“Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:22).

Hmmm.

Blessed – when people hate you
Blessed – when they exclude you
Blessed – when they insult you
Blessed – when they reject your name as evil

Who in the world would say such a crazy thing?!?!

Jesus.

Hmmm.

Who was Jesus talking to?

Disciples.

Hmmm.

This rarely gets much air time. What’s Jesus getting at? These things don’t seem like blessed things at all.

When a disciple chooses to live a God-honoring life in an ungodly world, those who choose to live an ungodly life will oppose you.

That’s how it was for Jesus. That’s how it is for those who follow Jesus.

Thank God that life of a follower isn’t all about being hated, rejected, and excluded. But if there is no reaction from an ungodly world to our presence, there’s probably something wrong with the way we’re following Jesus.

Blessed are those whom the ungodly world hates, excludes, insults, and rejects because it probably means you’re following Jesus whom the ungodly world crucified.

“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17).

I wore a suit for the first time in a couple of years this past weekend. I officiated a wedding and needed to wear a suit.

Here’s what I discovered when I went to go try on my suits. Now, mind you, all my suits were custom tailored. They fit me like a glove when I had them tailored. But as I tried them on Saturday to get ready for the wedding, I realized every single one of them were too big. I’ve lost about thirty pounds since I had those suits made.

Here’s the thing: I knew for decades I needed to lose weight because of my health issues. The doctors would always tell me, “You need to lose weight.” I’ve always known that. But, knowing those things did not lead to living those things. And, I never lost weight.

So, what changed?

This is embarrassing.

A few years back, one of my doctors threatened to quit me. She told me to bring Helen to the next appointment, and at that appointment, she lit into me and told me in front of Helen, “If you’re not going to listen to what I tell you to do, go find another doctor.”

Gee!

That got my attention. So, I started walking more regularly, and I changed how I eat.

It wasn’t that I didn’t know that I needed to exercise more and change my diet. I knew that. I just didn’t do it. And I wasn’t changing.

Knowing the truths of God is fine, but we are blessed when we do what God’s word says.

Now, I need to get some new suits!

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you have a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13).

Faithfulness, steadfastness, loyalty don’t shine in comfort and plenty. These are virtues that shine most brightly and is most beautiful in conflict, affliction, scarcity, and uncertainty.

Before I go on I want to make clear that there is an exception to this rule. When one is dealing with heresy, toxic and abusive behavior, this rule does not apply. When you are in an abusive situation, get out. When there is toxic behavior, call it out. Don’t tolerate it. When there is heresy, do as Paul commands, “Hand him over to Satan.”

The word for ‘bear’ in the Greek means to hold up, bear with. It means to endure, have patience with, suffer, and persist.

Not only does ‘bear’ mean those things, it is written in the present participle. This means that bearing with one another is a never ending, on-going act. The best way to translate that would be to say something like, “Keep on bearing with one another…”

Not only are we called to keep on bearing with one another, but we are called to forgive. The Greek for ‘forgive’ is also written in the present participle.

The trait of disciples and Christ-followers in the church is the refusal to quit on each other. It is an on-going, never ending bearing with one another, forgiving each other along the way. That’s the way of the church.

And when the church demonstrates that in the midst of conflict, affliction, scarcity, and uncertainty, the love and the grace of Jesus shines brightly. The church is truly beautiful.

Let’s be a beautiful church!