Click here to return to Blog Post Intro
The Eighth Beatitude: The Result of the First Seven
Last month, we focused on the Seventh Beatitude—“Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” Jesus moves from peacemaking to persecution as the final topic of His Sermon on the Mount, recognizing that however hard we may try to make peace with some people, they will refuse to live at peace with us. Every Christian is to be a peacemaker, and every Christian is to expect opposition.
When we live the way God wants us to live, we find pain and suffering. We will be peacemakers, yes, but we will be troublemakers, too. Matthew 5:10 puts it this way, “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom” (The Message).
Those who suffer persecution because of their righteousness live in a state of blessedness. Notice, this does not include those who are disliked because of their self-righteousness, or because of their condescending attitude, or because of their hypocritical, judgmental approach.
What Does Persecution Look Like?
At this moment, Christians all over the globe are suffering in physical ways because of their devotion to Christ. Many choose to put themselves in situations where their faith will make them targets, all for the sake of the gospel. How blessed are those courageous believers, but many of us may not experience that kind of suffering.
All Christians have an enemy in the spiritual realm. John 8:44 says, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Your enemy hates you and has only one goal in his dealings with you: to steal, kill, and destroy anything that God has established in your life. The more you learn to live the surrendered life that Jesus describes in His inaugural address, the more your enemy will pursue you.
Blessed are you! If your enemy were not feeling threatened by you, he would not work to distract you. The very incidents that he wants to use to weaken you, God wants to use to strengthen you.
If we don’t have any persecution in our lives, we’d better examine our claim to be Christians. We want to be popular, we want to be famous, we want to be acceptable. But, if we live the righteous life that God asks us to live, the world can only resent and hate us.
Bringing It Home: The Kingdom of God
More than one hundred years after the Sermon on the Mount, a man came to Tertullian and said, “I’ve come to Christ, but I don’t know what to do. I have a job that I don’t think is right, but I have to live.” To which Tertullian replied, “Must you?” The only choice is loyalty to Jesus Christ, even if you must die.
If we’re going to live a kingdom life, we ought to be prepared to be very lonely in some crowds. That’s why we need each other so much.
We’ve come full circle. The first beatitude proclaims “theirs is the kingdom,” and the last beatitude proclaims “theirs is the kingdom.” All the Beatitudes between said the same thing in different words. Jesus introduced multiple ways to describe his kingdom.
Credits:
- John MacArthur’s The Beatitudes: The Only Way to Happiness (1980);
- Jennifer Kennedy Dean’s Set Apart: A 6-Week Study of the Beatitudes (2015); and
- John Stott’s The Beatitudes: Developing Spiritual Character (1998)