Matthew 5:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Matthew 5:10

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Why are they persecuted? They are persecuted because they are peacemakers. They are persecuted because they pray and strive to make known a message which is so very often offensive to people and gives rise to the offence of the cross and to much antagonism. They are not persecuted simply because they exist. They are persecuted for righteousness’ sake because they promote obedience to God. In those days it was experienced as seizure of possessions, as dismissal from their family or from their work or craft. You read the letters to the churches at the beginning of the Book of Revelation, and you see that constantly there are people who are battling in pagan communities. If they do not compromise then they lose their craft or their job which was invariably tied in with idol worship and pagan practices.Amongst the Jews, you see at the beginning of the book of Acts when thousands professed the Lord, they had to have community of goods. It was necessary for many Christians to support and house those who had been thrown out of their homes, disowned by their families, cut off from any means of gainful employment. That is why they practised community of goods, because the gospel was preached and many Jews were converted, and in the culture of those days the still unconverted were furious against them.‘For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ That repeats verse 3 – ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ That signals the last of the Beatitudes, the 8^th. It is a perfect structure. It is not that some people fit this definition and others do not. A true Christian will honour them all, and they will all truly describe him. Theirs and theirs alone is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom is already within them because they have bowed to Christ as their king and he rules in their hearts. Their readiness to suffer for the Lord is the clear sign that they identify with him, rather than the world. Though sin still dwells in them, the Spirit has enabled them to so subdue it that they would rather suffer for him than lose their strong connection with him. One day they hope to be free from sin altogether and to be in his openly revealed kingdom. They understand that there is a cost to discipleship, but to them it is a small price to pay in order to belong to their Saviour. They wait patiently for the great reversal on the Day of Judgment (Matthew 19:29).

Application

There are people who suffer the same today when they renounce various other religions and turn to Christ and are disowned and persecuted. ‘Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake’ by physical violence. That has happened so often down the centuries, and physical violence, and martyrdom happen in many parts of the world even today. It is experienced as scorn or derision, which is perhaps a chief means of persecution in this country today, or by discrimination and disadvantage: people who are not allowed their promotion or their normal rights on account of their faith. There is much prejudice against them and discrimination because they witness for Christ. What is the solution? Hide your light under a bushel? You may be safe for a time, but the Lord is going to deal with that just a few verses later.

Today in the West for the most part we do not have to put up with physical persecution, and yet we shrink even from the intellectual persecution. How many there are who seek to be ministers of the gospel, but who cannot bear to go to sound Bible colleges. Instead they want colleges approved of by the liberal Christian world which will give them status. So they will compromise and go to those prestigious places where the syllabus is liberal, and compromise the truth and study rubbish and drink in liberal poison, because they cannot bear not to be approved of in their grouping, their constituency, their compromised denomination. Nobody is unleashing physical violence against us, and yet so often they cannot even put up with the intellectual persecution. What a tragedy that is! Is it too much to suggest that it is a sign that those people are not really Christian perhaps at all, if they are not willing to take a stand and pay a price even at the mild level which we are called upon to pay a price today?

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Matthew 5:10 Commentary and Bible Study