{"id":19550,"date":"2014-05-08T00:20:12","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T04:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=19550"},"modified":"2014-05-07T19:00:30","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T23:00:30","slug":"persecuted-present-tense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/05\/08\/persecuted-present-tense\/","title":{"rendered":"Persecuted In The Present Tense"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Blessed are the\u00a0poor in spirit<\/span><\/em><\/strong>, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0those who mourn<\/span><\/strong><\/em>, for they shall be comforted. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0the meek<\/span>,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0for they shall inherit the earth. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0those who hunger and thirst for righteousness<\/span><\/strong><\/em>, for they shall be satisfied. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0the mercifu<\/span><\/strong><\/em>l<\/span>, for they shall receive mercy. \u00a0Blessed are the\u00a0pure in heart<\/span><\/strong><\/em>,<\/span>\u00a0for they shall see God. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0the peacemakers<\/span><\/strong><\/em>,<\/span>\u00a0for they shall be called sons of God.\u00a0Blessed are\u00a0those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness<\/span><\/em><\/strong>, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Blessed are you\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/em>when\u00a0people\u00a0<\/b><\/i>insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all\u00a0<\/span>kinds of evil against you because of Me<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0*<\/span><\/p>\n

In this last of the Beatitudes, Jesus offers encouragement to those who suffer for His sake. \u00a0This Beatitude carries on the thought from the previous one, but this time Jesus makes it personal: not just \u201cthose who have been persecuted,\u201d but \u201cyou when they revile you and persecute you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verse 10
\nBlessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake,
\nfor theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
\nVerse 11
\nBlessed are you when they revile and persecute you,
\nand say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.<\/p>\n

Clearly Jesus expected His followers to be ill-treated, and He speaks of this ill-treatment in three ways: reviling them, persecuting them, and saying all kinds of evil against them.<\/p>\n

Reviling<\/strong> <\/em>comes when you are insulted or verbally abused because of your faith. The early Christians were mocked because of their belief in the Resurrection. They were called \u201catheists\u201d because they denied the Roman deities and believed in a God the Roman government did not recognize. The Jews considered them heretics and blasphemers because they identified Jesus as God.<\/p>\n

By\u00a0persecuting<\/strong><\/em> I think we can understand Jesus to mean what usually comes to mind: physical abuse, and blatant singling out for \u201cspecial treatment\u201d on account of one\u2019s faith. This may encompass the other two (reviling and speaking evil of someone), but I think it also brings in beatings, political pressure and punishment, social restriction, and so on. Whenever Christians are denied advancement\u2014either politically, or in the workplace\u2014on account of their faith, or are in other ways treated differently and adversely because they are Christians, persecution is taking place.<\/p>\n

Say all kinds of evil against you falsely<\/strong><\/em> covers false accusations brought against a Christian to sully his or her reputation, often to justify persecution. In the early church, the Christian sacrament of communion was said to be an orgy, with the participants engaging in illicit sexual behavior and cannibalism. Whether or not this was a genuine misunderstanding of the Christian \u201clove meal,\u201d wherein the symbolic body and blood of Christ is consumed, or a deliberate distortion, it didn\u2019t help the Christians gain favor in the world.<\/p>\n

Not only are Christians blessed<\/em> when they are persecuted, but they should, in fact, rejoice and be glad. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because \u2018your reward is great in heaven.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward [is] great in heaven;
\nfor in the same way they persecuted the prophets [who were] before you.
\nVerse 12<\/p>\n

Note that this is in the present tense. \u00a0This means that the heavenly reward that belongs to the ill-treated Christian is not some future hope, but it is a present reality. \u00a0Because the Christian is willing to suffer reviling, persecution, and character assassination for the sake of Jesus, he or she is blessed<\/em>. \u00a0And what\u2019s more, the Christian can\u2013and should\u2013rejoice and be glad in the face of such abuse, because God has already granted him or her a reward in heaven. \u00a0What is that reward? \u00a0Jesus doesn\u2019t say. \u00a0But it should be enough to know that the Lord knows what we go through for His sake and, while He doesn\u2019t promise to make life easier here, He does assure us that we already have something infinitely better waiting for us in eternity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0*<\/span><\/p>\n

Lord, we thank You for the reward that is awaiting the children that are being persecuted for Your name\u2019s sake. We trust You in all things! In Jesus\u2019 name, we pray. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blessed are the\u00a0poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0the meek,\u00a0for they shall inherit the earth. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. \u00a0Blessed are\u00a0the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. \u00a0Blessed are the\u00a0pure in heart,\u00a0for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3188,6264,3367,1287,425,5784,6262,6184,6190,6263,3174],"class_list":["post-19550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-ann-mwafulirwa","tag-blessed-are-you","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jesus-speaking","tag-matthew-510-12","tag-persecuted","tag-persecution","tag-reviling","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-55k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19550"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19552,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19550\/revisions\/19552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}