Christian Persecution
I’ve been thinking of the times ahead of us, and I often think of those being persecuted today. I evaluated it often. thinking how people suffer for being a believer. Sometimes I cannot even wrap my head around what’s happening and is going to happen. I keep everyone who is experiencing this in prayer.
The Christian faith is counterintuitive in a number of ways, but perhaps none so much as in it’s perspective on suffering and particularly on suffering persecution. We may see this most clearly in the actions of the apostles who, after being imprisoned and beaten, “left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus’s name (Acts 5:41).
Of course they must not have been surprised to suffer persecution because, Jesus told them to expect it and evaluate it. But he did more than that, he does more than that to us, Jesus tells us to embrace persecution -to embrace it as His will.
While there is no way to soften the word embrace with the word endure. It’s certainly true we need to face persecution with patience and perseverance. But Jesus seems to call us to even more than this. He says we should as far to embrace persecution. That’s not to say we should never pray for it to be lifted, or that we should never flee from it, or that we should never turn from it, or that we should never turn to the courts where we can appeal for justice at least for the time being while some places are still called free nations. It’s does mean that as long as we face true persecution, we should rejoice in it. Jesus says “blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. He says to even “rejoice and be glad” in persecution (Matthew 5:10-12).
But is this really possible? It this really reasonable? It is! because we know that our God is sovereign and that nothing happens apart from His plan, which means that in some way our suffering is God’s will. It’s not a mistake. It’s a opportunity to respond to God’s sovereignty with hope, with trust, and with godly character. It’s a opportunity to shine God’s light in the midst of darkness.
We need to consider: How is it possible to rejoice even during something as painful as persecution? There are reasons we can rejoice and be glad even when being persecuted.
- Persecution Proves Your Citizenship
Our Savior who was persecuted, even though He lived a life that was perfect and unblemished, still the authorities, the civil authorities, and the common people all turned against Him and put Him to death. If that was His story, why wouldn’t it be ours? Jesus told us it would be ours. He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” We should expect to suffer like our Savior suffered. In that way persecution is proof of our citizenship in His kingdom, proof of your alignment with Jesus.
Many fall away when their faith is tested; but those who truly love the Lord will preserve and emerge with their faith tested, proven, and strengthened. They can rejoice.
And then there’s this: persecution displays your faith. Passing through the test of persecution proves the validity and the strength of your faith. You’ll never know how strong your arms are until you have to lift something heavy, and your never know what your faith is made of until it is put to the test.
In James 1:12, he says, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he had stood the test he will receive the crown of life.”
Persecution shapes your character. In Romans 5 Paul says, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4). It takes tremendous heat and pressure to form a diamond deep in the ground and it takes suffering and even persecution to form Christian character deep in your heart. Persecution is a means God uses to conform us to the image of Christ.
- Persecution Equips Us For Service
Through persecution, God is equipping you for deeper service to Him. In 2 Corinthians Paul writes suffered deeply and says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction…” Why does God offer this comfort? He goes on, “so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affection, with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God.” He knows that in His suffering He has been comforted so that He can now extend that comfort to others. He has been made more useful in God’s purposes because of this persecution. And that’s true of you as well.
- Persecution Produces Communion
In your suffering, you experience a deep fellowship with Jesus, because you are actually joining in his suffering. In 2 Corinthians 1:5 Paul says this: “ For, as we hear abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Jesus’s we share abundantly in comfort too. You are being persecuted because you are United with Jesus. You are suffering in Him and For Him and With Him. And God meets you in your sorrows, He draws close, and He ministers His comfort to you.
- Persecution Provokes Longing
It causes you to look forward, to elevate your gaze beyond this world. There is nothing that more clearly that shows that this world is not our home more than persecution. There is nothing that makes it more obvious that we don’t belong here. There is nothing more likely to shift your gaze from the kingdom of this world to the kingdom of heaven. When everything in your life is going great, when everyone around you loves and affirms you, it’s easy to say “this world isn’t so bad.” But when you are hated and mocked, you understand: These are not my people. This is not my place.
And if this isn’t, then what is? The Kingdom of Heaven. Persecution makes you exercise your faith to believe that the kingdom is real and the kingdom is coming and the kingdom is your true and final home. You rejoice that your heart is being uprooted from this kingdom and planted in the kingdom still you come. You rejoice and are glad in all that God has promised, and will very soon fulfill.
God give you your suffering and trust that you will embrace it and honor Him through it in such a way that you will hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.
It surely seems like there will be more separate and even persecution in the years ahead how will you meet it? I know how God tells us to meet it, that we are supposed to meet any suffering with confidence, submission, and even the fiercest persecution with rejoicing and gladness. God means for us to emerge from it with our faith not only intact, that’s strengthened, our joy, not only present, but amplified. He means for us to marvel like the apostles that said “ I have been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus.” And to rejoice.
God is that work for the furthering of His kingdom, the good of His people, and the glory of His name. Let us rejoice.
From Pity to Praise 