Maintaining integrity through biblical persecution

<p>Matthew 5:10 -Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.</p><p>Integrity involves standing up for what’s right, even while enduring hostile environments. In our day, the concept of persecution has been unfortunately trivialized into essentially any notion of being ridiculed or spoken out against. However, in biblical terms, the concept of persecution conveys the act of having to flee from those who are intent on injuring or even killing those who have opposing viewpoints. That's a much different emphasis than we see today.</p><p>FB Meyer in his commentary on this passage writes:</p><p>"Christian piety cannot continue without persecution, because the world is hostile to the kingdom of God..."</p><p>And then he cites some of these passages as examples:</p><p>John 15:18-21 - "If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. "If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. "Remember the word I spoke to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' <strong>If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you</strong>. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. "But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don't know the one who sent me.</p><p>Matthew 10:21-23 - "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. "You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. "<strong>When they persecute you </strong>in one town, flee to another.</p><p>So we see persecution was predicted by Messiah and was to be expected by believers who were holding to the integrity of their righteousness and the gospel of the kingdom.</p><p>If you enjoyed this week's podcast, be sure to visit <a href="http://coreofthebible.org/">coreofthebible.org</a> to read daily blog posts on these