“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12).
On a trip to India earlier this year, we experienced a little taste of persecution when a radical Hindu interrupted the meeting we were holding in a private home, demanding that we stop immediately. About the same time two believers in Bhutan were sentenced to prison by the strongly Buddhist government for preaching the gospel. Many other stories could be told, but all of this reminds us that Christ and His followers are still not wanted in this world.
Ever since the formation of the church, it has been the lot of believers to suffer persecution. The Lord Jesus could say to His disciples, “The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:2020Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. (John 15:20)). Then in the following chapter, He reminded them, “In the world ye shall have tribulation” (John 16:3333These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)). Later on, Saul of Tarsus, afterward called the Apostle Paul, was struck down by a light from heaven on the road to Damascus. When the Lord sent Ananias to visit him, He told Ananias, “He is a chosen vessel unto Me . . . for I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:15-1615But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: 16For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. (Acts 9:15‑16)). As the representative man for this dispensation, Paul exemplified the character of the Christian pathway, and it was surely one of suffering.
For Those Who Will Live Godly
In the verse quoted from 2 Timothy at the beginning of this article, Paul reminds Timothy that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Concerning some Paul had to say, “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me” (2 Tim. 1:15). They had not turned away from Christianity and gone back to paganism, but they had turned away from that heavenly calling and those precious truths which Paul had labored so strenuously to teach them. No doubt this resulted, among other things, in an easier path and made them less likely to experience persecution. Nevertheless, Paul maintains that if we are going to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus, we shall suffer persecution. This world does not want the Lord Jesus and will not want His followers either, if they follow Him faithfully.
The Godly in Our Day
In our day, the truth of God’s Word remains the same, and those who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. In the last fifty or more years, communist governments around this world, particularly in the former Soviet Union and other eastern bloc countries and more recently in China and other nations, have done their best to stamp out Christianity. Believers have been and continue to be imprisoned, tortured and put to death for following and preaching Christ. In other countries, particularly those with Muslim governments, there is a real price to be paid for being an out-and-out Christian. There are probably more believers today suffering for Christ and giving up their lives for Him than at any other time in the church’s history.
Subtle Forms of Persecution
For those who live in Western Europe and North America, the question may well arise, “What about us?” For the most part we do not experience active persecution. We can meet together without fear, preach the gospel, witness to others as individuals, and generally live in peace. Is Satan any more tolerant of Christ and His claims in the West?
Of course, we are always open to such things as ridicule and perhaps more subtle forms of persecution, such as being passed over for a promotion in our work, or finding ourselves the subject of gossip and bad rumors. But is this all we will suffer for Christ, even if we are faithful to Him?
The Lord Jesus did not hesitate to tell His followers the true cost of discipleship, pointing out that the terms were not negotiable. When He laid down the conditions for following Him, He could say, “Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:2727And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:27)). To bear a cross had a terrible significance in that day, for it meant that the one carrying it was going to die. This is the true cost of discipleship — to die to everything except Christ and His interests down here. If we seek to do this, we will indeed find that we will suffer persecution, even in lands that permit freedom of worship. The persecution may take different forms, and at this point in time it may not involve torture, imprisonment or death. However, I would suggest that the Lord will allow forms of testing in our lives, testing that will bring us to the point where we must decide whether to seek an easier path by compromise or remain faithful to Christ and suffer persecution.
Persecution From Within the House
A believer from China who was spending some time in Canada, traveling and preaching, was suddenly made the subject of a verbal attack by a vicious (and totally false) email message that was circulated. He was devastated by it, and eventually he realized that, while believers in China were persecuted by beatings and imprisonment, believers in western countries were sometimes persecuted by the words of other Christians. In other cases, Satan will attack the truth of God by allowing difficulties in a local assembly, or worse still, by bringing on a situation where believers in a number of assemblies find themselves divided over an issue. In such difficulties it is easy to allow family ties and personal feelings to overrule our loyalty to Christ and to take an easier path rather than the one of faithfulness.
On the other hand, let us beware lest we, in a zeal for God without knowledge, become ourselves the persecutors of our brethren. We do well to remember the Lord’s warning, “Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh” (Matt. 18:77Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! (Matthew 18:7)).
The Crown of Life
Down through the ages, many dear believers have stood firm in the face of terrible physical persecution and have triumphantly laid down their lives for Christ. They are those who have been “faithful unto death” and who will receive the “crown of life” (Rev. 2:1010Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. (Revelation 2:10)). However, we read in the Word of God of another way to win the martyr’s crown. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation [testing]: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life” (James 1:1212Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. (James 1:12)). The believer may not be put to death to win the martyr’s crown, but in quietly resisting the temptation to compromise and have an easier path and in enduring the persecution from within the great house, he too will win that crown.
Of the Lord Jesus it could be said, “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:22Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)). Here He is an example for us, and His joy can be our joy, if we are ready to follow Him. W. J. Prost