Our Christian brothers and sisters in the 1st century had a very different perspective on persecution than we 21st century western Christians. For them it was a privilege (see Acts 5:41; Philippians 1:29), for us it is something to be avoided, almost at all costs. But can it be avoided? If Jesus and the apostles are any measure, it cannot. The scriptures clearly attest that persecution follows proclamation.
Why is this so? The message of the Kingdom of God runs smack up against the prevailing powers of the kingdom of this world making conflict inevitable. And because the gospel offers a stern critique of the nature of human beings and the works we produce, when a person embraces the gospel as true it necessarily aligns that one with that assessment, provoking persecution. The demand to the believer in the face of this inevitable enmity, notes Glenn Penner, the late director of Voice of the Martyrs, Canada, “is not so much a willingness to die for Christ but a readiness to die due to one’s unconditional obedience to the Crucified One.” If persecution is part and parcel with proclaiming and living the gospel, we must accept that we are “destined for this” and “not be moved by these afflictions” (1 Thessalonians 3:3).
But suffering for the sake of Christ is not an end in itself. Jesus spoke of his redemptive suffering when he taught, ““The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:23-24). Each disciple of Jesus is a product of the redeeming death to which he alludes. For this we are grateful. The startling news, however, is that he also envisions our own sacrificial fruit bearing when he explains, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (v. 25). Our participation in the redeeming work of Christ through suffering for the sake of his name, has a redemptive purpose, not for ourselves but for others.
The power of the followers of Jesus united in the face of persecution offers a much needed testimony to the truth of the gospel. Ed Clowney notes: "“The very threats to the existence of the church in the twenty-first century show again our need of the church. The courage to stand apart, to be unashamed of Christ’s claims, is nurtured in the community of those who are baptized into his name. The church may not apply for a union card in a pluralistic establishment by signing away its right to proclaim the only Saviour of the world. Together we must make clear that it is to Christ and not to ourselves that we witness. In that witness we are not only individual points of light in the world, but a city set on a hill. In the ethnic hostility that ravages Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the church must show the bond of Christ’s love that unites former enemies as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Only so can the church be a sign of his kingdom: the kingdom that will come when Christ comes, and that is already present through his Spirit” (The Church. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995. 15-16).
As our Savior was persecuted because he stood against the prevailing selfishness and cruelty of a sin-racked, idolatrous world, so will his church. Persecution is something to which we have been called and for which we must give thanks.
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