Blessed are the persecuted

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:11-12 (NIV)

We live in a relativistic society in the US and the influence that we have in the world is leading to a similar relativism that is making the Gospel message and the idea of there existing one true and constant truth is becoming a more difficult concept to defend. In the US we have, for many years, been a society that most would consider Christian because of that the Church has been lax in evangelizing and for many the Church has becoming that pointing finger. It has become much like the synagogues of Jesus’ time. The Pharisees and the Sadducees following the letter of the law, but in their hearts was no love of God, just a sense of duty. When their ideals and their institutions were challenged they became protective and acted out in violence to defend their bastions.
Christ is a light to a darkened world and when His light shines in the dark places the ugliness is revealed. Those that are in the darkened places don’t wish to have the light shone on them therefore they will act out and persecute those wishing to bring the truth. We find this with organizations that now attack Christianity and continually try to push the Church to the margins making it irrelevant. We also see this when people’s whose hearts are on fire for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and challenge some of the ideals that are within the Church. As we stand in the middle defending the ideals of Christ we can find comfort in the midst of our persecution knowing that that is the will of the evil one. Truth defends itself, we just need to be willing to speak it out into the world and pray for the Holy Spirit to remove the scales from those that are blind and to clear the ears of those that are deaf. In this we can find our hope!