I used to envision missionaries in uncharted jungles being beheaded or boiled by cannibals when I read this verse. That’s the imagination of a child who watched too much TV.
Martyrs are included in today’s verse (that is, if they were killed due to their good works and loving attitudes, like Jesus Himself), but there are more ways to be persecuted besides being killed.
People are persecuted every day for a variety of things in a variety of ways. In school, the persecutors are called bullies. They bully anyone who is different in any kind of way: taller, shorter, fatter, thinner, older, younger, or just because they are there. In fact, this continues well beyond high school. The differences and the methods simply change a bit. And of course, cowardly bullies have really found their home in the anonymity and remoteness of the Internet.
But why would anyone want to persecute a person for doing good and being loving? It comes back to the “being different” aspect that riles up a bully. If everyone is cheating on a test but one person refuses, that person will be persecuted for being righteous. If everyone is speeding down the road but one person is driving the speed limit, that person will be persecuted with honks and fingers or worse even though they are obeying the law. (Maybe you roll yours eyes at this, but isn’t the law, the law? Or can we pick and choose which ones to obey and when? What is righteous?) If someone wearing a MAGA hat enters an event and people jeer and call them names but you make sure they are safe regardless of your political views, you will be persecuted and jeered as well even though you are being righteous in that moment. If someone wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt enters an event and people jeer and call them names but you make sure they are safe regardless of your political views, you will be persecuted and jeered at as well even though you are being righteous in that moment. If someone wearing a Pride pin enters… you get the idea.
People doing righteous things get persecuted all the time because righteousness is not valued in this world. Real righteousness is against the grain. Society is filled with mobs that want everyone to go with the flow, to fit in, to normalize their standards. Sadly, Christians are just as guilty of this.
To be righteous, and to inherit the kingdom of heaven, I have to constantly analyze my own behavior and motivations. I must hold them up to the standard God set, not the standards the world sets. And His standard is always love. If I do that, and make the right adjustments toward love and generosity and integrity, I can almost be assured of persecution coming at me. But then I can remember today’s verse and think about heaven. There won’t be any bullies there.
Dear God,
Thank you for your perfect standard. I’m so sorry I fail to meet it. But I am so grateful that Jesus met it for me and gave me the freedom to live as if I have met your standard. Give me the strength and courage to live righteously, according to your standard. Show me behavior and attitudes that I need to change today. I never want to be the bully. And help me never to succumb to bullies either but to stand strong, with love and grace, for your perfection.
CamDevo 