Rejoicing in Suffering

Do you consider persecution to be a blessing? How about persecution for the sake of Christ? I bring these questions up because yesterday I read Matthew 5 and Jesus brings up persecution when He’s preaching The Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are nothing new to me. I’ve heard them before and read them more than once. Even so, as I was reading them yesterday I made a connection that I hadn’t before and that’s always super fun to me! I’m constantly reminded that God’s Word is living and active and that I can always learn something new no matter how many times I read it (Heb. 4:12). While all of The Beatitudes are important and actually flow together quite well, I’m going to focus on the last one mentioned. The last two actually both reference persecution, but today I’m focusing on the last one by itself.

In Matthew 5:11-12 Jesus says, “‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Here, Jesus talks about rejoicing and being glad when you experience persecution and false accusations for His sake. I want to point out that He isn’t advocating for persecution or false accusations — He is pointing out that they come as a result of following Him because of the broken world we live in. I also noted that He states that it’s a blessing to be persecuted for His Name’s sake — for righteousness sake. Sometimes people experience persecution for other things, but that isn’t what He’s talking about here.

As I read that part about rejoicing and being glad when one is experiencing persecution it made me think of a passage in Acts. Acts 5:40-42 says, “and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.” Did you catch their response to being beaten? They left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were worthy to suffer — and then they continued to teach and preach about Jesus! What a perspective that those apostles had — they knew that it was a blessing to experience persecution for the name of Jesus because it meant that they were doing His will. They were living for Him and telling others about Him no matter what it cost them because they knew that He was worth it. They found joy in their persecution because they knew that their joy was found in Jesus!

James 1:1-4 says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” This sounds so much like the apostles in Acts to me. They counted their beating as joy and the testing of their faith did produce steadfastness as they didn’t let that beating deter them from spreading the name of Jesus. They certainly demonstrated what rejoicing for being persecuted because of Jesus looked like. May we have the faith, courage, and boldness to rejoice when we experience persecution for the name of Jesus!

All persecution for the sake of Christ doesn’t look like being beaten physically. Sometimes we might experience verbal persecution or we face trials that are emotional or mental. Persecution and trials and hardships come in various forms, but the thing that I conclude from those verses in Matthew, Acts, and James is that no matter what we’re facing, we can have joy because our joy is found in Jesus not in our circumstances. Paul talks of this in Romans 8:18, when he says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” When we are His children, we get to experience His joy and we get to have the hope of heaven. We get to suffer for His Name’s sake because we know that NOTHING compares with Him.

I will end with Paul’s encouragement in Romans 8:35-39 which says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” No matter what we might face in this world, as believers, we can always have joy because we always have Jesus.

Song(s) of the Week: This week I chose “Walk With Jesus” by Consumed by Fire, “Rejoice” by Keith and Kristyn Getty feat. Rend Collective, and “If I Got Jesus” by Ben Fuller. Enjoy!