A Culture Of Easy Targets

Read: Matthew 5:1-12

God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. Matthew 5:10

IN WORD

Imagine playing golf your entire life under the mistaken belief that the object of the game is to have the highest score. Instead of going straight for the hole, you simply have fun hitting the ball anywhere. You wonder why some people think the game is so difficult; you must be exceptionally good at it, as hitting the ball away from the hole comes so naturally to you. Then one day you discover that the object of the game was opposite of what you’d always thought. Confused, embarrassed, and with an overwhelming sense of having wasted so much of your time, you gaze back at the futility of your life. You can’t go back and start over. It’s too late to redeem the experience.

That’s what it will be like when those who pursued temporary wealth, status, and pleasure at the expense of lasting treasures see the true picture. They will realize that the goal of life wasn’t to get as much out of it as possible but to put as much into it as possible. They will be confronted with the fact that they spent their entire lives going after the wrong goals.

In that context, it makes sense that those who endured persecution while hanging on to the goal of righteousness—rightness, justice, goodness, and truth—will inherit the Kingdom. They saw the true picture and hung on to it, even when it cost them dearly. They dismissed their pain and humiliation in order to cling to lasting treasures. They played the game right.

IN DEED

Standards in the Kingdom culture aren’t the same as the standards of a fallen world. Everything is measured differently. The goal isn’t to reject as much temporary pain as possible in order to experience as much temporary pleasure as possible. It’s to reach out for the true prize, whatever it costs. Yes, Kingdom people become easy targets in that scenario. But we are blessed. We fit the Kingdom culture perfectly.

ADDITIONAL READING: 1 Peter 3:13-14

If you were not strangers here, the dogs of the world would not bark at you.

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD