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Matthew 5:11-12

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

(NIV)


The key phrase in this passage is, "...because of me."

Christ is the key. He is the motive and the means and the end. As you read back through the beatitudes, you will see that they are all about our Lord Jesus Christ. If it is not about Him, then it is for nothing.

"Herein lies the disproportion between Jesus Christ's principles and all other moral teaching: Jesus bases everything on God-realization, while other teachers base everything on self-realization."

"There is a difference between devotion to principles and devotion to a person. Jesus Christ never proclaimed a cause; He proclaimed a devotion to Himself - 'for My sake.' Discipleship is based not on devotion to abstract ideals, but on devotion to a person, the Lord Jesus Christ; consequently the whole of the Christian life is stamped by originality."

--Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

Question your motives today. Be devoted to Him.

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