Daily Devotional

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,

  for theirs is the kingdom of God.

As we discussed previously, the first three beatitudes lead to a hunger for righteousness, and describe a holy emptiness. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn over their needy condition, and the meek who hand their cause over to God. It makes sense that these three descriptions of emptiness would be followed by a description of hunger, if you don't have something, you hunger for it.

The following three beatitudes then describe a state of fullness. That holy hunger is beginning to be filled by an overflowing mercy, a pure heart, and a power to make peace. So the righteousness longed for in verse 6 is given in the form of mercy, purity, and peacemaking. The result is persecution for this very righteousness.

Another way to define the righteousness of verse 10 is to look at its parallel in verse 11. In verse 10 the persecution is "on account of righteousness," but in verse 11 it is "on account of Jesus." "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." "On my account" and "on account of righteousness" probably mean the same thing.

So, we can take away from this that righteousness, true righteousness-- involves a relationship with Jesus. True righteousness is not done for its own sake. It is done for Jesus' sake. The mercy and the purity and the peacemaking of a disciple of Jesus comes from Jesus ("without me you can do nothing," John 15:5) and is done for the honor of Jesus. It is this relationship that gives righteousness its distinct character.

Prayer:

Lord, give me the strength to go boldly and confidently with your righteousness despite the fact that I will be persecuted for it.