This is from my daily Greek exercise of sight reading some time ago, courtesy of Vincent S Artale Jr.
Our text is from the Greek translation of Matthew 5:10. Here is my translation:
“μακάριοι οἱ δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης,
Blessed are those who are persecuted on account of righteousnessὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. ”
because the kingdom of heaven is theirs
Here are some observations:
- God says it is blessed to be meek: “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness” (v.10a)
- Who are “are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness”?
- “persecuted”
- This refers to being treated badly (Tehan, 23).
- It is a passive voice to show what is done to the subjects.
- Why is this a perfect tense? Answer: A present state resulting in a past action and thus conveying continual effect at the present (Tehan, 24).
- Mercy is a loving response prompted by the helplessness and misery of someone that is being shown the love (Carson, 24).
- “persecuted”
- What are they being persecuted for? “for the sake of righteousness”
- In the Greek “for the sake of…” is just one word. This term indicates the reason persecutors are persecuted.
- About “righteousness”
- Seems to be personal righteousness here being meant and that means right conduct of living in conformity to God’s Will (Tehan, 18).
- Notice it has nothing to do with the person’s sins but for what is right they are doing.
- Those this blessing is restricted to those who are suffering because of righteousness (Carson, 27).
- Yet being persecuted for doing right is not an easy place to be at.
- Here God says it is blessed to be merciful
- Again it is a predicate nominative; nuanced appearing before the subject.
- In other words this is something God approves of!
- Who are “are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness”?
- Reason we can be blessed when mourning: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (v.7b)
- “for” is a causal conjunction giving the reason why this is the case.
- The phrase “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” is repeated from verse 3, the first beatitude (Tehan, 24).
Application:
- Do you realize that there is a risk in following Christ?
- Remember what Jesus taught in John 15:18-20 that the world hates Jesus first and therefore those who belong to Jesus would be hated and persecuted (Carson, 28).
- See also Philippians 1:29 and 2 Timothy 3:12 and 1 Thessalonians 3:3 on the reality that Christians will see persecution (Carson, 28).
- Does fear stop you from doing what is right and speaking about what is right? Notice we are called to do what is right and be willing to suffer for it.
- If you are persecuted have you put it in eternal perspective? Meditate on the future Kingdom of God.
Thanks for this quick devotional, word study, and the encouragements! In our flesh, we strive to avoid non-conformity and persecution.
You’re welcome! I haven’t done these in a while, while I call it Quick Devotional Observation from the Greek it actually takes me a while to translate and chew on it and then write it down and apply it to our lives. What does your Saturday look like on lock down?
RE: Saturday
It’s rainy here in ROC but I still dragged the patio furniture out of the garage and assembled it back together on the patio, a sure sign that Spring is around the corner. I’ll do the bills and then finish up that Dave Hunt book, only four pages left. Maybe I’ll write a short review today, too. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on it because it was a struggle enough to get through it.
What do you have going on today during this lockdown, brother? I know you’ll be prepping for your sermon tomorrow.
Awww…the future…heaven 🙌🙌🙌
This is fantastic! Seriously, Jim, I was just thinking yesterday afternoon when I was attempting to fish if you would do any more posts on Greek observations! Yea God, what an amazing way to start the day! Praying for you and your peeps!!
They take a lot longer for me to write even though paradoxically I call it short! Thanks for your prayers! What kinds of fishes were you catching or were attempting to catch?
I can appreciate how long those posts take! I have done ones like that in Hebrew and it is painstaking! I am learning how to fish for bass. What a thankless endeavor! Yesterday, I sent out a text that said if I had to survive on catching fish, I would become a hunter and pray for deer! How are you and your peeps doing?
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Wow you know Greek!
A very edifying devotional.
Thanks! In light of this virus situation do you do video chat online with you grandkids/kids?
No, just phone. Cap on my internet data.
I was going to say, but read the comments first: “Only short on our reading end” yet could be long on the mulling over end. Thanks for taking the time Jim
Nice for a Sunday read
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