Matthew 5:10–12 (MSM): How did Jesus expect his disciples to react under persecution? Verse 12: Rejoice and be glad! We are not to retaliate like an unbeliever, nor to sulk like a child, nor to lick our wounds in self-pity like a dog, nor just to grin and bear it like a Stoic, still less to pretend we enjoy it like a masochist. What then? We are to rejoice as a Christian should rejoice and even to ‘leap for joy’. Why so? Partly because, Jesus added, your reward is great in heaven (12a). We may lose everything on earth, but we shall inherit everything in heaven—not as a reward for merit, however, because ‘the promise of the reward is free’. Partly because persecution is a token of genuineness, a certificate of Christian authenticity, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you (12b). If we are persecuted today, we belong to a noble succession. But the major reason why we should rejoice is because we are suffering, he said, on my account (11), on account of our loyalty to him and to his standards of truth and righteousness. Certainly the apostles learnt this lesson well for, having been beaten and threatened by the Sanhedrin, ‘they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name’. They knew, as we should, that ‘wounds and hurts are medals of honour’.