“Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven…” Matthew 5:12
Jesus, in His longest Sermon, on the Mount, teaches the crowd what it means to be a Christian. To be a follower of Christ, one must have the qualities of Christ and Jesus Christ explains the qualities of Christ through beatitudes and each beatitude explains how the ways of the world are at complete odds with God. When we live for Christ, in Christ, and with Christ, we will surely be persecuted, reproached, and evil spoken of, because the entire world whether political, religious, educational, etc., is against Christ. Despite these persecutions, Jesus said- ‘Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven’. Each of the nine beatitudes has a reward, and the reward for those who are suffering persecution for righteousness and reproach for Christ is ‘Christ Himself’. If we have Christ, we have the kingdom of the heavens, thus, our great reward is Christ with His kingdom.
Do not lose heart if you are going through persecution or bearing reproach for Christ’s sake, God will impart the highest rewards ‘the crown of immortality’ the brightest than all other crowns for the redeemed.