Apr 16
23
Why Are We Persecuted?
Matthew 5: 10-12
Persecution means to push away. It includes everything from words of rejection to being tortured unto death.
Matthew 5: 3
By grace, the believer confesses the utter sin he is in the flesh. Those who think they possess some good or some strength or are deserving of God’s favor consider themselves rich and in need of nothing, especially from God. These two spirits are totally opposite and contrary to the other. They shall never have any union. The unbelieving shall always persecute the righteous for Christ’s sake.
Matthew 5: 4
The believer mourns his sin and finds all his comfort only in Christ Jesus the Lord. The unbeliever considers sin to be merely in his members and not what he is. The believer’s testimony is an aggravation and therefore the unbeliever lashes out.
Matthew 5: 5
The believer has been made meek toward God. In the inner man, his desire is to no more speak so exceedingly proud, to force his hand, to attempt to have his own way by his own strength, to make excuses for his rebellion. He knows that all things are his in Christ Jesus. The tenor of his disposition is gentleness toward those who oppose themselves. The persecutor is consumed with nothing else but to have his way. To the persecutor meekness is merely an outward show he produces himself: when the preacher is around, when he is in the church house, when he is having a fit of guilt. But his overall tenor in the home, in the work place and in private is one of upbraiding, of persecuting, of speaking evil even though what he says of the believer is false. In his heart he would really like to prove the believer to be a liar.
Matthew 5: 6
The believer has been given a hunger and a thirst after the LORD our Righteousness and that which rightly honors Christ. Those who persecute have the insatiable appetite for sin, self, and all that is contrary to Christ and his righteousness—the bottom line is “number one”. His hunger for this world’s applause is the cause of the revilers upbraiding.
Matthew 5: 7
The believer has tasted the Lord’s grace and rejoices to show mercy because he knows he depends upon God to keep him in mercy. Those who persecute want mercy shown to them when it is convenient but when the truth crosses their way, they become harsh judges in order to have the way they crave.
Matthew 5: 8
The believer is pure in heart by the work of the Spirit. He sees God in Christ, in his word, in providence and expects to see Christ face to face. Therefore that which most honors Christ is his chief desire. Even in his most mundane decisions in life the pure heart desires to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The persecutor has a heart which is confused and divisive, a heart full of guile and hypocrisy. He wants to appear righteous before men but his heart is set only on personal gain. Therefore, if self is benefited, the defiled will overturn the pure in heart to have his own way.
Matthew 5: 9
The believer has been made a peacemaker because God has given him faith to trust Christ to make peace. The persecutor may speak of peace but it is the generic peace made by men. It goes no further than the flesh. He seeks to obtain it by the sword and war and/or when there is no war he thinks there is peace. Yet, in the unregenerate heart there is no peace, not with God, not with men, and especially not with those who proclaim Christ the Peacemaker. Clay Curtis.