Artist: José Bermudo Mateos. Eudorus and Cymodocea in the amphitheater. Photo: wikimedia.org
Of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes of the meek, those who mourn, the merciful, and the peacemakers usually etch themselves in one’s memory. The eighth Beatitude — Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5:10) often passes by hardly noticed.
If you are a Christian, you will always be inconvenient to the world, and you will always be persecuted by its servants.
Why? Because it sounds too uncomfortable; we don't want to be persecuted; we want to live peacefully and comfortably in the world. However, the second-to-last commandment of the Beatitudes essentially states that if you are a Christian, you will always be inconvenient to the world and will always be persecuted by its servants.
The Apostle Paul says directly: Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). Not “might” but “shall” - this is the law of spiritual life. The truth of the Gospel is necessarily associated with persecution. Persecution is the natural state of believers who live righteously on earth.
What kind of righteousness are we talking about, and why are we being persecuted for it?
In the Greek text, the word δικαιοσύνη ("dikaiosune") is not just about legal justice or verbal honesty, but about righteousness,1 loyalty to God's plan, and living according to Christ. It's not about "I'm right and you're wrong" in a mundane argument. It's not about personal, subjective truths that each self-centered individual personally holds, but about a unified Truth for all and sundry—the truth of God's law. This is when you understand with your heart, enlightened by grace, that this is the Gospel way to do things, because it is right and true according to the Lord. At the same time, the world, through the people around you, the media, fashion, and social norms, is telling you, "No, this is not the way to go, everyone is doing it differently."
This world is alive with the passions and lusts that spring from human self-love. Christ's disciples reject pride along with all sinful passions: they try to live not for their own sake, but for the sake of God and their neighbors. Thus they enter into an irreconcilable spiritual battle against the world, against the spirits of wickedness in high places, the world rulers of the darkness of this world (cf. Eph. 6:12).
The world persecutes the righteous because it lieth in wickedness (1 John 5:19), and it does not accept righteousness. Worldly people simply cannot tolerate the presence of the righteous. They find them irritating and distressing. The righteous enrage them, and worldly people hate them and cannot tolerate them. This is because they have their own worldly truth, which is incompatible with God's truth.
As it was with the Lord, it is also with His disciples. He Himself warned us about this:
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also (John 15:18-20).
What does it mean to persecute?
To persecute someone is not just to be angry with them, but to do everything possible to make sure they are not around, so that there is no trace of them, so that nothing reminds you of them. As the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind.
Today, when someone is persecuted, they are pushed out of their environment: their job, their circle of friends and acquaintances, and their family, exposing them to the so-called “cancel culture.”
Would you like examples? Certainly! A young professional gets told by his colleagues, “We all cheat customers here, get used to it and don't make a fuss.” He refuses. As a result, he is fired, but not “for righteousness sake,” but with the wording “for failure to perform official duties.” In reality, it is for not wanting to commit the sin of fraud.
A man started work at a large company. At the New Year's Eve corporate party, his colleagues ordered a stripper and started persuading him to stay: "Everyone relaxes a bit sometimes, why are you so special?" He didn't stay. He left. From Monday onwards they started harassing him: “Oh, it’s the saint!” “Mama's boy,” “Not part of the team.” A month later, his boss had a private conversation with him and said, "You're a competent professional, but you don't fit into the corporate culture. You should go find another job."
At school. A history teacher, a religious woman, tells her students, “Children, the textbook says this, but there is another point of view on the origin of man.” The principal calls her to the office and says, “You're sowing doubts, making life difficult for the children. We follow the Federal Educational Standard.” Her colleagues whisper and call her a sectarian. But she doesn't belong to any sect; she simply wanted the children to learn about the biblical teachings as well as the materialistic ones.
A student, Dennis, found out that classmates secretly copied the answers on the final test. The teacher asked: “Who knows how the answers were stolen?” The entire class was silent. Dennis told the truth—no names, he just described the scheme. He was immediately declared a traitor. Former friends turned away, wrote in social networks: "snitch", "rat". Even his classmates’ parents called his mother and told her, “Take your traitor out of school.”
In household affairs. There is a pensioner who lives in an apartment building where the residents decided to run electricity past the meters by pooling their resources and hiring an “electrician.” They came to her to sign the agreement, saying, “Everyone agrees. You're the only one left.” She refused: “It's stealing and a sin.” The neighbors stopped saying hello to her, someone wrote "snitch" on her door, and the head of the housing and utilities department threatened: “We'll file a complaint that you're hindering building improvement projects.”
And there are countless examples of this in life. It's all persecution for righteousness’ sake. You won’t find the obvious martyrdom found in hagiographies; in its place you will find the deep, bleeding wound in the heart caused by misunderstanding, judgment, and loneliness.
What is left for such people? To console themselves with the words of the Apostle Peter: But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled (1 Peter 3:14).
How should one deal with persecution?
There are three simple but life-saving rules that govern a sober attitude towards persecution for righteousness’ sake.
Rule one: You don't have to look for persecution. It will find you if you try to live a Christian life.
Some zealots, having heard about the martyrs, begin to provoke persecution themselves: deliberately saying offensive words to non-believers, interfering in other people's disputes, flaunting their faith in a challenging way. This is not spiritual struggle, but spiritual hooliganism. The Lord said: But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another (Matthew 10:23) - do not be a hero unnecessarily. He also commanded: Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16). The wisdom of the serpent is to know when to leave, holding onto righteousness, not losing one’s life through foolishness.
The Apostle Peter warns: If, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example (1 Peter 2:20-21). Suffering is salvific when we suffer for our good deeds, not for our foolishness. When Christ was being stoned, He hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by (John 8:59).
