Matthew 5:11

‘Blessed ones are you when men shall reproach you, and persecute you,

And say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.'

The switch here to the second person confirms that the previous verse is referring back to the past. His God-blessed disciples are now to recognise that they too will be reproached, persecuted and calumniated in the same way as the saints of the past. In the end people will have little good to say about them also. And in their case it will not just be for righteousness' sake, it will be  for His sake. Theirs is the greater privilege. Furthermore the use of ‘for My sake' confirms that the listeners are genuine disciples. Only genuine disciples could suffer ‘for His sake'. They will be fine while they are not treading on people's toes, but once what they say becomes personal to the people in question, or begins to touch on sensitive ideas, antagonism will soon arise. Godly persons very often do find it difficult to understand how anyone can treat them in this way when all they are doing is taking to men and women the most wonderful message known to men, but it will in fact not be long, if their testimony is true, before they find that it is so. For they will be disturbing the consciences of men and women, and the almost automatic result will be retaliation and persecution and insults. People do not like their consciences being disturbed.

But when disciples are so treated ‘for His sake' they can take comfort in the fact that it indicates that they are those who have been blessed by God, and that they are truly His.

‘Reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely.' Note the small chiasmus. Persecution is central as being the most virulent, but is surrounded on each side by their being the subject of virulent words. It does, however, also follow a pattern, first the reproaches, then the persecution, and finally the calumniation of their names to the world as their reputations are destroyed.

‘Falsely' is omitted in some manuscripts, such as D, most Old Latin witnesses and the Sinaitic Syriac version, and also in Tertullian. But the weight of the evidence is for inclusion. It was probably omitted because the copyist could not accept that the disciples might behave falsely. It does bring out to us that it is important that we ensure that we do not deserve any calumniations. It is not blessed to be persecuted for merely being awkward.