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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Matthew 5:11
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The eighth beatitude given in verse 10 is now expanded and elaborated. Blessed are you when people speak against you, and insult you, and tell stories about you behind your back. That is difficult, isn’t it? It is one thing to put up with persecution, when it is clear what you stand for, and both you and your persecutors are agreed that you are suffering for Christ’s sake or for the gospel’s sake. But when people falsely accuse you, you know that some consider you to be an evildoer, the very thing you are so keen not to be before the world. This ruins your testimony and seems to dishonour your Lord. It is hard to have equanimity in such circumstances. The only solution for the believer is to resign the matter into God’s hands, and to know that he knows the truth. At such times we must learn to count the opinions and judgments of men as worth very little compared to the judgment of God. If God sees the truth, then the misguided beliefs of fallen men do not count for anything. The unbeliever is of course vulnerable to these kinds of false opinions about God’s people, because their existing prejudices make them quick to believe what is false about the Christian. ‘Yes, I can believe that of him’, says the unbeliever. ‘I know that is the sort of thing he would do.’
Application
The believer knows that a day is coming when all things will be revealed, and every false accusation against God’s people will be dismissed. Will the unbeliever then protest that he was fed what seemed like true information when he formed this wrong opinion of the believer? God will show that behind that wrong opinion was deep prejudice and hatred. To have resisted the impulse to believe this false testimony would have taken an honesty he did not possess.
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