Matthew 5:10

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"

The promise reprises that of the first of the beatitudes, and so marks a completed section of teaching. It is another where th eparadoxical element is prominent: who'd say it was 'lucky' to be persecuted ordinarily? Only a broad enough picture and a long enough time scheme can do so.



However, I am concerned about how easy it is for Chritian's to turn this into a work rather than a gift of 'grace' [bearing in mind the paradox]. Wanting the blessing it is all to easy to seek the persecution and in seeking persectution to actually 'act up' in such a way as to become rather obnoxious and so create the conditions for 'persecution' [actually justified impatience] and so a vicious cycle of self-fulfilling labelling develops. It can even be used to justify acting in ways that are at odds, I think, with the gospel. For example; a few years back in Bradford there were a group of Christians who regualrly preached at passers-by in the main thoroughfares of the city centre. Their words, as far as they could be heard, were largely either incomprehensible to most people or set in such a condemnatory tone and context that they were likely to give the impression that 'gospel' meant 'bad news' rather than 'good news'. Of course any negative reaction to what they were doing was labelled persectution and fuelled redoubled efforts on the basis that they must be doing something right to be perseccuted. Of course what was really happening is that people were simply fed up of being harangued and abused and having their day spoilt by a bunch of people who didn't know when to shut up. I think this anti-gospel because I think that loving ones neighbour in sharing the gsopel must surely be abut caring enough for them to try to do it in ways that they can understand, relate to and enables them to most easily respond without unecessary barriers or luggage.



No, the persecuted ones here are those who are doing right and just and true and beautiful things and finding that it is cutting across the agendas of vested interests rooted in greed, self-aggrandisement or whatever and who are being shafted as a result. In God's perspective they're the lucky ones because they have bought into God's agenda bigtime and God shares God with them.

Crosswalk.com - Matthew 5:10: