Persecuted for Righteousness

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).

Each of the eight beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount builds on the previous one. They define what a true follower of Jesus is and does. This last beatitude is a shocker, especially following the one on peacemaking. One would think peacemakers should be loved and appreciated, not persecuted.

Jesus explains this paradox in the statement, “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is the second time Jesus makes this assertion, the first ending the first beatitude and now this closing the last. These bookends are attestation of citizenship, confirming both the goal of salvation—the kingdom of heaven—and the restoration of righteousness as the character of its citizens. Kingdom citizens will be persecuted in this world. When Jesus prayed for His own, He explained: “The world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:14).

True believers will be persecuted simply because they are identified with Jesus and live out their faith. “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). To his unbelieving brothers, Jesus declared, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil” (John 7:7). Because Jesus is a rebuke to the world, His followers must also suffer His rejection. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18, 19).

In other words, believers do not need to do anything to be hated and persecuted; they just need to be identified as Christ’s people. That means that they are righteous, living in an unrighteous world. Verses 13 and 14 explain that true righteousness establishes believers as salt and light in the world. Salt restrains evil and preserves the culture from the effects of evil. Light exposes evil and reveals the truth. Note, Jesus did not exhort His followers to be salt and light; they already are by virtue of their relationship to Him. It is on Christ’s account that they are reviled, persecuted, and falsely accused (vv. 11, 12).

This simple truth exposes all false Christianity. How do mere professors respond to persecution? Some will deny Christ, but, “Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33). Others will compromise and soften the truth: “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works” (Titus 1:16). True saints will endure: “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved [a true believer ‘kept by the power of God unto salvation,’ (1 Peter 1:5)]” (Matthew 10:22; Hebrews 10:23–39).

Pure in Heart

The sixth beatitude is another difficult statement. What is purity? How may one gain such purity? There is in religion a notion that purity can be attained by strict devotion to religious principles. Some go so far as to assert that one may attain to sinless perfection, using such verses as this to prove their point. Such advocates point to their external religious practices as evidence of their claims. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day would be quick to claim and pridefully acknowledge this status for themselves. Jesus, however, presses the point that the purity here described is that of the heart, an inward condition as opposed to outward practice.

It may be that the Lord was referring to Psalm 18 in setting forth this and the previous beatitude. Verse 26 states, “With the purified you show yourself pure.”  The passage continues by stating that God saves a humble people while resisting those who are proud and haughty. The Lord requires truth in the inward parts: “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being” (Psalm 51:6). True inward condition is set against outward conformity, which, if practiced, entitles a person to be declared ritually pure. God’s argument with Israel was that outward conformity to ritual standards, while it made one acceptable in the community, was not sufficient to make one right with God.

The Old Testament ritual system was designed to present the inflexible standard of holiness and to provoke the practitioner to realize his utter insufficiency to meet the standard. Sadly, the natural man deceives himself into thinking that his outward conformity to rules is enough to make himself acceptable to God, even while his own heart condemns him (Jeremiah 17:9). Ritual purity, properly understood, was to promote a longing for true purity of heart before God. However, such a state is possible only through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice and fulfillment of all the types and shadows.

One must also keep in mind that no one this side of glory can be called pure in the purest sense. Nevertheless, in Jesus Christ one is positionally pure while growing in practical holiness, awaiting the coming of Christ, when all His people will be as pure as He is pure. That this ultimate purity is the focus of the verse is evident by the promise attached: “He shall see God.” John plainly states that “no one [on this sin-plagued earth] has ever seen God” (John 1:18). In spite of the many false claims to the contrary, human sinfulness makes viewing God impossible. In addressing Moses’ petition that God reveal Himself, the Lord said, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). However, when the redeemed saints are finally and fully sanctified, purified, and glorified, “they shall see His face” (Revelation 22:3). The psalmist anticipates this glorious time: “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).

Merciful

The fifth beatitude (Matthew 5:7) presents a shift from the first four characteristics that identify the qualities necessary for one to enter the realm of salvation. Mercy belongs to and marks one who is truly saved. The error into which many fall is interpreting this state of blessedness as the necessary prerequisite for one to be shown mercy from God. Such a view is the error of merit-based salvation. There is simply no Scripture to support this notion. Rather, the verse reveals that foremost characteristic that identifies one transformed by grace.

Mercy is compassion, a spirit of kindness and benevolence shown to others in their afflictions and sufferings. It allows one to weep with those who weep. Biblical mercy is a holy disposition as contrasted with the maudlin sentimentality born of natural soft-heartedness, which often ignores the requirements of justice. Jude warns, “And have mercy on some, making a distinction” (Jude 22). No one can escape justice ultimately. Sentimentalism often seeks to sympathize with those who deserve justice and the misery attendant. True mercy is reserved for those whose just deserts have been removed by the sacrifice of another, Jesus Christ. Divine mercy first satisfies justice then extends compassion to the undeserving but graciously justified soul.

Mercy for the believer is not a feeling but a duty requiring obedience based on and demonstrating true Christian love. It is the fruit of the Spirit and is commanded in the Word. “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). It is evidenced by doing good.

It is the reward promised that has many confused: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Old writers resolved the issue by arguing that the words must be seen in the light, not of condignity (what is deserved), but of congruity (what is given but not deserved). In other words, mercy received is not a reward deserved by the merciful. If that were so, it should read, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive justice.” That is the error of Rome. Rather, this beatitude works only within the sphere of one already saved. It is the principle that what one sows, he reaps. “Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor” (Proverbs 21:21).

There are three areas where mercy-showing believers are rewarded. First, there is an inward benefit. “A man who is kind benefits himself” (Proverbs 11:17). Second, a mercy-shower will be shown mercy by others. James shows the principle by way of contrast: “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). Third, God is merciful to merciful believers in a practical way: “With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure.” However, “with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous” (Psalm 18:25, 26).

Hungering for Salvation

The first three beatitudes (Matthew 5:2–10) testify to the heart of one awakened by the Spirit of God. Arthur Pink addressed these preliminaries to gospel faith. The first (poor in spirit) awakens the need for grace through the realization of the soul’s emptiness and spiritual poverty. The second (mourning) is a response of self-judgment, a consciousness of guilt, and a grieving over one’s lost condition. The third (meekness) portrays the end of self-justification and a total abandonment of all pretenses of merit before God.

The fourth (hungering and thirsting for righteousness) shows the awaken soul turning away from self to seek answers above. The awakened soul is to hunger is salvation, designated here as righteousness. There is abundant Old-Testament evidence to support the claim that righteousness here is salvation; for example, “Soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed” (Isaiah 56:1, see also 46:12, 13; 51:5; 55:8; 61:10).

Sadly, for many, salvation has lost its deep significance due familiarity and frequent use of the term. In the beatitudes, Jesus reveals the means to correct this dangerous drift—personal craving for righteousness. Hungering is to yearn for God’s favor and friendship. Because the soul is created in God’s image, it longs for real conformity to God’s likeness. That is what salvation is to produce.

Christ provides the repentant sinner with perfect righteousness to enable him to find acceptance before his holy and just God. Jesus made such righteousness available through His perfect obedience and sacrifice. He then imputes this righteousness to His own as a gift, the best robe. However, a truly born-again person yearns with intensive longing for more than a covering of imputed righteousness. He wants real sanctifying righteousness that transforms one into true Christ-likeness (Philippians 3:8, 14).  

Hungering and thirsting is on-going and ever-increasing desire. It is illustrated in Psalm 42: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (vv. 1, 2). Those who possess this longing will be filled, but the promise, like the condition, is not a finished satisfaction. The filling is a continual and ever-increasing gratification of the longing heart with new and ever-greater measures of grace. Salvation is, in this life, a continuing work of growing and maturing in renewal and conformity to Christ. As one hungers, he is being continually filled, but that filling leads only to new longings that require greater fillings. So it goes. The believer will never be fully satisfied this side of glory. Even in eternity there is an infinite gap between the creature and Creator.

The lesson to be taken from this truth should be a source of great comfort to believers at any stage of their walk with Christ. Those with little or weak faith who truly hunger for His righteousness are as blessed as those whose faith is strong. Those whose sanctification is imperfect will be as filled as those who have matured above their years. When any confess, cry out, and claim His promise, they will be filled. It is not those who are full that are blessed but those who continually hunger and thirst after righteousness. 

Inheriting the Earth

The third of the seven qualities of the one who stands in God’s favor (blessed) is meekness: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Meekness is a difficult quality to identify. Scripture often pairs meekness with qualities that are used to define it. For example, meekness is not humility or lowliness because Jesus self-identified as one who is meek and lowly of heart (Matthew 11:29). The verse that most closely identifies this grace is Titus 3:2 where Paul reminds Titus to teach believers “to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy [meekness] toward all people.”

As previously stated, each of these graces builds on the previous grace. Poor in spirit begins the list and is defined as understanding one’s true state before God as utterly bankrupt and wholly unable to correct the situation. This condition leads to mourning over the horrible disorder that human sin and evil has inflicted on God’s created order and activity. Meekness is deference to God, recognizing the problem and submitting to God’s grace for real and permanent change. This is supported by Psalm 149:4: “He will beautify the meek with salvation.” 

There is a meekness that is constitutional, characterized by a natural lack of conviction and a love of ease. Many sinners have a pliant and impetuous spirit and are, thus, easily led into sin and evil. Eli and Jehoshaphat are biblical examples of this natural meekness. This is also why many confuse biblical meekness with weakness.

Godly meekness is a grace resulting from much suffering that is recognized as designed to moderate temper, destroy resentment, and curb carnal assertiveness. A meek and Spirit-filled Christian will not exercise self-will. He quietly submits to God’s sovereign authority as revealed in His Word, complies with His designs, submits to His rod. Meekness is bowing to one’s circumstances, even when such are negative and seemingly difficult to endure. “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way” (Psalm 25:9).

Jesus was the example of meekness. In His incarnation, He made Himself nothing, humbled Himself in obedience even to death (Philippians 2:7, 8). Nothing in Him resisted the judgments of God but fully yielded to the will of God (John 18:11). He was led, not coerced, as a lamb to the slaughter. When reviled, He did not retaliate; when battered, He did not threaten. In like manner, a believer who has matriculated in the school of divine meekness will become mild, patiently enduring insults and injuries, teachable and easily admonished.

  However, a meek saint will never appear to be weak, yielding a principle of righteousness or compromising with evil. He will be jealous of his Lord’s glory, even to taking a whip to those who desecrate the Lord’s house or zealously confronting those who defile His glory (Numbers 12:3 compared with Exodus 32:19, 20). Such believers will literally inherit the earth (Psalm 37:11).

Mourners Comforted

The Sermon on the Mount was Messiah’s Mount Sinai of the New Covenant. It begins with seven characteristics of kingdom citizens who are found to be in the state of God’s favor—blessed. These beatitudes are in consecutive order, the latter building on the former. The first (poor in spirit) forms the foundation, “the rich soil in which alone other graces will grow and flourish” (J. R. Miller). 

There is a clear Jewish background to the sermon as well. The Jewish nation after four hundred silent years was longing for the fulfillment of God’s promises for restoration of the kingdom ruled by One in David’s dynasty. Jesus was that root of Jesse, the Davidic Messiah expected. He taught the yearning disciples that the kingdom was here, and that the kingdom was theirs.

The second beatitude involves those who mourned—who have an emotional reaction of sorrow to a sad situation, condition, or depressing circumstances. It does not mean to grieve over personal loss (expressed in a different word) but to mourn or lament the circumstances of that loss. This is illustrated in Matthew 9 where Jesus responded to John’s disciples inquiry as to why His disciples did not fast (a means of expressing lament): “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” (v. 15). One does not lament the absence of the King when He is in their midst, at least temporarily. However, because of the hostility of the Pharisees, He would soon be taken from them. At that time, they would fast and mourn again.

The comfort promised the mourner would be the reversal of the circumstances of the lament. Of what would that comfort consist? Note, also, that the promised comfort is future—“shall be comforted.” While “theirs is the kingdom,” their comfort awaits future fulfillment.

For kingdom citizens (Christ followers) the new covenant age involves a present and future tension. The kingdom is now, but not yet. Thus, believers will constantly lament their circumstances as they seek to live out the kingdom principles in a foreign and very hostile world. Their Lord is with them through the Spirit (Romans 8:9, 10), but the Bridegroom is absent. His disciples lament His absence and long for His return to restore righteousness in a new earth (2 Peter 3:13).

Jesus charged the supposed leaders of God’s covenant people, the Pharisees, “You are of this world; I am not of this world” (John 8:23). Kingdom citizens must also take this same stance (1 John 2:15–17; James 4:4). We are in the world but not of the world (John 15:19). We cannot be comfortable in this world. Our hearts must be set on things above (Colossians 3:1). Our life in this age must be characterized by lament and longing. We lament over the spiritual decline that is accelerating by the hour and we long for Jesus to return and restore Eden on earth. We lament the constant battle with the flesh and indwelling sin, and we long to be transformed into His glorious likeness (James 1:25). We are truly saved but not yet fully. 

Poor in Spirit

The first words Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount describe the blessed or happy state of those who have certain qualities that set them apart as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Unlike the related term often translated blessed (eulogia), Jesus used makarismos. The first term equates with the Hebrew baraka (to bless) and focuses on the act of praising one for some notable quality or deed (Ephesians 1:3). Jesus is not promising blessing as a kind of reward for some effort to qualify for a spiritual badge that puts one in God’s favor. Rather, He is stating that those who possess said quality are already in that happy state.

To illustrate, Paul asked the Galatians, “What then has become of your blessedness?” (Galatians 4:15). They were already in a state of favor with God. False teachers were telling them that they needed something else to obtain what they already possessed by grace. Satan has not abandoned the strategy begun in the Garden because it works.

The very first state of blessedness is that of the poor in spirit. There are none so despised as those who are poor—those without means of creaturely comforts due to their circumstances and/or condition (Deuteronomy 24:14). It is well said that material poverty is a curse and not blessing. However, it is not material poverty spoken of because sin does not respect economic conditions. Rather, Jesus refers to poverty of spirit.

Jesus is the perfect example of this spiritual state. He made Himself of no reputation and took the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7). In John 13, Jesus took the duty of the lowest servant in the household in order to wash the disciples’ feet. After doing so, He told them that they in turn should to do this for one another (v. 14). Then He added, “A servant is not greater than his master. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (vv. 16, 17).

Poverty of spirit is a gracious work of God, enabling a sinner to understand that there is nothing, either inherent in his character or in his power, that can bring him into favor with the Lord (Psalm 69:33).

The reader must also remember the Jewish background of this sermon. The nation had been under Gentile domination since their return from exile. They yearned for God to fulfill His promises to restore the kingdom to Israel with David’s Son on the throne. Jesus was now informing them that the promises were being fulfilled in Him (Acts 3:25, 26). The poor in spirit were now in the blessed state because, “theirs is [present indicative active] the kingdom of heaven.” The problem with many in Jesus’ day was that His coming was not in keeping with their expectations.

Finally, J. R. Miller wrote, “Poverty of spirit comes first because it must be first. It is the foundation on which alone the fabric of spiritual character can rise. It is the rich soil in which alone other graces will grow and flourish.”