Suffering is salvific when we suffer for our good deeds, not for our foolishness.
Rule two: you should not avoid the persecution that comes your way by compromising with your conscience and giving in to sinful temptations.
This is the opposite extreme. “Just so long as they don't yell at me, so long as they don't fire me, so long as they leave me alone. For that, I'll lie a little, steal a little, indulge in sinful fun, and remain silent in the face of blasphemy.”
The Lord says directly: But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven (Matthew 10:33). Compromising with your conscience is always a denial of God.
Remember the apostles' response to the threat of the Sanhedrin: We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29). And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul (Matthew 10:28). If we betray the truth of God out of fear of persecution, we are selling our souls for the “lentil stew” of illusory worldly prosperity. The world will not love us for this:
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you (John 15:19)
Rule three: persecution should be accepted with gratitude and joy, as it is a testament to the correctness of the Christian path.
The apostles showed us an example of this attitude: And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name (Acts 5:41). They rejoiced not at being beaten, but at being counted worthy to suffer for Christ.
The Apostle Peter teaches: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you (1 Peter 4:13-14).
Christian joy is not the pleasure of pain, of suffering itself. It is the joy of being with Christ in sorrow and disease.
Christ Himself says: Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven (Matthew 5:12). The Apostle Paul continues: we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: (Romans 5:3-4).
But be careful: Christian joy is not the pleasure of pain, of suffering itself. It is the joy of being with Christ in sorrow and disease. The Apostle Peter clarifies: Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. (1 Pet. 4:16). And he immediately warns: But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. (1 Pet. 4:15). If we are persecuted for our sins, we should not rejoice, but lament and repent. If we are persecuted for righteousness’s sake, we should be grateful.
How should one pray in times of persecution?
When the sorrow of persecution comes, the soul itself reaches up in prayer. But it is very important what and how we ask God.It is not enough to ask only: “Lord, stop the persecution! Remove these evil people.” This is natural; Christ Himself in Gethsemane said: O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt (Matt. 26:39). But to stop at this request is to remain in fear and mistrust of Providence, as if God were mistaken in giving us this sorrow. And yet, we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).
You should not ask for the opposite: “Lord, let me suffer, I am worthy of martyrdom, send me more persecution.” This is spiritual delusion, self-conceit under the guise of a desire for martyrdom, a search for excitement rather than God. For I say… to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think (Romans 12:3). Christ did not desire suffering, but obedience to the Father. It is unnatural to seek persecution—The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Pet. 3:9). Also, one should not ask: “Lord, punish my persecutors, take revenge on them.” This is a direct violation of the commandment: Vengeance is mine; I will repay (Rom. 12:19). Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom.12:21).
What should we ask? We should take as an example the prayer of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. First, we should honestly tell God about our fear and pain: “Lord, I am afraid. I am in pain. I do not want this persecution. If it is possible, turn away this cup from me,” as Christ prayed until he was drenched in sweat (cf. Luke 22:44). Then surrender your will to God with the key phrase of the Gethsemane supplication: not as I will, but as thou wilt (Matthew 26:39). Say, “Lord, I do not know why You have allowed these persecutions. But I believe that You love me. If it is Your will that I go through this, then let it be so.” Finally, we will ask for faithfulness to the Lord in times of persecution, for the courage not to betray righteousness in fear, for love towards the persecutors, and for God's help.
Christ calming the storm
“Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven"
Please note that Christ, in completing the eighth Beatitude, speaks in the present tense: For theirs IS the Kingdom of Heaven. Not “will be,” not “will be given later,” but “is”— already here and now.
What does this mean for the persecuted? The Lord gives us hope and strengthens our faith. The world seems to have thrown the persecuted one overboard. But it is there, overboard, that he suddenly finds himself very close to the Lord, in His Kingdom. He is no longer torn apart by worldly passions, stifled by servility, hypocrisy, and deceit. He has only God , and that is enough for him. This is not a consolation prize, but a completely different quality of life, incomparable to the previous one. The Apostle Paul exclaims: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution… (Rom. 8:35) and answers that nothing can separate us from the love of God (cf. Rom. 8:39).
A priest I know used to serve in a small rural parish. The local authorities didn't like him; he wouldn't let them use the church as a warehouse, and he wrote a complaint to the prosecutor's office. They harassed and persecuted him. But he said, “You know, I've never felt Christ as close as I did during those years of harassment. Now I've been transferred to a cathedral, and everyone loves me, but I don't have the same prayer, the same tears, or the same grace.” The Kingdom of Heaven was given to him through his persecution.
For us
The eighth commandment of the Beatitudes is not just for the chosen martyrs of antiquity or the coming apocalyptic times. It is for each of us who, at work, in the family, at home, in school, or at university, is faced with the choice of keeping silent or telling the truth, giving in or standing firm, hiding or testifying.
Don't be afraid to be in the minority. Don't be afraid to lose your reputation as "one of us." Be afraid of losing Christ.
Don't be afraid to be in the minority. Don't be afraid to lose your reputation as "one of us." Be afraid of losing Christ. And if you are exiled for speaking the truth, don't complain, don't seek revenge, don't wish for evil, and don't fall into Pharisaic judgment. Enter this sorrow with the Gethsemane prayer: Father, not as I wish, but as You wish. And then you will experience what the world cannot provide: the Kingdom of Heaven within you, even in the midst of exile.
Remember: you were banished from the human circle, but you were embraced by God. You were deprived of peace, but you were given blessedness. You were slandered, but your name was written in heaven.
