What Does It Mean to Be Persecuted for Righteousness’ Sake?

Why does Scripture call those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake “blessed”? Today, Derek Thomas reflects on the cost and privilege of following Christ in a hostile world.

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: This week on the Ask Ligonier podcast, we’re joined by Ligonier Teaching Fellow Dr. Derek Thomas. Dr. Thomas, what does it mean to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake?
DR. DEREK W.H. THOMAS: Well, this is in the Sermon on the Mount again, in Matthew 5, and it’s part of those benedictions—“blessed.” “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:10).

I’ve just been spending a lot of time in Peter of late and thinking of Peter’s martyrdom, his willingness to be in Rome, the capital of the empire, to be in Rome when the Caesar is Nero—the megalomaniac that he was—and knowing full well that Nero had no time for Christianity, arresting both Peter and Paul—different prisons, different times of death, I think, separated maybe just by months, maybe; thinking of the twelve Apostles, that eleven of them were martyred—according to Christian tradition, only John lived to a ripe old age, probably reaching a hundred, ending his days in Ephesus; and thinking of John being carried through the streets of Ephesus.

But you can be persecuted because you’re an awful person, you’re a mean person, you’re a lousy person, and people don’t like you because you’re unlikable, because you do things and say things that are unlikable. I mean, that’s possible, and you can be persecuted. You can feel persecuted. We live in a society where everybody feels persecuted, that when you tell the truth and they don’t like the truth, they’re offended, and they feel that you’re persecuting them.

But this is persecuted for righteousness’ sake. And how do you define righteousness? Well, biblically, the righteousness of God—being persecuted because you are not going to compromise what God has asked of you. And increasingly within our society, Christians have to stand up for the truth and to do it winsomely, to do it in a Jesus-like fashion. But sometimes that involves a clash with societal norms, with parental norms—sometimes church norms if the church has strayed from the path of righteousness. But to be willing to do so in a winsome way—and that’s hard because if you stand up for the truth, there are always those who will interpret that negatively and will call you a bully and so on.

I thought about, you know, “How willing would I be to be imprisoned?” I mean, there are tens of thousands of Christians, even as we speak, in parts of the world who are tortured and are imprisoned, and they’re dead—taken in the middle of the night by a bunch of who knows who and taken to who knows where. And we’re familiar, of course, with the magazine Voice of the Martyrs, and it’s real. We can cocoon ourselves. But the reality is that there are tens of thousands of Christians right now who are being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, and it may cost them their lives.