Blessed Are the Reviled, Persecuted, and Slandered
The beatitudes lead us through the paths of righteousness for the Lord’s name’s sake. The path begins with humility… in realizing that we are poor in spirit without the spirit of God in Christ. Then blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek.. those who are receptive to receive God’s instruction. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousnes for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are those who are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
The last of Jesus’s beautiful attitudes is in Matthew 5:11-12. Jesus said, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven…. for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
The road through the history of the Christian church is paved with the blood of the martyrs. However, because Jesus died for our sins, we should live for him…. a living sacrifice, transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
In Roman times, the early Christian message divided believers from unbelievers. To the Jews in Jerusalem, converts to Christianity were considered dead… they were outcasts dead to those who continued to worship in the temple and in the synagogue.
The Roman Emperor Nero, tortured Christians and set their bodies on fire to light the avenue that led into Rome. What was his motive for persecuting, torturing, and killing Christians? On the surface, Nero had burned Rome to rebuild it as a monument to his own egotistical power. However the citizens of Rome revolted against Nero for burning their city. Nero need someone to blame so he accused the Christians for setting Rome ablaze. From a spiritual perspective, Nero’s killing of the Christians fulfilled Jesus’ prophetic words… blessed are the persecuted, reviled, and evil spoken of, for great is their reward in heaven.
In totalitarian regimes the government and their authoritarian rulers will do everything in their power to stamp out anything that threatens their absolute power. This totalitarian ideology of power continues today. As British historian Lord Acton said, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot used genocide to annihilate the intellectuals, the educated, and the religious leaders that he perceived as opposition to his total authority.
Political powers divide families so that corrupt governments can indoctrinate their children. Then the children will learn to become subservient to the ruling regime. In Rome, Cesar instituted emperor worship… their official motto was “Cesar is God.” Anyone who did not bow down to Cesar and burn incense in his honor was persecuted and outlawed for disloyalty to the emperor. Jesus’ only offense was that his followers followed him as their Lord. Following Jesus Christ threatened the power of Rome.
Jesus said, “the world hates you as it has hated me. Ye are not of this world. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. These things they will do for my name’s sake for they have not known me.” The sin nature we inherited from Adam hates the nature of God. Each of the beatitudes is diametrically opposed to the attitudes of this fallen world.
In our country, those who seek to control Americans will do whatever it takes to subjugate citizens under their repressive governmental dictates. They will mandate the restriction of our God-given unalienable rights that were written into our constitution. In their lust for power they rationalize that removing the freedoms that were written into the first amendment are for ’public safety’ and the “good of the American people.” They use temporary emergencies such as the Covid virus or whatever happens to be the the crisis of the day to remove our freedoms. Their purpose is to control the people and stamp out opposition to their absolute power. They use national crises to deny Christians their God-given freedoms upon which our nation was founded as one nation under God.
The world alienates followers of Christ by emphasizing what they think Christians are against. Because they have no knowledge of a just and loving God, they perceive that Christians are closed minded, bigoted, and holier-than-thou. However, it’s not what Christians are against that matters… but what we stand for.. Therefore stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Stand up for Jesus. Stand in his strength alone.
The devil takes the truth of the Word of God and twists it to his own evil ends. Any fool can claim his rights and any demon will make sure that he gets them. Jesus said, “Set your affections on things above and not on things of earth.” Christians are distracted from their heavenly calling when they align themselves with a particular political party thinking that a political candidate can deliver them from the world’s problems.
Philippians 3:20 says, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…” We’re not to stand for the politics of this world but for the politics of heaven, for our citizenship is in heaven. Our allegiance is to our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The word translated “citizenship” is from the Greek word Politiea from which we get the English word politics. The root word for Politea is the Greek word Polis which is the basis of the English word Police. In Ancient Greece, the polis was the wall around the city-state that defined the citizens who lived inside the protection of its ramparts. These walls protected the city’s inhabitants from their enemies and defined the people as citizens and loyal supporters of the leaders of their city state.
As Christians we are citizens of heaven. Heaven defines our homeland and our ruler, God our Heavenly Father. As loyal subjects of our Lord Jesus Christ, even though we hold dual citizenship, we are Christians first and Americans second. We are Christians who happen to be Americans and not Americans who happen to be Christians. Our true homeland is in heaven and we pledge our allegiance to our Heavenly Father and our Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ.
The prophet Daniel had risen through the political ranks of ancient Babylon. Proverbs 18:16 says, “A man’s gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before great men.” Daniel sought God for wisdom and made wise decisions as God directed him. King Darius perceived that Daniel had an “excellent spirit” and appointed him the chief over the three presidents who served under the king. These three presidents were in charge of 120 governors or princes who ruled over the people of the kingdom of Babylon.
The other presidents and princes plotted to overthrow Daniel so they scrutinized his life and his actions to find something they could charge against him. However, they could not find any fault in him. Since they knew that Daniel served his God, they devised a trap to use Daniel’s service to God against him.
They appealed to the king’s pride to sign a decree that no one in the kingdom could make a petition to any man or god except to King Darius within the next thirty days. If anyone violated this decree, they would be thrown into a den of lions. The king signed the decree which could not be rescinded according to the law of the Meades and Persians.
Even though Daniel knew of the decree, he continued to pray to God three times a day with his window open toward Jerusalem as he had always done. The other governors observed and recorded that Daniel continued to pray to his God. They came to King Darius and said, Daniel has violated your decree that no one can make a petition to any man or god within thirty days. According to the law of the Meads and the Persians which cannot be altered, Daniel must be thrown into the den of lions.
King Darius was angry when he realized that the decree he signed was a trap for Daniel whom he had appointed as his chief advisor. He sought counsel to find a way to avoid sending Daniel to the lion’s den, but the terms of the decree could not be rescinded. Before Daniel was taken away to be cast into the den of lions, King Darius said to Daniel, The God whom you serve will deliver you.
Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den and King Darius spent a sleepless night worrying about Daniel’s fate. The next day, the king rushed to the opening of the lion’s den and said, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? “. Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God.” (Daniel 6:20-23)
As Suzan often said, joy is not the absence of pain, but the presence of the Lord. God allows persecution to teach us that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. The word for experience means “proven character.” God’s character in us is proven by trials that refine us. Chuck Smith said, God will deliver us in the fire, by the fire, or through the fire. According to Proverbs, The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but God refines the heart.
We’re proven and reproved by the testing of the trials, tribulations, pressures, and persecution of this world. The Apostle Paul learned this lesson when he prayed three times for God to remove his thorn in the flesh. The first two times, God did not answer. The third time, God answered but the answer was not what Paul was expecting. God said to Paul, My strength is made perfect in your weakness, my grace is sufficient for thee.
Therefore, Jesus said, blessed are they when men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, for great is your reward in heaven. Through the trials of life, we will understand that there is no victory without a spiritual battle…. through the pandemic, pandemonium, pressures, and persecution of this world we will learn the greatest blessing of all…. thy grace is sufficient for me…
That we may live as living witnesses of His power to overcome, that this light affliction which is but for a moment is not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall follow… for great is your reward in heaven!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
