SERMON XXXVI - A Word of Use to Those Who Are Reviled - Matthew 5:11
Thirteenthly, speaking ill of another person and being glad that you have something evil to say about them constitutes reviling. This does not align with reproving sharply according to God's will. Instead, it reveals that you value your personal advantage more than God's honor. When dealing with an adversary, if there is something evil that you have to address, charge them according to the nature of the offense. Also, be sorrowful that God has allowed them to fall into such sin. Mourn over it and appeal to God. Do you do this when you revile others or speak ill of them? No one will admit to being a reviler. They will claim to have just cause to speak ill. But even if you have just cause, are you genuinely sorry that there is just cause? Does it truly grieve your soul that this person is steeped in so much evil and that you have such an advantage against them? If it is so, then there is no fear of reviling.
Fourteenthly, when people speak ill of others without being called upon to do so, it indicates their guiltiness. Such individuals are in danger of committing the sin of reviling. Therefore, observe these rules, for the human heart is unruly. By doing so, you will know how to conduct yourself in a Christian manner when dealing with others who deserve sharp reproof. You may reprove them sharply without reviling them because the person who is falsely reviled for Christ's sake is blessed.
SERMON XXXVI
A Word of Use to Those Who Are Reviled "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." Matthew 5:11
This final rule of our Saviour for blessedness is the most perplexing to human nature. To be blessed when persecuted and reviled, and even more blessed because of it, is a riddle to flesh and blood. That's why Christ elaborates on it, devoting three verses to this point while others receive only one. We have already discussed persecution and the condition of the Saints, explaining wherein the blessedness of persecution lies. Since few will admit that they persecute for righteousness' sake, we offered some convictions to help people recognize that their persecution of godly individuals is rooted in righteousness. We also explored the promise that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who endure persecution.
Last time, we addressed a specific form of persecution: the persecution of the tongue through reviling. "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you." The word used for reviling means to reproach someone, casting their evils in their face with detestation. The condition of the Saints is such that they can expect to be reviled and reproached in the world, as we have shown from Scripture. Consider the examples of persecution against the Prophets. As for the use of reviling, I discussed it last time. The hatred and malice in the hearts of ungodly people cause them to despise the Saints. While not everyone can physically persecute them, everyone has the liberty to revile them. The devil knows that reviling is a powerful way to weaken them in their faith. Many spirits cannot bear reviling, and it becomes a heavy and burdensome affliction. The devil realizes that when he cannot prevail through persecution, he often succeeds
through reviling. Reviling is a severe evil that deeply affects people's spirits. We made several general applications, such as when individuals embrace their religious profession, they should anticipate reviling and ill language. Parents, relatives, friends, acquaintances, and employers may all revile them and come up with names to mock them. Be prepared for this. Furthermore, be careful in your conduct so that they find no grounds to revile you. Saints should also avoid reviling one another, as it is a grievous matter. The psalmist lamented this in Psalm 31:11, "I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me." He complained not only about the reproach from his enemies but also about the reproach from his neighbours, which troubled him greatly.
It is more sorrowful for the Saints to suffer reviling from one another than from prelates. Do you not bind me, as Sampson said? The godly will say the same to their fellow brethren. There is great blessing in enduring reviling. Just as a farmer enriches his soil by spreading dung on it, God makes His Saints fruitful by allowing wicked people to cast reviling upon them. Why is it such a blessedness? Consider it a blessed thing that when you are reviled for Christ's sake, you could have been reviled for your own wickedness. Blessed are ye, for there is a great reward; your reward is great in heaven. The Lord cares for your reputation while you endure reviling. The lesson we discussed last time is this: if it is such a blessed thing to be reviled and to suffer for Christ, then it should teach the Saints not to revile in return when they are reviled. Why should they? Reviling has been transformed into a blessing.
Again, we must not revile others. We spent a great deal of time the last day discussing how to charge others with the evil they are guilty of, deeply yet without reviling. Titus 1:10 and 13 warn about unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the Circumcision.
