Mat 5:10-12; Blessed Insults that Make You Happy.May 8th, 2024 Idea: If the Christ-life in you is reproached for His sake, then you are blessed and rewarded.
Mat 5:10-12.
These last two Beatitudes reveal the response of the world to any who are Christ’s apprentices, i.e. who live like He did by the power and wisdom that He had.
“Insult you” - oneidizo: to find fault in a way that demeans the other, reproach, revile, mock heap insults upon. Sometimes justified and unjustified.
Usage of oneidizo in the NT.
Justified usage: Mat 11:20 “He began to denounce the cities …”
At the cross: The thieves (Mat 27:44); the others at the cross (Mar 15:32); parallel in Luk 6:22.
Those who reproach God will reproach those who love Him (Rom 15:3)
Quoting Psa 69:9, those who loved God’s house in OT Israel were reproached and insulted just as the lovers of God are today. “In the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
The fulfillment of this last beatitude in the early church - don’t run from it (parable of the sower). Heb 10:32-39. Don’t throw away your confidence (vs. 35) for it has great reward (Mat 5:12).
Example Moses (Heb 11:26): reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking for the reward.
Reproach of Christ for not conforming to religion, Heb 13:13 (vv. 7-14). “outside the gate” means being away from the temple rituals, which was the continuing religion of Israel who rejected Jesus as Messiah.
If you are reproached for the sake of Christ, you are blessed, 1Pe 4:14-19.
Application: When the world finds fault with a Christian who lives like Christ, that believer is blessed in this life and will receive great reward in heaven.
Do not instigate persecution or reproach. Live like Christ and it will come.
You will be blessed knowing that you are actually being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
There is no reward for those who do not love their enemies.
The reward for those who make a show of Christianity is just that (Mat 6:1, 2, 5, 16).
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