BLESSED ARE (PART 9)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”

Matthew 5:11

“Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.”

Luke 6:22

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today is the final devotion in this series on the Beatitudes, the opening statements Jesus makes during His Sermon on the Mount. Through these Beatitudes, we have found Him assuring different groups of people that they will be happy or blessed for a variety of reasons which included:

The poor in spirit will have the kingdom of heaven.

Those mourning will be comforted.

The meek will inherit the earth.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.

The merciful will be shown mercy.

The pure in heart will see God.

The peacemakers will be called children of God.

and

Those persecuted for righteousness will have the kingdom of heaven just as the poor in spirit.

In today’s final Beatitude, we find Jesus taking persecution or rejection because of affiliation with Him and expounding on it. Look again at these words from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”  Matthew 5:11

“Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.”  Luke 6:22

In yesterday’s devotion, we saw how Jesus had warned His disciples that they would be persecuted just as He was saying:

“You will be hated by everyone because of Me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another.” Matthew 10:22-23

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.” John 15:18-20

Note the primary word “hate” used here and how it matches up with the final Beatitude which preceded these words found in Matthew and John. In our verse for today, Jesus tells His followers that they will be blessed when they are hated for His name sake, for being associated with Him.

How will they be blessed?

Go to the passage from Matthew 10 where Jesus exhorts those who believe in Him to stand “firm to the end” because their reward wasn’t of the world, a world that they didn’t belong to, but rather of the kingdom of heaven which they would inhabit because of their salvation. Indeed, Jesus had chosen them out of the world they lived in and He is still doing today. He’s done it since He brought salvation to all mankind and for the saved, it’s reason to celebrate and rejoice, even when a Christian is hated or insulted or falsely accused or excluded or rejected.

The bottom line is that the blessing we have through Jesus Christ overrides all these negative experiences that this sometimes evil world and the people within it bring against us. No matter how hard someone persecutes and hates a Christian, they can never take away the victory and gift of eternal life that every Christian has through Jesus.  

If you are in Christ, never forget this and always rejoice in the guaranteed salvation that is yours through Him.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com