The word translated as "sharply" means "cuttingly." If there are people in the world who may be rebuked, it is the Cretians, whom the Apostle calls liars. However, it is not safe to rebuke someone immediately when they provoke you. When the matter concerns ourselves, we can avoid turning reproof into reviling by deliberating on it. If the sin is secret, we must not publicly speak ill of others. It indicates a love for reviling when one seeks to unearth and publicly declare secret things with evil language. If God keeps them secret, you should not reveal them. Moreover, do not take pleasure in offences. Mourn for them. Ensure that any language you use is founded on the evil committed by those individuals, and that you do not do it with passion or a desire for revenge. Instead, do it with a gentle and quiet spirit, motivated by love for the truth. The more you speak against someone and charge them with wrongdoing, the more you ought to pray for them, especially if you sense any presence of God in them. If they have any trace of godliness, do not speak against them except in prayer. If these rules were observed, praying for others with as much fervor as you speak against them with bitterness, your conscience would be clear of reviling. But let us not proceed further with what we discussed last time.
A few more words on this point in general.
If those who are reviled are blessed, then the Saints should not be deterred from their path by reviling. When Christ tells you that you are blessed, what great harm is it when people call you names and speak evil of you, and you can bear it? Those who truly understand what Christian religion means should not be swayed or disheartened by reviling. Do not settle for the thought that since you embraced the Christian religion, you have been subjected to scorn, reproach, and reviling. I remember a learned man using this analogy: it would be dishonourable for a soldier to be thrown off his horse by a mere gust
of wind. Everyone would laugh at it. Likewise, it is dishonourable for someone on the right path or in a just cause to be swayed by the reproaches of wicked men, which are as insignificant as puffs of wind. People are willing to endure reproach for their sin, shame, and any name to fulfill their desires. Will you not be willing to endure nicknames for the cause of Christ? Remember that Christ has delivered you from eternal reproach (Daniel 12:2: "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt"). Also, remember that Christ takes care of your reputation, and there are numerous promises to vindicate your righteousness like the noonday. Do not think of diverting from the way because of reviling, but rather pray to the Lord. Let me provide you with a few Scriptures to guide the godly when they are reviled. One is found in Psalm 109, the beginning of which says, "Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise. For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue." David, who was a type of the Church, suffered greatly, experiencing various forms of suffering and reviling. In verse 3, he says, "They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause." What does he do then? In verse
4, he says, "But I give myself unto prayer." The original Hebrew reads, "But I pray." Prayer is his refuge and help. Similarly, in Job
16:20, Job says, "My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God." Psalm 57:2-3 says, "I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth." David expresses similar sentiments in other passages, affirming that he finds help in heaven and therefore does not need to revile or become discouraged on his path. Nehemiah was reproached while engaged in his work, but he did not cease his work.
Lastly, if those who are reviled are blessed, then certainly those who are revilers are cursed. It is a blessed thing when godly people are reviled for Christ, but what do you think of those who, instead of suffering for reviling, are themselves revilers? Oh, beware of them.
There are no more bitter revilers of religion than those who are apostate professors. When you see someone who was once a zealous professor fall away and turn against the faith, remember
Rabshakeh's apostasy. He was the worst reviler of all. Truly, those who revile the godly are in a truly cursed condition. People may pray against them, as Nehemiah did (Nehemiah 4:3-5). Be cautious and avoid reviling, even if it is done unknowingly. It is a most dangerous thing. You may argue that you do not revile the godly because of their righteousness, but because they are hypocrites. For that, I will present this Scripture (Mark 3:22): "And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils." They did not revile the godly by saying, "We speak ill of them not because they have the Spirit of God, but because they are associated with Beelzebub." Therefore, note this: it is a dangerous thing to charge hypocrisy or any wickedness when it is actually from the Spirit of God. I could show you various
Scriptures, such as Psalm 59 and 57, but especially Psalm 59. When you speak contemptibly of the saints, the Holy Spirit speaks contemptibly of you. God restrains their hands, or else they would do more. They go about grieving in the streets. So, let us continue with the text: "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you."
