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11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. ~ Matthew 5:11-12
Today, we close out our study of the Beatitudes found at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. The Beatitudes describe the process involved in the changing of the rebellious human heart toward God. The Beatitudes describe the process we know as sanctification that we entered into once we became believers in the Lord Jesus. Through this process we experience the Lord Jesus who informs us that true happiness comes into our lives as the result of letting Him clean us out from the inside out. This process begins with poverty of spirit or the understanding that we are totally bankrupt spiritually before God. This process takes us to the ultimate step where we find purpose even in the persecution that comes from those who know not the Lord for themselves. We find joy in persecution because through it we bring glory and honor to the Lord Jesus who laid down His life for us.
In v.11 of today's passage we read, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake."
Unlike all the other beatitudes, the Lord Jesus elaborated upon this last beatitude because it demands further explanation. Since it is so very contrary to the human default mode, the Lord Jesus had to provide this further explanation. The key to it all is that it is done for His sake. The fact is the Lord Jesus has won our heart's allegiance by dying for us on the cross. Since He died to secure our eternity with Him apart from sin and death, we naturally, out of gratitude, desire to bring Him the greatest honor and glory.
The word translated "revile" means "to disgrace, mock, insult, or to cast blame upon." In context we learn that this ill-treatment is due to the fact that we are standing up for the Lord and His definition of things. The picture the Lord Jesus gave here was of someone continually being persecuted by those who are not being defined by Him. These persecutors continually defame us and their reviling is their means of persecuting us.
In 1 Peter 4:14 we read, "If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you."
We do not appreciate and understand the power and the presence of God unless we see it displayed in our lives. We do not really experience God's power nor do we recognize His presence unless we go through suffering. Those who cut the process short, desiring comfort or relief from the pain, they miss out on the deepening of their hearts for the very pronounced power and presence of God in their lives. Our comfort, which is what our suffering disrupts, blinds us from the reality of God's presence and power. It is our fallen condition that almost always requires us to go through suffering in order to be made more intimate with God. And, we will not know the pronounced presence and power of God personally until we turn to Him in the midst of our suffering.
In v.12 of today's passage we read, "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
The word translated "rejoice" literally means "to leap much." The reward of that which the Lord Jesus spoke of here is not the product of the suffering but the forerunner to the suffering. Knowing that we will spend eternity in heaven is what gives us this perspective that leads us to see the value in our suffering. In the same way that the prophets of the Old Testament were persecuted and endured such, so will the disciple of Christ. And the same lessons that they learned, we will realize with exceeding gladness. It is His joy that enables us to endure the unwanted discomfort.
When we have entered into a personal relationship with the God of all creation, we experience a change that will eventually render in us the ability to endure the ill-treatment from others and we will learn to see the world through the eyes of the God of the Bible because He is actively granting us His heart and eyes to see things as they truly are. It is from this posture that we will view this world for the King of heaven. We can endure persecution because we know that the purpose behind it is to bring glory to the God who made and redeemed us.
The Beatitudes describe the process whereby the believer in Christ is daily learning to submit ourselves to the rule of God in our lives. We do this with joyful willingness because we have come to know how good the Lord truly is. When our wills agree with God's, we will be rendered powerless and helpless to do our will. This is where we encounter the joy of God. It is always out of this context that the Lord reveals His power and His presence to us most profoundly. As a result, we will increasingly allow the very life of the Lord Jesus to be manifested in us, to us, and through our yielded lives. The very will of God will increasingly become ours. It is out of this posture that we truly discover that we were made to be completed by God and by God alone.
