Mandy’s post on persecution got me on a tangent based upon a question Gersom Clark asked:
As Christians, what if we are persecuted, insulted, and falsely accused even if it is not because of CHRIST but simply how the world operates, will that still be covered in this Beatitude?
The specific Beatitude (Blessing) is from Matthew 5:10, which I will quote from Mandy’s post:
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:10 NIV).
These are my thoughts to the question:
- In my interpretation I see the reason for the blessing from God when it comes to persecution is very important; the verse gives us the reason: “because of righteousness.” I don’t see it God’s blessing as limited to only when others treat us badly because of Christ explicitly since the passage doesn’t say more conditions than that.
- It seems the best way to think about this question is to think about the parties involved when persecution happens and what each party knows and their purposes.
- In regards to the recipients of persecution we must acknowledge the limitation of Christians knowing all the instances of when they are persecuted. Hypothetically if a Christian is attacked in the middle of the night while he or she is asleep and was instantly killed in his or sleep without any knowledge of an attack, that person was persecuted and Matthew 5:10’s promise applies even if that individual didn’t know he or she was persecuted when it was happening. As human beings Christians also have the limitation of being unable to read people’s heart and mind concerning a persecutor’s genuine motivation for why he is doing what he is doing.
- In comparison to the recipient of persecution the persecutor would obviously know more of whether persecution is happening because of hatred towards Christ or righteousness. That is because the person who is doing the action in most instances knows his own heart and motive. Yet this can get complicated. People can deceive themselves as to their true motivation; while they have beliefs against Christians prejudicially or they hate the truth and righteousness they can have wrong “beliefs about their beliefs.” There can be self-justification going on where one blames the victims. If you look at history we see instances where people can do outrageous evil because they saw themselves as the victim of the group they are persecuting. For example the Nazis rank and file saw the Jews as an existential threat. Something similar to that can occur with the persecutions of Christians.
- Also don’t forget historically persecutions of Christians is often disguised with other reasons. We see in history persecutions being called something else by those in power. Christians have been persecuted because they are a threat to the society, because they are anti-communists, spies, etc.
- For Bible believing Christians we believe there is a spiritual realm that exists. Behind the action of evil doers who persecute Christians there can be demonic activities. Consider for instance Revelation 12 which record Satan persecuting the woman who gave birth to the Messiah. I think of the historical manifestation of that involved a human King Herod who killed children under two to try to murder Jesus the Messiah. But for Herod he might not have understood that he was used by Satan. Futhermore Herod could have easily seen his motivation for those murder is done simply out of the principle of self-preservation and not to persecute the righteous per se. Yet unbeknowst to Herod he was used by Satan to persecute the Messiah. If Satan is out to oppose God’s people because they are Christians would that qualify as persecution? I don’t see why not, even if we don’t know about it.
- Of course the one who truly knows for sure when a Christian is persecuted is God. He’s all-knowing, all-present and all-powerful! But God doesn’t allow us to know the reasons for what things happened.
- From these points above I suspect Christians might be persecuted a lot more than we think. So even if one believes Matthew 5:10 is only talking about explicit Christian persecutions (and not general righteousness, sanctification, etc) keep in mind that oppositions against Christians probably happen more than we realize.
- Yet we must also not become crippled with fear and paranoia. We got to remain focus on Christ and do the right thing and somethings we don’t know now but what we do know is God wants us to be faithful to obeying His Word and trusting in Jesus as Savior
Thanks for the insight this morning. We will be happy or fortunate [blessed] when we are persecuted. The focus isn’t on persecution but our response to it.
Blessings.
Amen, Michael!
Hey, Jim. Thanks for your thoughts. I do think this Beatitude is discussing persecuting for Christ’s sake. Being a Christian is costly as you know. Sometimes God does allow bad things to occur and I do not think everything bad that happens to Christians is persecution. I think your 3rd example is murder. I think persecution is something that we outright know is happening more than unknowing. Thank you for your thoughts!
