Make Waves (Beatitudes Part 8)
Beatitudes Devotional Series by Jamie Osborne
God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.
~Jesus (Matthew 5:10-12)
When was the last time you were persecuted for choosing to live a Christ-like lifestyle? It’s been a while for me, which is a clear sign I have either surrounded myself primarily with Christians or am not living in a way that truly reflects the righteousness of Christ.
Why? Sometimes it is easier to blend in with the crowd than to stand out. Being different (even in Christian circles!) can lead to dislike, mockery, vitriol, and condemnation.
Yet Beatitudes people will naturally be different because we will not only be open about our faith in Christ, but our lives will also look different as we pursue righteousness and allow the Holy Spirit to transform our character to reflect Christ within. (As a reminder, righteousness can be defined as ‘right-living’, or ‘integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting’).
If you are truly a disciple of Christ, you will be persecuted. Chrysostom notes it is not possible for “those living in the practice of virtue to be well-spoken of by all men. Some will persecute you for your righteousness."
Living righteously is threatening. The righteousness of Jesus exposed the rotten religiosity of the Pharisees, ultimately condemning him to death. In his book The Beatitudes: Living in Sync with the Reign of God, Darrell Johnson says:
“Righteousness need not say a word. It need only enter the room and be there. Without speaking a word, the presence of righteousness exposes the rottenness. And we either open up to the goodness or we will feel we need to get rid of it”.
In the same way, living a “righteous life” means we will be living counter-culturally. Some people will be threatened by you if your life looks different than theirs. Additionally, if we are like Jesus, our words and actions may even upset people’s ideas of God and how to follow him.
Jesus clearly tells his followers that those who are about his business will be “hated by all for [his] name’s sake" (Matthew 10:16-24), for as the people treated Jesus, so will they treat his followers. If Christ dwells within us, we will be persecuted and it will be a sign you are blessed. If we are not, we are likely doing something wrong.
However, if you are persecuted as a Christian simply because you are a jerk: argumentative, unloving, judgemental - that is not the kind of persecution that is blessed. Blessed are you who act like Christ despite temptations not to, and blessed are you who hold fast to Christ, amidst a world who doesn’t understand. The Beatitudes people are those who pursue Christ, not safe, comfortable lives.
PAUSE and REFLECT:
Consider the following questions:
Do you live your faith ‘out loud’? Do people know you are a Christian?
When’s the last time you were persecuted in a small or large way because you choose to act with Christ-like character or integrity, when the crowd around you chose differently?
If you have not suffered persecution in recent memory, is it because you have surrounded yourself with a Christian bubble, or because your righteousness looks no different from the world around you?
If you have suffered persecution, was it for the presence of Christ's character and righteousness within you, or because you were mean-spirited, harsh, or unkind?
At no point does Jesus say we should go out seeking persecution. The goal of the Beatitude life is not to be persecuted, but to follow Jesus no matter the cost. Jesus' words are simply a warning that persecution will follow those who seek to walk in the integrity and right-living of Jesus, and also an encouragement that if we do face persecution (for the right reasons), we are on the right track and following in the footsteps of our Lord.
This concludes Jamie’s Beatitudes devotional series! Thank you all for reading along and engaging with the material. If you are interested in diving deeper into this topic, pick up Darrell Johnson’s The Beatitudes: Living in Sync with the Reign of God or listen to his podcast on the Beatitudes here.