Why "rejoice and be glad" about persecution? (Matthew 5:11–12)
See especially Matthew 5:11-12 NIV -- 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you,(M) persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:2 - 12
ESV - 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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Asked May 12 2021
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Jack Gutknecht
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Tim Maas
As Jesus said in the very passage cited in the question, believers who experience such persecution for His sake, or because of being His followers, in this life and world can rightly and richly rejoice in it, both because of the fact that known followers or prophets of God in earlier history had been similarly treated (as documented in the Old Testament), and because of the inexpressibly greater and more enduring (in fact, eternal) rewards they will receive from God for doing so, to which (as noted by Paul in Romans 8:18) any suffering endured in our earthly lives for Christ's sake is not even worth comparing.
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