Blessed Are You When They

Continued 👇🏾 ✍🏾Blessed are you when they persecute you. Our Lord, in His teaching on spiritual ministry and mission, taught us: “Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles… You will be hated by all for My name’s sake… And when they persecute you in one city, flee to another… If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of His household!” (Matthew 10:16–25) teaches us that preaching Christ is a life of enduring hardship and trial. This is an example for us to persevere when we are persecuted. Also: 👉🏾“Before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for My name’s sake, for a testimony against them.” (Luke 21:12–13) teaches us that persecution, imprisonment, and being brought before worldly courts are part of following Christ. 👉🏾In the Gospel of John, Our Lord said: “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 its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also; if they have kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.”(John 15:18–21)teaches that the Christian life calls us to be set apart from the world and, as a result, to be hated by it. ✍🏾In the parable of the sower and the seed, our Lord said: “These are the ones sown on rocky ground; when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root in themselves, and endure it only for a while. When tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, they immediately fall away.” (Mark 4:16–17) ✍🏾Here, Our lord likens those who hear the word but stumble under trials, tribulations, and persecutions to seeds sown on rocky ground. The word of God can bear fruit in our lives only when we endure these trials. This teaches us that tribulation and persecution are part of the Christian journey, and we must persevere in order to turn the seed of God’s word into lasting fruit. ✍🏾As our Lord said in His Gospel, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The early Christians likewise experienced suffering and persecution. The Evangelist Luke records, “But the Jews stirred up the worshipers, the prominent women, and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and threw them out of their country. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and came to Iconium. And they were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit with the disciples” (Acts 13:50-52). Here, Luke shows that the holy apostles followed our Lord’s teaching by shaking off the dust from their feet and moving on in times of tribulation and persecution. Continues 👇🏾