On the surface of it, Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:10-12 is not hard to understand. In some sense, we should be pleased when we are treated poorly because of our connection with Him, because we’re in good company (we’re grouped with the prophets whom God approved of) and we have a great future reward in heaven.
Of course there are plenty of ways that we can get it wrong. For example, as Pastor Tim shared on Sunday, sometimes people treat us poorly because we have behaved poorly. There’s no benefit in that. We should only consider ourselves ‘blessed’ if we are treated poorly because of ‘righteousness.’ And we shouldn’t seek trouble so that we can increase our reward in the future.
But in some deep sense, we should rejoice when we are treated poorly because of our association with Christ. So what does that mean to us in Michigan today? Certainly we aren’t persecuted the way many have been in the past and many still are today.
But consider this very simple situation: what if the next time you go out of your way to follow God’s ways, such as being kind to a person who is not kind to you, and they are all the more unkind … what if you rejoiced in that? Of course the natural reaction is to be upset. But it seems that Jesus’ words at least mean that we shouldn’t be upset when people don’t respond well to our efforts to do what God wants. When we are kind and patient and others are not, we should find satisfaction in our association with God and expect that in the future, God will more than make up for whatever ‘cost’ we experience today in doing what He says.
So instead of being riled up by unkindness in return for our efforts at kindness, let it go and rejoice that God will clearly show that walking in His road, even if it seems costly at first, is always by far the best road to travel!
