Persecuted for What?

Matthew 6:10

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”

I wonder if there has ever been a time when some group of people has not been persecuted for being the wrong sex, the wrong religion, the poor, the wrong color, or just in the wrong country, or political standing.  It seems to me, the one thing the human race has done well is to hate others, and in doing so to persecute, or be persecuted.  But Jesus is not telling us we are blessed for being persecuted for any of the things listed above, but we are blessed when we are being persecuted for righteousness. 

So why are we in the American church not experiencing more open persecution, are we not being righteous?  What is righteousness, is it an action of responding to injustice, is it a morally upright people, a virtuous person, one who is blameless before both man and God?  Now, if that defines “righteousness” and the promise is the kingdom of heaven, why, is it we do not act righteously?

 Could the problem be, for this writer and maybe for you also, found in the letter of James 1:22 to the church, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  James is not writing to unbelievers, he is addressing our needs, people who are followers of Christ, when he says the following in James 4:1-4, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:1-4, ESV)

Could the problem be that we have been so richly blessed and have looked to the blessings and not given things to the God who has blessed?   That we have bought into the deceptive Channel that tells us we deserve better and life is about friendship, not with God in thankfulness, but in the world system that has no regard for anyone but only what gratifies our fleshly desires.

The answer my friend is not blowing in the wind of opinion, the answer is by faith, acting on the promises of Jesus, and for me that is to believe and then act like Jesus tells the truth.  For Jesus is our righteousness as stated in 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice