beatitude #8: whose approval do you need to flourish?
“Everybody wants to make a difference in the world, only a few people want to be different from the world.” — Bob Goff
“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” — G.K. Chesterton
In his eighth and final Beatitude, Jesus forces you to ask yourself: whose approval do you think you need to flourish? While many people may act like they’re unique and don’t need anyone else’s approval, in reality, no person is an island. Every human being needs outside approval to create a sense of self-worth and feel validated.
Why is it important to understand whose approval you’re trying to get to flourish? Because how you answer this question will drive how you live and whom you seek to obey. That’s why Jesus uses His last Beatitude to challenge the secular approach to get approval while giving you a radically new way to think about flourishing.
part 1: the secular approach to flourishing
In the secular approach to flourishing, you are taught that if you want to flourish, you need to get the approval of the social insiders. These are the people in every community and culture who control money, power, and status. The secular approach says that if you can get these people’s approval, you’ll be able to get the success you’ll need to build a huge personal kingdom and flourish.
Why is the approval of the social insiders so important? Because they act as gatekeepers to the spoils of society. They control the wealth, institution, public opinion, and availability of opportunities that create the ladder to success, status, and prestige. And so from a young age in life, you learn that if you want access to the things you think need to flourish, you better get the approval of an insider. For example:
If you want to get an A, you need to get the approval of your teacher.
If you want to be popular, you need to get the approval of the cool kids.
If you want to get into an elite college, you need to get the approval of the admissions department.
If you want to get the promotion, you need the approval of your boss.
In all of these cases, your ability to flourish is dependent on getting the insider to approve of you. If you can do that, then you’ll get access to the things you need to get an elite degree, the perfect job, or respect from your peers.
And so in your desire to get the approval of the insider, you begin to obey them, hopeful that if they like you, they’ll invite you into their universities, companies, and friend groups. You work hard to get their approval and make sure that you never offend them, for fear that if you do, you’ll lose their approval and thus the access to the things you need to build a booming personal kingdom.
so how do you get approval?
So if getting the approval of social insiders is so important, then how do you get it? Our secular culture makes it clear: if you want the approval of insiders, then you need to obey whatever they find popular. And so, as you grow up, you work hard to get the approval of the people with social, economic, and political power by:
Identifying the inner circle that you want to be a part of and study their idealized beliefs, attitudes, and actions.
Adopting their beliefs, attitudes, and actions, conforming your life to theirs as much as possible, in hopes that they will approve of you and give you access to the money, prestige, power, and opportunities that they control.
Creating reasons and rationalizations for why you adopted the popular opinion on the matter, instead of admitting that you just want to ensure that you get the approval of the right people.
Every person goes through this process over and over, as you observe what beliefs are popular among the people who control the inner circles that you want to be a part of and then adjust your life to get their approval.
While people act like they choose their moral, religious, and political beliefs only after careful thought and consideration, in reality, most people see what’s popular with the people around them and then create arguments ex post facto to justify their beliefs.
And so in our secular culture, there’s very little conviction or principle. Almost every position that you take is a pragmatic one, as you adapt and adjust your beliefs to maintain the approval of the people who control culture, conforming to what’s popular, in hopes that this will help you get ahead in life.
how does this play out?
This secular approach creates a culture where every community breaks down into three groups. There is the:
Inner circle, which consists of the social insiders, who are the people in any community who have status, prestige, and power. They are the professors, celebrities, politicians, businesses, or just the most successful person, who has control over the political, educational, and religious institutions.
Middle circle, which is the next ring out, and consists of the “wannabes.” The wannabes are ambitious, young people who desperately want to be in the inner circle someday. They want to become the next generation of cultural elites, and so are ultra-concerned with getting the inner circle’s approval.
Outer circle, which consists of everybody else. The outer circle is made up of the people who would like to be an insider, but don’t care enough to obsess over the approval of the elites. They’re more focused on going to work, raising their children, enjoying life, and feeling like they are a good person.
In a secular culture, the inner circle controls the culture and takes on the responsibility of being the ultimate moral authority. Since there is no God to define what is right and wrong, the insiders socially construct morality based on what sounds good to them. They then use their positions of social, financial, and institutional power in mass media, higher education, business, and the government to broadcast their views, in hopes that they will become the norms of society.
Today, the social insiders in our culture believe things like:
No reasonable person can believe in God or follow Christianity.
To deny any sexual desire is oppressive.
Sin not only doesn't exist but should never be mentioned due to how much trauma it causes.
If the government just had enough money for education, infrastructure, and social programs, all of our major problems could be solved.
My current group has cultivated the most perfect moral beliefs in history.
These beliefs are assumed to be true, not because they are proven, but because our social and cultural elites hold them. This group always believes that they hold the most sophisticated moral beliefs in the history of humanity and are a paradigm of goodness. They create an environment where they give their approval and grant access to their circles to anyone who obeys them as the ultimate authority while withholding approval and access to anyone who disobeys them.
Wannabes read between the lines, and understand that if they are ever going to get access to the universities, jobs, and social circles they need to succeed, they have to get the approval of the insiders. So they uncritically adopt the popular beliefs, hoping that their obedience will convince the insiders to give the wannabes the jobs, status, and power they’ll need to reach the upper echelons of society.
But the wannabes do more than just obey the insiders. Wannabes also act as a societal police force, pushing the insiders’ belief on the outer circle, everybody else, and punishing them when they disobey. The wannabes do the dirty work of enforcing en vogue beliefs, in hopes that their zeal for the cause will impress the insiders and lead to social rewards.
And so they police others through things like:
Social media, where they attack and belittle anyone who disagrees with them.
Pop culture, where they ridicule and make fun of those with a different opinion.
Social circles, where they make anyone who holds an unpopular belief feel awkward and strange till that person is excluded and ostracized.
Being a tattle-tale, where they complain to the insiders about anyone who breaks a rule and try to get them fired, expelled, or at least condemned.
This creates a chilling effect, where more and more ordinary people self-regulate their behavior and speech, afraid that if they don’t conform to what’s popular, the wannabes will make fun of them, condemn them, and freeze them out of society. As wannabes coerce people to conform to the insiders’ vision of morality, they always create a “scarlet letter,” an unforgivable sin that requires social ostracization and exclusion.
The 19th Century British politician John Stuart Mill called this the "tyranny of public opinion," where members of society tyrannize anyone who disagrees with them, using social, economic, or physical threats and punishment to force those with unfashionable beliefs to conform to their view of the world.
The wannabes hammer on general society, making sure everyone knows that if you want to be accepted by the cool and sophisticated people and get the approval you’ll need to become popular, wealthy, and powerful, you have to obey the insiders’ beliefs. A few examples of this are:
A college student unquestionably adopts the beliefs of her sophisticated college professor so she can get an A in the class and get his recommendation for a top internship. She begins to look down on her backward hometown and makes fun of her traditional parents, embarrassed that they are so antiquated.
An actor moves to LA and starts to write a script for a TV show. His plot pushes new sexual mores and makes old-fashioned people the butt of every joke since he knows that the network executives want this kind of material.
The young professional proudly supports all of society’s latest trendy beliefs on her social media and shames anyone who disagrees with her. She’s never investigated the issues, but she knows that all of her coworkers will see her posts, so if she wants to advance at work, it’s best if she goes along with their views.
These are simple examples, but hopefully, they show how wannabes will do whatever it takes to get the approval and acceptance of the insiders. While wannabes tell themselves that they are fighting for what is “right”, in reality, they’re often just adopting what’s popular out of a self-interested desire to be successful.
This system is effective because it harnesses the desire of ambitious young people and withholds the spoils of success from them unless they both conform to the insider’s beliefs and force their friends and peers to follow these rules as well.
what’s the result of this system?
The secular approach to flourishing creates an environment where moral commitments become conditional, meaning that you’ll believe whatever’s popular to get the approval of the people who can help you succeed. Everybody’s like the comedian Groucho Marx, who said, "These are my principles, and if you don't like them...well, I have others."
Most people just go with the flow and will do whatever it takes to maintain the approval of the people in power. J.C. Ryle said that people are:
Like dead fish, they go with the stream and tide: what others think is right, they think is right; and what others call wrong, they call wrong too. They dread the idea of going against the current of the times. In a word, the opinion of the day becomes their religion, their creed, their Bible, and their God.
And so we drift along with what’s popular, accepting the norms of our peers and adopting those beliefs when it’s convenient for our success. It's easy to go along with the crowd. It's safe, it's comfortable, it's affirming, it feels right. "Look," we tell ourselves, "How could all of these people be wrong?"
We do everything we can to fit in with the powerful, hopeful that if we do, we’ll have a comfortable and pleasant life surrounded by the safety of popular opinion. Despite our culture’s obsession with personal authenticity, groupthink becomes the norm, and everyone follows the crowd, afraid that if they don’t they’ll be on the “wrong side of history.”
why does this approach not create flourishing?
But no matter how much you try to flourish by seeking the approval of the in-group, it won't work. Why? Because when you allow other human beings to be your moral authority and live for their approval it’ll create all kinds of problems. It causes:
Moral relativism: because morality is seen as a social construct in our society, there is no ultimate source of right and wrong. And since there is no ultimate authority to say something is wrong, everyone pursues their own personal “truth,” meaning that you can do whatever you can get away with, which leads to all kinds of evil.
Obedience that’s only based on fear and coercion: people live in constant fear that they’ll disobey what’s popular and will be excluded or rejected. This creates a chilling effect in society, where people won’t admit to believing anything other than the popular “authorized opinion.”
Destroyed lives: when someone breaks a rule, everyone punishes them for what they’ve done. Mob “justice” will be pursued until the person’s life has been ruined, leaving wrecked lives everywhere.
Cultural disasters: because every person is rushing to obey what’s popular among social insiders, society has huge moral blind spots, which causes them to follow all kinds of moral fads and trends. This allows a culture to commit unspeakable atrocities without batting an eye, leading to things like the Holocaust, U.S. slavery, abortion, and countless other dictators and genocides.
Pursuing flourishing by obeying what's popular is a recipe for disaster. Most of the greatest moral catastrophes were popular at the time, which is why Mark Twain remarked: “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” Jesus agrees in Luke 6, saying, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” In a broken and corrupt world, what is popular and what is right rarely go together.
so why do we live like this?
So why are we so concerned with obeying what’s popular and getting approval from the people who are in power? Because deep down, all of us have a need to be accepted and approved. And so we’re afraid that if we don’t follow what’s popular, we’ll be rejected by society and cut off from our peers.
The Bible calls this the “fear of man,” the psychological fear that occurs when we’re afraid of how other people will react if we don’t conform to their beliefs and values. This fear hovers around us like a blanket of fog, using peer pressure to force us to conform to whatever’s popular at the moment.
The more secular our culture becomes, the more we’ll all struggle with this fear of man. Why? Because, as Australian pastor Mark Sayers says, “Secularism represents a shift from the vertical authority of God to the horizontal authority of the crowd.” Rather than treating God as the authority in our lives, we let what’s popular with the crowd be our authority, and so we grow afraid of its disapproval. As another pastor put it:
The person(s) whose reward of approval we desire most — whose curse of disapproval we most fear to receive — is the person(s) we will obey, our functional god.
And so we obey the dictates of popular culture, hoping that if we can get the approval of the powerful and connected, we’ll get the success we think we need to flourish.
so what’s the root problem?
So why are we need other people’s approval so badly? Because we are trying to replace the approval that we all lost when we lost our relationship with God.
When Adam and Eve were in a perfect relationship with God in the Garden of Eden, they didn’t need the approval of anyone else. They were able to flourish because they felt safe and secure in God’s approval.
But once they disobeyed God and rejected Him as the authority in their life, they also lost His approval. Because of that, every human being lives in a constant state of fear and insecurity. Why? Because the rejection of a relationship with God leaves us with two major problems:
We’re too broken to be moral authorities: because our hearts are corrupted by sin, we can’t understand what is truly good for society. We’re all morally messed up, and as the prophet Isaiah says, we “call evil good and good evil.” We’re confused morally, and think that good is bad and bad is good.
Not only are we deceived over what is right and wrong, but we also don’t trust God to be our universal authority. This means that we no longer have a moral straight edge by which to evaluate our moral beliefs, which leaves society in confusion. Isaiah warns us of the problems this will cause, saying: "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight."
We still need to be approved: But just because we have rejected God’s authority and lost his approval doesn’t mean that our need for approval has gone away. The question, "Am I worthy of being approved?" hangs over our heads and drives us to seek out approval from the people around us. We all ache for an outside person to give us their approval so that we can tell ourselves that we’re okay. But no matter how much horizontal approval we get, it will never take the place of the vertical approval that we need from God.
Our rejection of God as an ultimate authority combines with our need for cosmic approval to create a toxic situation in society. We build moral authority off of our warped hearts and then force people to conform to a broken system of thought. Paul tells us in Romans 1 this is what will happen when human beings rejected God:
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Whenever a person tries to flourish by rejecting God and gaining the approval of the people with power, it creates a life of fear, futility, and foolishness.
part 2: Jesus' approach to flourishing
In Jesus’ last Beatitude, He rejects this secular approach to flourishing, instead teaching that true flourishing occurs in the exact opposite conditions: you’ll flourish not when you are approved by the popular and powerful, but rather when you are persecuted by them. He says:
Flourishing are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Of all of Jesus’ Beatitudes, this one is the craziest. How could being persecuted ever be a part of a flourishing life? But Jesus isn’t telling his followers that persecution is good, but rather giving you an incredible promise: if you make me your highest authority and follow my approach to flourishing, because of the paradoxical nature of God’s kingdom, you’ll flourish even during persecution.
what does it mean to be persecuted?
While the idea of persecution is easy enough to understand, Jesus doesn’t say that everybody who is persecuted for whatever reason will flourish. The promise of flourishing is only those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
So why did Jesus add this descriptor? Because He knew how many people would use this Beatitude to excuse away their bad behavior. People can misread this teaching and think that Jesus is telling them that they have to be persecuted to flourish. So they look for ways to be strange, contrarian, and antagonistic towards the people around them. Then, when they’re treated poorly they develop a martyr complex and are filled with self-pity.
But being treated poorly because you’re cruel, rude, or just hard to be around isn’t persecution, it’s just getting what you deserve. The Apostle Peter makes this point when he tells his readers to be careful not to suffer “as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or troublesome meddler.” As D.A. Carson says:
This blessing is restricted to those who suffer persecution because of righteousness. It doesn't say, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because they are objectionable, or because they rave like wild-eyed fanatics, or because they pursue some religiopolitical cause."
So what does it mean to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake? When Jesus adds this descriptor to the Beatitude, He’s saying that you’ll flourish only when you’re persecuted for doing what’s right, for obeying God, and living more and more like Jesus. It’s only persecution that you receive for being righteous that’ll lead to flourishing.
Jesus is making clear that as you pursue righteousness, you will come into contact with people who dislike you, what you believe, and how you act, not through any fault of your own, but just because you are following Jesus and living like him. You aren’t to seek out persecution, like in Islam, where martyrs are guaranteed the highest rewards in the afterlife, or some political cause, but rather should expect it as you pursue a life of Christ-like righteousness.
why does living like Jesus always result in persecution?
In this Beatitude, Jesus doesn’t say that you’ll flourish if you are persecuted, but rather when you are persecuted. He makes it clear that everyone who follows his Beatitudes should expect persecution. This shouldn't surprise us, as the Apostle Paul warns in 2 Timothy 3 that "all who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted."
But why does living like Jesus always lead to persecution? Because in a world that has rejected God, when you show genuine Christ-like behavior, they’ll hate you, just like they hated Jesus. Jesus tells this to his disciples in John 15:
"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 you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore 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 also persecute you."
Since Jesus was hated for being at odds with the values and beliefs of the culture around him, if you follow Him, you will be, too. As Jesus explains in John 3, true holiness will always prompt a negative reaction from those opposed to Him:
The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Why does this happen? Not because Jesus and His followers are trying to condemn others, but rather because their holiness exposes the sins of other people. When you live like Jesus, you force people to encounter the kingdom of God and its radically different values, which challenge everything in the secular kingdom of self. Whey they see someone who is:
Poor in spirit, it’ll convict them of their pride and arrogance.
Mourning over sin, it’ll convict them of their indifference to sin and suffering.
Surrendered to God, it’ll convict them of their desire for power and control.
Hungering and thirsting for things to be made right in the world, it’ll convict them of their selfishness for personal success.
Living with a pure heart towards God, it’ll convict them of their dishonesty and hidden motives.
Merciful towards others, it’ll convict them of their judgmental and harsh attitudes.
Working for peace, it’ll convict them of their desire to fight and destroy others.
Anyone whose heart hasn’t been changed by the Holy Spirit hates Jesus’ approach to flourishing. They hate that He challenges their popular thinking and systems of power. They hate that he tells them to repent of their sin and surrender their lives to him. And so when you follow Jesus and live out the Beatitudes, they will hate you, too.
Peter explains in 1 Peter 4 that when you quit following the world and start following Jesus, you can expect to be persecuted:
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.
If you let God and His word be your authority on any topic, whether it’s money, sexuality, or sin, you’ll be persecuted at some point, while being told that you’re full of condemnation and negativity. They’ll say that you’re an idiot and a bigot and that Jesus’ teachings are:
Irrelevant, out of date, and no longer useful in today’s world.
Extreme, promoting intolerance and dangerous thinking, and are fanatical, harmful, and toxic for modern flourishing.
This is how it’s always been. When people come into contact with God's kingdom they’ll either want to be a part of it or will reject it completely; there’s no middle ground. As Clarence Jordan explained:
"You can't be indifferent to wide-awake Christians, you either have to hate them or love them—you can't ignore them. It isn't so much what they say or what they do. The thing that seems to haunt you is what they are. They confront you with an entirely different way of life, a new way of thinking, a changed set of values, and a higher standard of righteousness. They face you with the kingdom of God, and you either have to accept it or reject it."
This is why there’s persecution: when a Christian looks to God as their ultimate authority and obeys Him, it will mean that you are no longer pining for the approval of earthly insiders. Secular people persecuted Jesus and will persecute His followers because they recognize that they’ll always be a threat to their secular systems of power, status, and wealth. You aren't playing by the same rules. And so they’re afraid that if they allow you to continue, the whole system will come crashing down.
what does persecution look like?
And so our secular culture will try to punish you until you change. And if they can’t change you they will try to discredit you. And if they can’t discredit you, they will do everything they can to get rid of you. At some point, if you are living in Christlike holiness, you’ll experience persecution, in one or more of the following ways:
Verbal persecution: our secular culture will criticize you, harass you, make fun of you, and discredit your abilities and opinions. They’ll spread rumors and lies about who you are and what you believe, all to make you look bad.
Mental persecution: our secular culture will seek to shame you, exclude you, manipulate you, and scoff at you. They will stir up others against you and create distrust in your community. They will withhold all approval until you feel strange, unwanted, and crazy.
Physical persecution: they will destroy your property and possession, and will seek to physically hurt and intimidate you, whether that's through violence, prison, torture, or death.
It’s important to note that persecution will come from both irreligious and religious people. Jesus’ fiercest critics weren’t the Romans, but rather the Pharisees. Both irreligious people and religious people will hate Jesus’ followers for challenging their lifestyle and values and try to eradicate their beliefs from society.
what are you to do when you're persecuted?
So what are you supposed to do when you are persecuted? Many Christians believe that if they are relevant, nice, and winsome, that they’ll be able to get the approval of the secular world around them. But that will never work because until God works in someone, a secular person will always be opposed to the things of God. Eugene Peterson put it this way:
"Instead of trying to create utopian conditions out of our own good intentions, placating the opposition, we accept the reality that our life in the kingdom provokes some people to their very worst behavior."
As another pastor said, "No amount of PR work is going to rescue the church from being thought by some as backward and bigoted. You can’t out-nice your way and out-justice your way into cultural acceptance, not if you hold traditional biblical views.”
Why is this? Because as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
But persecution, even if you know it’s coming, is one of the most difficult experiences for a Christian to undergo. That’s why many Christians respond to persecution in one of two ways. They try to:
Blend in like a chameleon: Many people, especially in more progressive places, try to solve the problem of persecution by assimilating into the local culture and adjusting their beliefs to match their surroundings. They rationalize God’s word and Jesus’ commands away, finding new interpretations and rationalizations to create a Christianity-Lite that waters down anything that secular culture might fight offensive about the Gospel.
