When is Persecution Real?

Being a Christian isn’t easy. It requires a commitment to Jesus’ teaching and God’s commandments. It requires resisting the almost constant temptations of the flesh. It requires acceptance of the Holy Spirit and moving away from one’s old self and the ways that would grieve the Holy Spirit. To be clear, it requires sacrifice. Those who choose to follow Jesus often find that much of what brings them joy prior to finding Him has to be discarded to be in agreement with Him. All those difficulties are internal for the most part. They are examples of the struggle that every follower must take on against his or her own worldly nature.

However, the Bible tells us that we will face external hardships too. Living a truly Christian lifestyle will put you at odds with the world, and you will face persecution because of that. Jesus himself made that point several times. He even included it in the Beatitudes.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you. - Matthew 5:10-12

What’s interesting in this particular passage is that Jesus is focused less on the fact that his followers will be persecuted and more on the fact that they will be rewarded for putting up with that persecution. You see Jesus didn’t want his followers to dwell on the bad they would have to endure and allow it to discourage them. He wanted them to know that they were fortunate to be persecuted in such a way because God would reward them for staying strong in the face of the backlash.

Modern Christians understand this principle, and we’ve seen Christians, on more than one occasion, take hard stands in favor of Christian ideology. Nowadays, in many ways, people who claim to be Christians are the ones with power and numbers. So, to some extent, it is hard to imagine Christians being persecuted because of their faith, at least when compared to what earlier Christians had to endure. That’s not to say that Christians now do not face hardships thrown at them by the world. Such hardships are particularly common outside of the United States and in other nations where the Christian population may not be as strong.  Click this link for an example:  https://etools.vomusa.org/a/vombm/bg_vombulkmail_vombm-202003-15_486.html

The dynamic in the U.S. presents an interesting concern. We’ve seen plenty of examples in recent years of Christians taking a stand for what they believe to be Christian principles and in some cases receiving backlash for their stances. These cases run the range of everything from a Christian cake store owner refusing to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple to Christian parents insisting that the Bible be taught in public schools in the same vein as language arts, science, and math. These people seem to be sincere in their beliefs that they are taking a stand for Jesus, and they honestly see the backlash they face as the persecution of which Jesus spoke. But are they correct? Is this really the type of thing that Jesus was referencing?

Those are difficult questions to answer, and deciding what is correct must be taken on a case by case basis. We’re not going to do that here, but it would be useful to turn to the Bible to see what examples it gives with respect to the persecution faced by Christians. Perhaps the most powerful example would be the story of Stephen. The Bible describes the origins of his struggles in the following way:

Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. 10 But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” - Acts 6:8-11

From there, Stephen was taken before the Sanhedrin to answer for the trumped up charges, and he proceeded to give them all a lesson on the history of God’s work with the Hebrews and how it all connected to Jesus. The Lord’s enemies ignored the truth that he gave them and stoned him to death.

Paul spoke quite a bit on persecution too. In his letter to Timothy, he wrote the following:

You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. - 2 Timothy 3:10-13

There is a common thread among all the examples of persecution we see in the Bible. The apostles and other disciples weren’t being persecuted for taking public stances against what they perceived as sin. They weren’t being persecuted for trying to force their beliefs on those around them. They were being persecuted for simply believing in Jesus. They were being persecuted for living godly lives. They were being persecuted for spreading the Gospel.

We have to be careful when we take certain stances. As Christians we have to stand up for Jesus and our belief in Him, and if that exposes us to negative repercussions, so be it. However, that doesn’t give us the right to try and use the Bible as a hammer to smash out everything in the world that we disagree with. That wasn’t the charge given to us by Jesus. When a group goes on the attack, that group can expect to face some resistance. If we are the attackers, then is the response we receive actual persecution or just the natural reaction to being attacked?

In the Bible, the Christians were persecuted for simply believing and sharing their beliefs. That is the persecution to which Jesus was referring. If we are taking actions that go beyond living righteous lives and sharing the Gospel, the response we receive may not be true persecution. Further, if we are doing those things specifically to show how pious we are, then we aren’t really being persecuted on Jesus’ behalf. We are being persecuted for our own egos.

We will face hardships for our beliefs. That much is true, but let’s make sure we are facing hardships for the right reasons, meaning we are taking true and genuine stances for Jesus. Jesus promised we would be rewarded for that. It’s possible that we may be rewarded in some way for standing for our own principles, but that just might not be the reward Jesus mentioned, and that means it won’t be the reward we really want.

 

Chris Lawyer

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