The second principle is that the Christian's life is controlled and dominated by Jesus Christ, by his loyalty to Christ, and by his concern to do everything for Christ's sake. `Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.' Why are they persecuted? Because they are living for Christ's sake. From this I deduce that the whole object of the Christian should be to live for Christ's sake and no longer to live for his own. People are unpleasant to one another and may persecute one another, even when they are not Christian, but that is not for Christ's sake. The peculiar thing about the persecution of the Christian is that it is `for Christ's sake'. The Christian's life should always be controlled and dominated by the Lord Jesus Christ, and by considerations of what will be well-pleasing in His sight. That is something which you find everywhere in the New Testament. The Christian, being a new man, having received new life from Christ, realizing that he owes everything to Christ and His perfect work, and particularly to His death upon the cross, says to himself, `I am not my own; I have been bought with a price'. He therefore wants to live his whole life to the glory of Him who has thus died for him, and bought him, and risen'again. So he desires to present himself, `body, soul and spirit', everything to Christ. This, you will agree, is something that was not only taught by our Lord; it is emphasized everywhere in all the New Testament Epistles. `For Christ's sake' is the motive, the great controlling motive in the life of the Christian. Here is something that differentiates us from everybody else and provides a thorough test of our profession of the Christian faith. If we are truly Christian, our desire must be, however much we may fail in practice, to live for Christ, to glory in His name and to live to glorify Him.*
*Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Kindle Locations 2032-2043). Kindle Edition.
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