Pull back like a turtle: The other common reaction, especially in more conservative places, is to avoid and hang back from every part of secular culture. These people isolate and avoid places and situations where Christians won’t be welcomed, choosing instead to spend their lives in Christian bubbles where they will always be in the majority. And then when they are “in the world,” they avoid mentioning Jesus or being connected to Christianity until they’re back in the safety of their shell.
Why do we respond to persecution either as a chameleon or turtle? Because we’re ashamed of Jesus. We're afraid of what being associated with Jesus will mean for our friendships, our careers, our reputations. And so we act like Peter, who when asked if he was Jesus’ disciple denied it three times, afraid that if he admitted his connection to Jesus he’d be crucified next.
But Jesus teaches later in the Sermon on the Mount how to respond when you are persecuted. You aren’t to lash out and attack back, or shrink away in fear, but rather stand firm in the faith, loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you.
And we see the change in the disciples, who in Acts 5 when commanded by the Jewish leaders to be quiet about Jesus’ death and resurrection, responded by saying: “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Followers of Jesus can live without the approval of other people because they are strengthened by the approval of God. As Paul says in Galatians 1: For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or I am trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
so why do the persecuted flourish?
So how can Jesus say that the persecuted flourish? Obviously, the persecuted aren’t flourishing because they are in the midst of easy or comfortable circumstances. But Jesus says that the reason the persecuted flourish is because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Those who are in God’s kingdom flourish when they’re persecuted, because even though they are rejected by the world around them, someday they’ll receive the ultimate approval that we’re all searching for when God tells them: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
But why can every Christian know that they have God’s approval today? Because on the cross, Jesus, gave up his right to God’s approval and instead took on the rejection from God that we deserve, so that He could give us the approval with God that His life merits.
Knowing that you have God’s approval will give you the inner strength to stand firm against the crowd. You are strengthened and sustained by God’s approval through persecution, because as the Psalmist says in Psalm 118:
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Those who are persecuted flourish, because even if they are killed, death is not the end but merely the beginning of eternal life with God. And so the persecuted live out Pauls’ win-win statement in Philippians 1:
It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Even when all seems lost, the persecuted are strengthened and sustained by the Holy Spirit, recognizing, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 4, that these are light momentary afflictions when compared to the glory of eternity with God:
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.
And so we are to look forward to the New Heavens and New Earth, where every Christian, as the bride of Christ, will dwell with God like in the Garden of Eden:
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
You will finally be home, reunited with God forever.
but how do the persecuted flourish right now?
But how can someone who is being persecuted flourish right now? Are Christians just supposed to grin and bear persecution until they die? Not at all! Jesus says in the last verse of the Beatitudes that when you are persecuted you are to:
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
You will flourish when you are persecuted not just because you have eternal life with God awaiting you, but also because it will transform your walk with God in the present. You can rejoice because:
You are storing up an eternal treasure: people who want the approval of secular culture are trying to store up treasure here on earth. But those who stand firm through persecution, even though they may lose everything here on earth, can rejoice, because they have a treasure awaiting them that can never be taken away.
You are in good company: When you are persecuted, you can rejoice that you are counted to be among God’s most faithful followers, the prophets. When the Apostles were persecuted for preaching the gospel in Acts 5, they “left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.”
As you grow in your ability to rejoice through persecution, you will be a counter-cultural witness to the people around you, showing a secular culture how the gospel truly does bring the flourishing life. We see this firsthand in Acts 7 when a young man named Saul listened to Stephen’s sermon and watched as he was stoned to death. Later, Saul became Paul and became the key apostle of the New Testament.
where do you get the ability to persevere through persecution?
But where can you get the strength to persevere through persecution? By letting Jesus’ love for you sustain you. Jesus was despised, insulted, and rejected by everyone around him until he was finally crucified on the cross. Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame so that we might be His brothers and sisters in the New Heavens and New Earth.
Jesus died for us, knowing that like Peter we would all be chameleons and turtles, not because of anything that we’ve done, but rather because of his great love for us. “Even if we are faithless,” Paul says, “He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Him.”
Jesus is committed to you through eternity, not because you have always responded perfectly to persecution in the past, but rather because you are a child of God’s kingdom. Jesus’ love and approval should fill you with the strength you need to stand firm in a culture hostile to the things of Christ.