Here, persecution comes into play once again.
First, from the repetition in this passage (for nothing in Scripture is in vain, and even in repetitions, there is a reason), we learn that those who suffer persecution for Christ's sake are blessed, and their posterity is blessed too. Christ pronounces blessedness on those who endure persecution for His name's sake. It can be a great comfort to
anyone whose ancestors suffered persecution.
Christ will acknowledge them and their posterity more readily. Suppose a poor, ragged beggar comes to your door, and someone tells you, "This man's father lost everything for your sake. His grandfather lost his life for your cause." Would you not reward this child, knowing they are the offspring of the father or grandchild of the grandfather who suffered for you? Perhaps you are currently experiencing persecution, and though you are pronounced blessed, you do not see the blessedness. Yet, there is a double blessing reserved for you in the future. Those who currently have reviling spirits would become persecuting spirits if they were given power. Oh, let us pray that the Lord restrains them.
Secondly, and furthermore, it is worth mentioning that some people can bear harsh words but cannot bear persecution. They do not care what others say about them in words because words do not cause physical harm, but if they have to suffer the loss of something, such as their possessions or imprisonment, then they are quick to falter.
We should not only be willing to endure hurtful words but also to endure harmful actions. When people speak all kinds of evil against us, it is indeed remarkable that such a statement would be made about the Disciples, those who were to be sent out. They may have been considered a little too strict, but it is quite extreme for all manner of evil to be spoken of them. Yet, as Saint Paul says, "We are the off-scouring of the world" (1 Corinthians 4:13). According to some interpreters, this phrase refers to the dung carts, as everyone brings their dirt and throws it into their carts. Thus, Paul is saying,
"We are the off-scouring of the world, and we are the dung carts.
There is no one who does not have some dirt or another to cast upon us." The Apostle alludes to the expiation practices among the heathens. When certain condemned individuals were brought forth with garlands on their heads to be offered as sacrifices to Neptune, it
was customary to say, "Sis pro nobis peripsema" (be thou a propitiation for us). Therefore, if the Apostle had said, "We are as detestable in the eyes of the people as those condemned individuals who were offered up as expiation," it means that we are now loaded with curses and revilings, just as those individuals were. Blessed are you when they speak all manner of evil. Some can bear certain reproaches but not all reproaches. We must be willing to submit to whatever God calls us to, all manner of evil. It may be that some suspicions have a basis, but we must not reproach people based on mere suspicion. However, even if we do not go beyond speaking evil due to a suspicion, the people of God must expect that wicked men will revile them.
Secondly, they will revile them with the kind of evil that is most contrary to them. For example, those who are the most sober and temperate must be willing to be reviled as drunkards. Those who are the most chaste must be willing to be reviled as unchaste. Those who desire peace above all else and do not wish to cause trouble, except as duty requires, must be considered as troublemakers in the state and the church. They must be willing to suffer the very evil that they detest. Yes, whatever evil any wicked men are guilty of, the godly are charged with it. When Nero set fire to Rome, the Christians were blamed for it. All kinds of evil are attributed to them. Why should they speak all manner of evil? Even if they are not guilty of it, it would be cleansed away, and the shame would fall back on those who cast it upon them. But they will spread the evil far and wide, and many will hear of the reproach but will not hear of the justification or the answer to the reproach. Therefore, boldly and strongly, they will speak all manner of evil, even things that are as far removed from the truth as the East is from the West. They will seek to cause it to stick by casting it upon them. Whoever can remove it by speaking all manner of evil, let them do so. From this, we should learn not to
judge the saints based on what we hear about them. It would be an immeasurable wrong for us to think that men are guilty based on whatever is cast upon them. We would wrong the generation of the righteous if we were to entertain even the slightest thought of guilt based on the reproaches that circulate. Moreover, the godly should strive to refute all the evil that is said about them, as stated in 1 Peter
1:15: "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." It seems that the wicked labour to revile with all manner of evil cast upon you, and you should labour in your entire conduct to manifest all holiness. That is the way to answer all manner of reviling.
