If we turn to 2 Timothy 3, we find him saying this: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (vs. 12). Now, I call attention to the fact that he does not say, “They that do,” but, “They that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” If you and I dress up our Christian testimony so as to make it acceptable to the world, we can escape that persecution, but if we are seeking to live godly in Christ Jesus — if that is the purpose and desire of our lives — the Word of God says that we will be rejected —we will suffer persecution. What had been Paul’s personal experience? As we noted in our previous address, the Apostle Paul had been treated as the “filth of the world . . . the offscouring of all things” (1 Cor. 4:13). That is about as vivid language as it would be possible to use — to be counted as refuse — the filth and offscouring of all things.
In 2 Corinthians 6, Paul speaks of his ministry. “In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well-known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (vss. 4-10). Oh, what a ministry! What a ministry! That is the man that God raised up to give us the truth of the church, and he says, I am going to “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church” (Col. 1:24). Yes, the church was to be an institution in this world that would call forth the hatred and opposition of the unsaved around. Paul’s testimony was never popular. When he stood there on Mars’ hill in Athens and preached to that critical Greek group, they termed him, “This babbler” (Acts 17:18). That was not the only time he was termed the equivalent of a babbler. If we follow him through his ministry, what a life we witness! He was a man who was not afraid to work with his hands. He worked that he might not be a burden to the saints. He earned his own way so that none might say that he was in the Lord’s work for money. He was willing to make tents if thereby he could make the gospel without charge.
In the early part of 1 Corinthians the Apostle rules out all natural wisdom. “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God: for it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men: for all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (ch. 3:19-23).
“Let no man glory in men”! Is it not a sad thing that the Christian church has become like a vast arena where men strive for honors? They have their gradations of achievement, they have their titles, and at times they contend for them with bitter jealousies. Men deck themselves with various degrees and titles and disport themselves in the church of God as though it were a place for someone else than Christ to be seen. Is that not sad? How Satan must delight in that kind of display.