A Matter of Tense
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me Matthew 5:11
Revile and Persecute – It’s a matter of tense. Not tense like under stress. Here the important thing is the verb tense, the temporal implication found in the form of the verb. You see, in Greek, these two verbs are in the aorist tense – a tense which we do not have in the English language. Once we understand just what this means, we can see this verse in a completely different light, a light that puts all the emphasis on the sovereign hand of God.
“Revile” is the Greek oneidisosin. “Persecute” is the Greek dioksosin. Both of these verbs describes a simple action in the past; one that is completed and has no further consequences of extensions. It is an action that has a particular temporal limit, occurring at a particular point of time. It does not go on and on and on. It starts – and it stops. These words should bring to mind that famous song in Ecclesiastes, “For everything there is a time and a purpose.”
Now the important question is this: Who controls the temporal span of such actions? Reviling and persecuting are certainly human activities, but they are not humanly controlled. Jesus’ perspective is saturated with the sovereignty of the Father. God is in charge, no matter what the circumstances appear to be. So, reviling and persecuting are limited, not by the anger and fury of fallen men, but by the compassionate and powerful hand of the Almighty. That is why you can rejoice!
If it were not for God’s complete control of the circumstances of our lives, there would never be cause for celebration in the midst of trials. But God is in charge. No plan of His can be thwarted. No man’s hand can overpower His. Even Satan himself is unable to stand against the will of God. There is no conflict of equal but opposite superpowers in the heavenly realm. God rules it all!
The days of reviling and persecution are limited. They will begin and they will end – at the will of the Father. Of this you may be supremely confident. Therefore, rejoice! Life is not left to accidental occurrence nor to evil intention. Your Father reigns.
Today you may be in the midst of an aorist occasion. You may be feeling the heat. But the limit has been set. The end is coming. Victory is assured. Oh, and by the way, the word rejoice in the next sentence from Jesus is not in the aorist tense. It is in the present tense – a continuous, never-ending action.
Rejoice! God is the God of verb tenses too.
