“Blessed are those who are driven out for the sake of righteousness, for to them is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

(Matthew 5:10)

Once again we find the language of the kingdom. And, as noted above, we should remember always that this speaks not only of the eternal Kingdom that is yet to come, but also of the church in this world. Arguably even, it is even more appropriate to understand this blessing as applying to the imperfect church in this fallen world. Yes, there are individual manifestations of this calling, but we should not overlook the corporate character of these as well. 

Often, the Greek word διώκω (dioko) is translated as “persecuted,” and when one looks at the cognates of διώκω, that is an easy translation choice to make. Commonly, the word group also has legal connotations, which means that when we see this paired up with δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosune — justice) we can see how this phrase of Jesus is to be understood in a legal sense. Those who are persecuted, those who are driven out of their community (or driven out of the “good graces” of their community) because of what is Biblically true, these are the heirs or beneficiaries of the Kingdom. 

Sometimes people miss the significance of the judicial connotations of this language here. Too often, people describe themselves as “persecuted” because others don’t share their preferences. Yet, given Jesus’ use of language, we must not see this in the context of preference or feeling, but should understand this in a legal sense. For the believer, there will be times when he or she is persecuted because he or she is committed to God’s Law. Nevertheless, if that statement is true for an individual Christian, that should be all the more true of the covenant body of believers. When the church sands for the Law of God, a secular society and a pagan society will persecute her members. For instance, when the church stands against abortion as a crime, when the church stands against sexually immoral practices, when the church insists that the Sabbath day should be set apart for God and businesses should be closed, the community will balk and complain. At times, the community will mock and at times, the community will organize to push a church out of its midst. This can be said even within the church. Those who insist on practicing the regulative principle of worship (see the Westminster Confession 21.5) are often mocked by other supposedly Christian bodies due to their unwillingness to include that which flows out of the creative whims of men in the church service. 

Moreover, if the inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven are those who are persecuted for ordering their lives according to God’s Law, and recognizing that the Kingdom of Heaven is rightly understood as the Church of Jesus Christ, then it follows that those who are not persecuted for their obedience to God’s Law are probably not the church. Jesus, indeed sets a bar in these beatitudes that none of our churches will ever fully meet, but do we even try to pursue that bar? We ought.