Daily Devotional

Thursday, August 26, 2010

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,

  for theirs is the kingdom of God.

If righteousness means being merciful and pure and peaceable by relying on Jesus and living for his glory, then why would anyone persecute that? It doesn’t seem like something anyone could really count as worth of persecution.

In Luke 16:14-15 Jesus said, "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Verse 14 says, "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they scoffed at him." The Pharisees were servants to money, and therefore when Jesus said you cannot serve God and money, it offended them and their lifestyles, and so they persecuted him.

Persecution happens for two reasons, one being that someone loves something evil, and secondly because they must defend their love of it at the cost of whomever is calling them out or living in a way that makes it clear that their lifestyle choices are not right.

Jesus comes on the scene with a way of life and a message that implies that the love of money is treason against God. "You can't serve two sovereigns!" This is not an antagonistic insult. It is part of his purity. It is true. It is essential to know if you are going to be saved. But it goes against the Pharisee's love of money. So to justify themselves they put Jesus down. This is standard operating procedure for self-justification, and is the root of all persecution.

Prayer:

Lord, I pray that you would give me strength during persecution, that I would still love those who persecute me. I pray that you would open my eyes as well, Lord, and help me to see that if I am not being persecuted, it may mean I am not living boldly enough for you, that my life is not offensively different than those who worship money. Give me that boldness, Lord.