Matthew 5:10-12 "Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness sake! For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward in Heaven is great. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Jesus had started this particular part of His sermon by listing characteristic that are important for those who choose to follow Him. He also said that each characteristic was a blessing to the person who has them. Those blessing included being a child of God, experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven on this earth through the Holy Spirit, and a promise of living in the Kingdom of Heaven when Jesus comes to take us home. Those blessings are worth far more than any gold, diamonds, popularity, or fame. Nothing is worth more than being a child of God and having Him by your side every hour of every day.
However, a large portion of the people on this planet don't like, or are very uncomfortable around, people who are mild, peacemakers, pure, and living moral lives. Those who are uncomfortable will act on those feelings and try to make themselves feel better by mistreating the righteous. Persecution comes in many forms. Ruining someone's reputation with lies, insinuations, or gossip. Shunning, causing property or bodily damage, cruelty, and so on. Some of the persecution will come from people claiming to be Christians, sitting in church, or standing behind the pulpit, every week. Satan has his people in all area, ready to bring physical or emotional harm to anyone who is faithfully following Jesus.
There is also a danger of causing our own persecution, by being annoying, self-righteous, judgmental, or pushing our beliefs on another. People will always react when treated in such a way. God made us all with unique personalities. We all have different ways of doing things, different ways of seeing things, and each persons beliefs will be different in some ways. God never intended us to be carbon copies of each other, so it is important that we accept each other's differences and love each other as He loves us. Otherwise, we bring persecution upon ourselves and we end up persecuting the people whose differences we refuse to accept. God is not glorified when we try to force our beliefs and standards onto someone else.
Jesus' answer to the persecution is for His people to rejoice and be glad. Their reward is in Heaven. The people doing the persecuting do not have that promise unless they turn their lives around and follow Jesus too. When a person lets persecution cause anger and depression, they are allowing themselves to be pulled away from God and into the grip of the devil. But if they keep their eyes on Jesus, stay in communication with Him, and remember they have a home in Heaven, they can rise above the negative actions of others and rejoice.
In this part of the sermon, Jesus went on to say that we are the salt of the earth and a light to the world. If the salt loses it's flavor or the light is hidden, it is of no value. Therefore, no follower of Jesus should pull away and hide from the world out of fear of persecution. It is good to spend a little time, each day, away from everyone, to commune with God. To be encouraged and strengthened for the day, but no one should stay in isolation or cut off from the world, or they become flavorless salt, and a hidden light.
"Just so let your light shine before all men, in order that they may see your holy lives and may give glory to your Father who is in Heaven." Matthew 5:16 (Weymouth New Testament)