When we read John Calvin on this verse near the beginning, he starts by saying “We can fight Christ’s battles on no other terms than for the majority of the world to be risen up in enmity against us, and to be our persecutors, even unto death.”
This Sermon is for the followers of Christ. As a general rule of thumb and more the world hates the Christian message. Calvin reminds us that:
‘Satan as the prince of this world will never stop arming his ranks in a frenzy to assault the members of Christ.”
We need to remember even way back in the book of Job it was Satan who was accusing Job of evils. This same Satan is also the one who tried to force the hand of Jesus to worship him rather than God!
Calvin goes on to tell is about 1 Peter 3:3. However for the sake of context I have quoted some more:
“Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, 15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defence to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; 16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behaviour in Christ will be put to shame.” 1 Peter 3:13-16
Calvin goes on and he uses the ‘I repeat’ that means he is pressing the main point home:
“I repeat what I have just said, that all who wish to live a godly life in Christ are liable to persecution; Paul’s testimony applies to all the faithful alike (11 Tim, 3.12).”
“Indeed, all who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Timothy 3:12-13
Calvin goes on to say:
“As throughout this life the way of the godly is most miserable, Christ duly lifts our thoughts to hope for the life of heaven. Christ’s paradox here is vastly different from the commentaries of the Stoics, where men are told to be satisfied in their own judgement, and each to decide on his own happiness to empty imaginings, for he establishes it upon the reward of a future hope”
As we said earlier in another blog Martin Luther King junior who practiced peaceful protest became a target for doing the right thing. Every human being has been created in the ‘image of God’. We see this concept and truth attacked from many sides. When John Calvin penned these words, the world was in full movement and flux and many people died for having a separate confession about reality. Calvin reminds us that this persecution of the Church is a staple diet of the world. There is so much evil in the world at the moment; death and destruction in Europe for silly stupid reasons.
We need to remember that the God we serve is a God of love. Anyone who purports to be flying the Christian flag and openly murders innocent people is an ‘anti-Christ’. There have been many anti-Christs throughout the centuries, and we have them even in the 21st century. They may pretend to be Christian but by murdering innocent people they show themselves to be doings Satan’s will. Let us love and be willing to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves in this way we follow the teachings of Christ.
Reflection
Interesting that for the word righteousness Vine says:
“Righteousness dikaiosune (1343), is “the character or quality of being right or just”; it was formerly spelled “rightwiseness,” which clearly expresses the meaning. It is used to denote an attribute of God, e.g., Rom. 3:5, the context of which shows that “the righteousness of God” means essentially the same as His faithfulness, or truthfulness, that which is consistent with His own nature and promises; Rom. 3:25, 26 speaks of His “righteousness” as exhibited in the death of Christ, which is sufficient to show men that God is neither indifferent to sin nor regards it lightly.” (From Vines dictionary; Olive Tree Bible software)
I come to the same conclusion as Calvin that the follower of Christ who lives the way of Christ is going to suffer. There is an alignment of the righteousness and the follower of Christ. It is in Christ that as Paul would say we are justified. It is precisely for this reason that the prophets suffered. They suffered because they aligned themselves in obedience to God’s word.
I can think of Isaiah:
“1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” Isaiah 6:1-7
God has high standards, and in our strength, we cannot reach this standard. Grace was given to Isaiah as his lips were purified. Coming to the conclusion of the beatitudes we see steppingstones. We realize that all the goodness we have stems from the work of Christ.
As Bavinck would say the natural man would reject this way of doing things. The natural man wants to do things in their own strength and prove how strong they are. On the surface it might look like righteousness but dig under the surface and one can see that it is fake righteousness. True righteousness has roots coming from God’s grace. Fake righteousness has its roots in self-empowerment.
Christ turns the values of this world on its head and shows how ugly they are:
In fact, the follower of Christ’s city is in heaven. The Christian is happy because he can see beyond the horizon. This world is not our goal we are not interested in amassing wealth here. True wealth is spiritual not material. The legacy of the follower of Christ is to share love to all and sundry.
The values of the world maybe:
That one is proud that he pays his taxes on time; You are a proud successful businessman who in reality only thinking about how good you are; You have achieved everything by your own wisdom. Or you are poor and jealous of someone who has the latest things, and you want the same. It maybe that that person only cares about themselves.
The examples above are probably not very accurate as I used a wide brush stroke here, but the main point is that the beatitudes for the follower of Christ is a mirror that can help weed out the sin in our lives. As followers of Christ, we realize that we are completely dependent on God for our daily living.
The natural man and the follower of Christ look through completely different spectacles.
As Calvin used the word paradox in relation to Christs teachings. It does look like a paradox that we are called to be happy and the way to be happy is to critique selfish empowerment. At the end we are also to rejoice in our sufferings!
No believers are not sadomasochists who like to inflict pain on themselves for enjoyment’s sake. No, my friends; What we have here is a meditation to make us true believers in Christ. The small word ‘shall’ have been used a lot through these happy sayings. We look beyond the horizon to Christ, to our redemption:
“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:12”
Reflection
This brings us to the end of the beatitudes but from my point of view this is the very key to understand all the teachings found within the Sermon on the Mount. This has not been an easy ride theologically, but I hope as a follower of Christ you have grown in the grace of Christ as we become by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit more genuine in our faith.
If you are not a follower of Christ, I hope that the beatitudes have given you an appreciation to what Christ is actually saying and I hope one day that you too could follow in the steps of Christ.
{For the writings of John Calvin I used his Harmony of the Gospels translated by A.W Morrison; pages 172-173; WM. B. Eerdmans publishing house}
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