Blessed

 “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) 

          Let’s start with the obvious point from yesterday’s Bible Gateway verse of the day. It does not say “Blessed are you when you act you think you’re God.” I’ve read of some people who set themselves up for martyrdom because of verses like this. If you are seeking the reward of persecution, when you’re persecuted, you have your reward. It also says very specifically that we are blessed when people lie about us, saying we’ve done terrible things we haven’t.

         This is about you living your life, walking in faith, loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself, obeying what Scripture teaches, and getting attacked for it. You know, just like being attacked because of the color of your skin, your gender, your ethnicity, your age, your appearance or weight, your occupation (or lack thereof), your accent, etc. Those of us who look  up to the prophets as being superior to the rest of us are told that those of us who are falsely judged

          This is where we are now. People are flinging accusations of racism, violence, sexism, homophobia, bigotry, rape, etc. without proof and not because any dictionary definition of the charge could be caused to stick to the victim, but just because the person making the charge doesn’t like the victim. We are to consider such accusations as badges of honor. As we move forward, I suspect we should prepare ourselves to be blessed a lot more.

        But there’s something else to consider as well. If we are the ones making the accusations, we are the ones who are wrong, and they the ones blessed.