“Blessed [morally courageous and spiritually alive with life-joy in God’s goodness] are you when people hate you, and exclude you [from their fellowship], and insult you, and scorn your name as evil because of [your association with] the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for your reward in heaven is great [absolutely inexhaustible]; for their fathers used to treat the prophets in the same way.”
When I do what is morally right and that makes me the object of hatred and scorn and anger and all sorts of evil, I can still know that the Lord is there to comfort me with His peace and His love. Persecution for following the Way of the Lord is going to occur when walking in a broken world surrounded by hurt people looking to hurt people.
The world is going to reject doing what is right. Righteousness is not a virtue in this world of humanity. Righteousness is a virtue that comes from obeying God.
“I show goodness to them and get paid evil in return. And they hate me even more when I stand for what is right.”
Showing goodness is a discipleship and obedience to the Way of the Lord. Goodness does not come from ourselves or our hearts. Goodness can only come from the source of all good. The Creator that set everything in order and saw the goodness at the end of each day. And God’s goodness delivered to those not in His Kingdom will return His good with evil and hatred.
“Heare the worde of the Lord, all ye that tremble at his worde, Your brethren that hated you, and cast you out for my Names sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but he shall appeare to your ioy, and they shall be ashamed.”
Sometimes my brothers may even hate me for speaking the Word of the Lord. Despite the persecution of even those that walk in the Lord, I still must speak the Word of the Lord. God will be faithful when His Word is spoken and shame will fall on those that fail to listen.
“The apostles left there rejoicing, thrilled that God had considered them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.”
The apostles faced disgrace for sharing the Way of the Lord and still found joy. The apostles were beaten and told to never share the Way of the Lord again or speak the name of Jesus and they left the encounter rejoicing.
“But even if you happen to suffer for doing what is right, you will have the joyful experience of the blessing of God [There are three things to remember when you suffer mistreatment or persecution for the cause of Christ: (1) The eyes of God rest upon you, v. 12; (2) God’s heart responds to your prayers, v. 12; (3) You will experience the blessing of God in spite of your enemies, with nothing to fear, v. 14]. And
Don’t be intimidated or terrified
by those who would terrify you [As translated from the Aramaic. See Isa. 8:12–13].”
God will bless me even through the evil that men do. I don’t need to be afraid or intimidated by people because it isn’t about me. It is always about Him. With God at the center of my life, what I do is for His Glory and not my own. When folks want to scare me or shame me, I don’t need to be concerned. I don’t need to fear or doubt or worry because God is in control.
“You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’
In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,
And you are not to fear what they fear nor be in dread of it.
It is the Lord of hosts whom you are to regard as holy and awesome.
He shall be your [source of] fear,
He shall be your [source of] dread [not man].”
God is the only power I should fear. God is awesome. God is holy. God is right. God is good. I am none of those things. I only get to be an example of His awesomeness, His holiness, His righteousness, and His goodness. I don’t get to do that on my own.
As an Ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven, I am going to have to learn to lean on God when persecution occurs. Some of the persecution may be well-meaning misunderstandings. Some of the persecution might be sinful. Some of the persecution may be my own failing as a human. Regardless of the reason for persecution, I need to rely on God to lead where He wants to lead and follow. I am not a citizen of any other nation or kingdom. I am His Ambassador to the world in which I live.
I should walk in happiness. I should walk in the abundance of the Lord. I should walk in God’s favor in spite of the persecution. Just like the apostles were beaten physically and verbally and walked away rejoicing Jesus, I should still leave every situation focused on Jesus and not on me. Any persecution I face is nothing when compared to what God faces. When I am persecuted for the sake of God, it is not my persecution that should be important. It should be the persecution of the Lord that is first on my mind.
I pray that every day I walk in righteousness. I pray that I am chasing after the prize of righteousness despite what obstacles may come my way. I pray that my chase after living God’s righteousness daily brings me joy even when confronted with evil in return.
I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!
