Blessed are the Persecuted

 

Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 10:10 Do you know why Jesus Christ was crucified? Because Jesus told the religious leaders the truth of who He was. They thought his words were blasphemy: they never considered that Jesus was right. In this day and age, "truth" is whatever we want it to be. And people believe their version of "truth", thinking they have chosen a righteous path.  But this makes "truth" to be a very arbitrary thing: truth goes in every which direction and bumps into other "truths" in ways that cannot be reconciled. So then we have chaos and contention as the result. Jesus said, "I am the Truth." So there it is. God lays it out for us in the most simple way possible: if you focus intently on knowing Jesus, you'll know what the righteous way of Truth is supposed to be. If you’re persecuted for having wrong beliefs, wrong motives, wrong behavior: there’s no reward in that. Make sure you’re known for all the right and righteous reasons, even if people don’t like it. You can start by reading the New Testament, which begins with the words of Jesus himself.