I do concur not everything bad happening means it’s persecution. Thanks for your thoughtful comment Mandy! What led me to write this is thinking about how some question if certain pastor up north who is under police custody whether he is persecuted and also a persecuted church in East Asia that the government raided and destroyed things because of questionable unprecedented and nonexistent “building codes” enforcement. I think often time does reveal things to be more clearly persecution of Christians but from seeing scenarios of Christians being persecuted where even Christians debate and say there’s not persecutions I just wonder if there’s more persecution that happened than sometimes some Christians realize, including myself. Obviously there are times when people cry persecution when it isn’t because of righteousness sake or for Christ, but it’s because of that Christian’s sins and hypocrisy etc. I can’t believe it’s Saturday already, this week went by fast, any plans for this weekend with you and Nathan or it will be a low key weekend?
I agree with what you are saying as well! Nathan and I were talking about this and context plays a huge role and Nathan was also saying how outside the West situations are more like what you are saying. I am thankful for you taking the time to share your thoughts on this!
Praying for youth group as you are meeting now! We will see some friends this evening which will be good. Will you see your folks or Nancy’s folks this weekend?! Love and blessings to y’all!
[…] Persecution and deception […]
Thank you for this Spiritually edifying post, Jim! You and Mandy are both right and I’m very pleased and satisfied with both your answers (in different lenses) to my question in your respective posts. The question was derived from experiences/observations on office politics. Indeed, there is a spiritual battle going on where the prince of the world not only persecutes/inflict but also encourages Biblical Christians to accept/follow the path of darkness instead to avoid further persecutions. Only through knowing the Triune GOD and His Word will give us comfort in these times. Just like what JESUS said that He has overcome the world. So, by GOD’s grace, we will as we focus on CHRIST (and His smile of encouragement to us) and not the painful persecution and insults the world and its prince brings. Blessings to you and your family!
Well said, Kent!!!!
Grateful to GOD for His direction and revelation solely from His Word, the Bible. Also, vacation helps. I’ve finished 2 Series to and once the interior is done, I’ll proceed with the sites’ exterior. Blessings once again, Mandy, to you and your family!
Glad to hear from you brother! I am not too dogmatic with my post and persecution or not when difficult situation arises I’m glad we can go to God for help and comfort. Office politics can be nasty, as I imagine you probably have stories you can share. Have a blessed rest and blessings to your renovation project with the site dear brother Kent!
Thank you Jim!
Excellent teaching.
Thanks Maw Maw for reading this and also for your comments on here this morning! May you be blessed this weekend and your kids and grandkids know Him more and more!
to you also. Love in Christ.
Thank you Jim for sharing your take on persecution and deception. Your final point (#9) brings an important message as we walk tomorrow.
Thanks for this good essay on persecution. We all can see that secular society is becoming increasingly anti-Christian, but as you say, that cannot be our focus.
Indeed we got to focus on Christ! Glad for your comment! Hope your work is largely indoors and not in the snow!
Thanks! Work is all indoors and actually a nice environment for a warehouse. In a couple of job interviews I saw some really nasty warehouses. Spring is definitely in the air! The average high predicted for the next 10 days is 37F! That’s a heat wave compared to most of January and February but there’s still lots of unmelted snow on the ground.
Never thought of persecution in that way before
Interesting thoughts you share . As you stated persecution can take many forms. The obvious one is when we are persecuted for our faith in Jesus. Other times we are hated or disliked because we are different in the way we think, speak and act. I also believe that there are times when a person doesn’t like us or even hates us and they don’t even know why, demonic activity is behind such actions.
Thank you for this most brilliant post.
I must add sometimes we think we are being persecuted but it has nothing to do with our faith rather with our behaviour and motives.
Persecution is coming worldwide
Incredible insight! I am enjoying reading your blog.
Number four, in particular, is a brilliant example.
As with anything in life, there is a lot of lies and deceptions out there