Blessed [fortunate] are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

~Jesus (Matthew 5:10

The principles laid out here by Jesus in his manifesto (Matthew 5-7) are not entrance requirements to the kingdom of God, or else Jesus would be sanctioning torture or martyrdom as a way of earning one’s entrance to the kingdom. At the same time, this again makes clear that they are not ethical demands for personal behavior at work, or else Jesus would be implying that it would be good for his disciples to seek out persecution to gain his blessing.

Jesus comforts those who have suffered undeserved persecution at work. Persecution for one’s own sin or foolishness may be deserved, but these people have been persecuted because of their stand for righteousness.

• Persecution at work may come in many forms.
• We can be disciplined for speaking up.
• We might get fired. It happens at work increasingly frequently.
• Are we ready? Fear of it will paralyze out witness to the good news of Jesus.

Persecution can take the form of physical or verbal abuse, or both, but it especially points to the way that the religious leaders hounded the populace and excluded from their fellowship any who did not meet up to their standards. Exclusion from the right groups at work is immensely powerful. Corporate leaders should seek out the righteous at work. Forces are at work that lead them in other directions.

As difficult as is the persecution, the reward far outweighs the hazard, because “ours is the kingdom of heaven.” This is a present tense declaration. Jesus here gives hope to the people of his day who have stood up and contended for God’s form of righteousness against the self-righteousness of the corporate leaders. Although we will be persecuted for it, Jesus says that the kingdom of God belongs to us, not the corporate leaders, and all they need to do now is to respond to his invitation to join the kingdom.^[1]

God’s people have always faced persecution at work. The prophets were reviled, tortured, and killed. History records that ten of Jesus’ disciples were executed for preaching the Messiah. Tradition states that Peter insisted on being crucified upside down because he counted himself unworthy to die in the same manner as his Master. Yet he wrote,

If you are reviled for the name of the Messiah, you are blessed, because the Spirit of God and of glory rests on you

(1 Peter 4:14).

The apostle Paul was jailed, beaten, shipwrecked, and stoned numerous times for preaching about the Messiah, but he considered suffering not even worth mentioning compared to the reward he knew awaited in paradise. If we stand up for Jesus, we will be persecuted at work. We can count on it.

• 2 Timothy 3:12 —Indeed, all who desire to live godly in the Messiah Jesus will be persecuted.
• Matthew 13:21 —Yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.
• Mark 10:29–30 —Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the sake of the good news, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.
• 1 Thessalonians 3:4 —For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know.

^[1] Wilkins, M. J. (2004). Matthew (pp. 210–211). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.