Thirdly, furthermore, blessed are you when they revile you, persecute you, and speak all manner of evil falsely, lyingly. It is a strange statement that some make. They say, "If I were guilty, it would not trouble me as much, but for them to accuse me when I never even thought of it, that must surely trouble me." Brethren, even the best of all the saints have some evil in them. Therefore, we should strive to conduct ourselves in a manner that if people revile us, they will not hit the mark. We are aware of our own faults, but we should keep them hidden from the world's eyes. How shameful it is for those who profess godliness to give just cause for reviling. If men's mouths are opened and it turns out to be true that you are a professor of religion, and your conscience tells you that you are worse than they accuse you of, you are in a sad condition when you have a reproving conscience within you. You may speak of men's revilings, but what does your conscience say? Men may speak some evil of you, but your conscience speaks even more evil of you. Secondly, consider this: if what they reproach you for is true and not false, it is God's just hand against you. God spits in your face and shames you through the reviling of others.
Fourthly, you are the ones who harm religion. You give valid reasons for people to revile you. Professors who live scandalously, who make a great show of religion, are the ones who do the greatest harm of all people on earth to religion. God will demand retribution for all the sufferings of his other saints from your hands. You do more harm to religion than all the persecutors in the world. A Christian who professes religion and gives just cause for reviling does more harm to religion than all the revilers in the world. The reason is that persecutors only make people afraid to profess religion, but those who live scandalously affect people's consciences, causing them to hate religion. Now, is causing people to hate it not more detrimental than making them afraid to profess it? Therefore, take heed of yourselves. If people speak any evil of you, may it be false. But if they speak it with just cause, then you cannot complain to God; you are cut off from that privilege. However, if you are reviled falsely, then you can enjoy that privilege, as you can read in Jeremiah 15:15: "O
Lord, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy long-suffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke." If anyone suffers for your sake, you consider yourself obligated to defend them. Likewise, the Spirit helps our infirmities, as mentioned in Romans 8:26: "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." It is comforting to know that the Lord takes note of your sufferings when you suffer for Christ's sake. Christ loves you, he has promised to help you, and he is committed to helping you because you suffer for his sake. Therefore, continue and count yourself blessed for his sake. Certainly, if you are willing to suffer for his sake, he will be willing to suffer for your sake.
When you suffer anything for Christ, who is infinitely worthy, he is worthy of everything you have. What has he done for you? Has he not done more for you than you have done for him or can do for him?
Sixthly, a very important lesson to learn is that blessed are those who have all manner of evil spoken falsely for my name's sake. When you are reproached for Christ's sake, you are blessed. However, when
Christ is reproached for your sake, even though he is not in a position to merit anything, having finished the work, he may still experience suffering and have shame cast upon him because of your wicked and ungodly life. This is a cursed, cursed thing. It is to bring Christ down from heaven to suffer again. Did Christ not suffer enough? Why do you want him to suffer more for your sake? Do not add to his suffering but suffer as much for his sake as he has done for yours. As written in Romans 2:24: "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written." See how God is reviled, how his name is blasphemed because of your actions. When you walk scandalously, the name of God is reproached. If a professor of religion faces any temptation to sin, consider this: if you give permission to that sin, you trample on the name of Christ. You trample on Christ himself. "You trample on me," says Christ. Will you continue to permit sin even though the name of God lies before you? Oh, hard-hearted wretch, who knows that the name of God lies there and yet tramples on it! It follows in the twelfth verse: "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad." True Christians should not only consider themselves blessed but also rejoice and be exceedingly glad. In Luke
6:23, it is stated: "Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets." Leap for joy, skip and leap for joy when you are reviled for Christ. It is not fitting for true Christians to manifest any kind of sorrow under any suffering for Christ. When we suffer for our sins, we may express sorrow, but when we suffer persecution for Christ's sake, Scripture does not call for mourning, weeping, or humiliation. Instead, it calls for rejoicing and blessing
God for being counted worthy to suffer for him.