Verse 22
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
This is a variation of the same thought of Matthew 5:10-12. "Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness' sake." In such a pronouncement, Jesus had in view the antagonism between light and darkness, the inevitable hatred of the carnal man of all that is holy and spiritual.
For the Son of man's sake ... This is the qualifier of the whole beatitude. It is not merely "the hated" who are blessed, but those who are hated because of their acceptance of the Son of man as Lord and Saviour. As Trench noted:
In no single passage of the New Testament where "Son of man" occurs (and there are eighty-eight in all) does it mean other than the Messiah, the Man in whom the idea of humanity was altogether fulfilled.[23]
Be the first to react on this!