SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/8/2020
10:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Physical
Persecution
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
5:10-12
Message of the verses: “10 “Happy are
those who have suffered persecution for the cause of goodness, for the kingdom
of Heaven is theirs! 11 “And what happiness will be yours when people blame you
and ill-treat you and say all kinds of slanderous things against you for my
sake! 12 Be glad then, yes, be tremendously glad—for your reward in Heaven is
magnificent. They persecuted the prophets before your time in exactly the same
way” (Phillips).
I
want to begin with the quotations from John MacArthur that we ended with in our
last SD in order to help us better understand where we are going today and in
the days to follow: “In the last
beatitude Jesus speaks of three specific types of affliction endured for Christ’s
sake: physical persecution, verbal insult, and false accusation.” In this SD we will look at the first section “Physical
Persecution.”
I
want to begin by stating that the things in these eight beatitudes are probably
the “heaviest” studies that I have ever done.
The eight beatitudes are in order as we have mentioned before and in
order to be able to endure what the eight beatitude states we have to be living
in the other seven. The first seven had
to do with inner qualities, attitudes, and spiritual character, while the eight
beatitude speaks of external things that happen to believers. However the teaching behind these results
also have to do with attitude.
Let
us begin with the word persecution as this word is seen in verses 10-12 and is
translated from the Greek word dioko,
MacArthur states this word dioko “has the basic meaning of chasing, driving
away, or pursuing. From that meaning
developed the connotations of physical persecution, harassment, abuse, and
other unjust treatments.” He goes on to
write “The Greek verb is a passive perfect participle, and could be translated ‘allow
themselves to be persecuted.’ The
perfect form indicates continuousness, in this case a continuous willingness to
endure persecution if it is the price of godly living. This beatitude speaks of a constant attitude
of accepting whatever faithfulness to Christ may bring.” I can’t be certain about this but I am
thinking about the Scripture where Christ says that if a person strikes you on
one cheek that you are to allow them to strike you on the other cheek.
I
stated that this beatitude is the most difficult one to live out in a believer’s
life and it is here where many Christians break down in their obedience to the
Lord. The reason is this is where
genuineness of their response to the other beatitudes is most strongly tested. “It is here in this beatitude where we are
most tempted to compromise the righteousness we have hungered and thirsted
for. It is here where we find it
convenient to lower God’s standards to accommodate the world and thereby avoid
conflicts and problems that we know obedience will bring.”
We
can be sure that God does not want His gospel altered under pretense of its
being less demanding, less righteousness or even less truthful than it actually
is. Sometimes when the gospel is given
out, especially in the health and wealth gospel that people are misled into
thinking that the gospel of Jesus Christ costs a person nothing, when it can
cost people’s lives. MacArthur concludes
“A synthetic gospel, a man-made seed, produces no real fruit.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have often hoped that I never want to turn
my back on my Lord, I do not want to be a coward if it comes to the point when
physical persecution comes to this country, and I have thought from early on in
my Christian life that it will come to this country.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord for grace in order to live the
Christian life with power from His Spirit.
6/8/2020 11:14 AM
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