is essentially teaching us that a mark of genuine Christianity is a potential for persecution. Now obviously this statement needs to be tempered by some caveats, which we will get into when we look at our second point. Regardless, at it’s most basic level that is what this beatitude is proclaiming to us. The Christian will be someone who faces persecution. The question now is why?
First, I want us to notice Jesus’s teachings throughout the Gospels on persecution. This will help us understand why Christianity opens up the door for being persecuted. In John 15 Jesus says, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before 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” (15:18–19). Or again listen to Jesus’s words in John 17, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (17:14). Here we start to see why it is that Christians will be persecuted, xenophobia.
Here is what I mean by that. Imagine with me a place in which all people continually live in darkness, so much so, that even the slightest amount of light strains their eyes. Then imagine with me that someone comes into this darkness as light themselves. From them radiates a brilliance that is unheard of in this strange land. How might these people who are so accustomed to darkness respond to this?
It is likely that they will do everything in their power to extinguish that light because looking upon it in their current condition brings them great agony. Which is exactly what we see happen with Jesus. Again John writes, “And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (3:19, emphasis mine). Jesus was “the light of the world” and so the people killed him because they loved the darkness (8:12).
However, what they didn’t count on was one simple fact. That even in killing Jesus “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (1:5). How so? Because it is through Jesus’s death and resurrection that we are forgiven, given new life in him, brought back to God, and brought into a new spiritual family which is “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). So just as they hated Jesus Christ, so too will they hate us, the church. In us the light of Christ shines out to the world, but it is a world that loves the darkness.
2) But Be Persecuted for the Right Things
So as Christian’s we can expect persecution because our Lord was persecuted and if he was persecuted for the things he taught and did then we, as his followers, can expect persecution as well. Yet, this comes with a major caveat, one so large that even Jesus feels a need to mention it in our beatitude. There Jesus exclaims, “blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake” (Matthew 5:10). Our persecution is a result of righteousness, not pig-headedness.
All of us know the type. We all know the weekend keyboard warrior who spends his free-time castigating people online for believing things of the world and then claims to be persecuted because of the responses he receives. We all have seen the videos of so-called Christian groups picketing at state funerals and then claiming “persecution” when asked to move. This is not the type of persecution that Jesus was talking about. Acting like a jerk and then being treated like a jerk isn’t persecution. Instead, what Jesus blesses here is persecution for “righteousness sake.” So what does he mean?
I think what Jesus is getting at here is a combination of two things: right doctrine and right living. By right doctrine I mean the clear teachings of Scripture and by right living I mean the character the Christian is meant to exhibit according to Scripture. For example, it is not unheard of to think that we might one day face some form of persecution over what the Bible teaches on sexuality. If we face persecution because we hold to the biblical teaching that God created humanity as male and female and that sexual activity is only permitted within the union of a man and woman in marriage, then we are being persecuted for right doctrine. However, this needs to be combined with right living for it to be considered persecution for “righteousness sake.” We must be gentle as we address those who disagree with us, we must love them and pray for them, we must desire their salvation, we must be peaceable, kind, and patient. Our actions should be completely above reproach and present no obstacle to sharing the Gospel while at the same time never wavering from the truth of Scripture and declaring it boldly in gentleness and love. If we were to live in this way, and face persecution for it, then our persecution would be “for righteousness sake,” not because we were a jerk.
3) What If I’m Not Experiencing Persecution?
So the true Christian will face persecution because we are a light shining amongst the darkness and people love the darkness. However, we need to be cautious that the persecutions we face are for “righteousness sake” and not because we are just jerks. Yet, all of this raises another question; what if I’m not experiencing persecution? If Jesus says that the true Christian is marked by persecution, and I am not experiencing persecution, does that mean I am not a true Christian? Furthermore, does that mean I need to go out and look for ways to be persecuted so that I can prove my genuineness as a Christian? In answer to both of these questions I would say an emphatic NO!
First, I do not think you need to be persecuted in order to be a genuine Christian. All throughout the New Testament we are told that the only thing that saves us and makes us a Christian is faith in Jesus Christ. If we believe in Christ, trust him for the forgiveness of sins, make him our Lord, and vow to follow him with all of our hearts then we are Christians full-stop. However, I would say that this—by necessity—means that the door is always open for us to be persecuted and it needs to remain that way in our lives. While we might not be experiencing active persecution right now, if the gospel we preach doesn’t rustle anyone’s feathers and leave room for persecution, then it is not the real gospel. Because the real Gospel creates people of light in a world in love with the darkness it will, and should, cause some pushback. So no, we don’t need to be actively experiencing persecution in order to be a Christian. Yet, if our Christianity is so watered down that it causes no offence then it probably isn’t the real thing.
Secondly, I do not think that we need to go out and look for opportunities to be persecuted. This does not prove the genuineness of our faith. In fact, many of the great saints throughout church history fled persecution. This is true for example of Polycarp, it’s true of Tyndale, and it was true even of Martin Luther. When persecution was on the horizon these men fled from it so that they could continue doing gospel work. The real question is what did they do when persecution was inevitable? How did they respond? They did not recant, they did not give up, but they held on to God’s word and humbly accepted what came with their proclamation.
I am always inspired by the words of Luther here. When he faced trial over his famous ninety-five theses, and his recovery of the doctrine of free grace, he was called to recant. To say he was wrong about grace through faith in Christ alone. His response has captured the hearts of many ever since, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me” (Luther). We do not need to seek persecution; it will come to us. But if and when it does, we must stand like Luther with our consciences captive to the word of God unable to do anything other than stand upon that firm foundation which is the gospel.
Conclusion:
And with that we come to the end of our series in the Beatitudes. Here is what true human flourishing looks like; it looks like poverty of spirit, it looks like mourning over sin, it looks like humility, it looks like a desire for righteousness, it looks like mercy, it looks like purity of heart, it looks like peacemaking, and it looks like persecution. This is true human flourishing. How so you might ask? Simply because all of these qualities describe the person who has been transformed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ where true joy is found. In Christ we have the forgiveness of sins, we have new life, and we have been brought back into relationship with God. What more could we want? Let us be people who are so transformed by the power of the Gospel that we become beatitude people in our daily lives.