Those who follow Christ are not immune to suffering and can expect persecution.
Those who follow Christ are not immune to suffering and can expect persecution. The way of the world is to grasp power and wealth in order to avoid hardship. The way of Christ, by contrast, is not to pursue worldly power and comfort in order to avoid suffering, but rather to endure hardship and to see in suffering and persecution an opportunity for the spread of the Gospel. Christians today should also be more concerned for our witness than for our comfort: more concerned for the spread of the Gospel than for the avoidance of suffering.
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
In my previous devotion, I addressed the false teaching that Christians should expect a life of wealth and comfort, free from suffering. In his second letter to Timothy (and elsewhere), the Apostle Paul frequently references suffering and encourages disciples of Christ to endure hardship for the sake of the Gospel. The chains that Paul endured certainly caused him suffering. And yet they were not a threat to the Gospel itself. Despite Paul’s chains, God’s word remained unchained. Indeed, Paul saw his endurance of suffering as an opportunity for witness. Like Paul, Christians today should also be more concerned for our witness than for our comfort: more concerned for the spread of the Gospel than for the avoidance of suffering.
For Christians living in the United States in the 21st century, this is not easy; it is counter-cultural. We live in the midst of affluence and comfort. Compared with much of history, and with many other places in the world today, American Christians have lived a life of relative ease, with extensive religious freedom to worship, and (comparatively speaking) little real persecution.
It is easy to forget the prevalent New Testament teachings and examples of Jesus, and of his followers like the Apostle Paul. It is easy instead to cling to comfort as a right and to be fearful and angry when it is threatened. That’s certainly been the case with me. Living and working in a secular setting where I experience some hostility toward the Gospel, I often bristle with indignation at instances I witness or experience of what seems like unfair treatment of Christians. I want to fight back.
And I’m not alone in this instinctive reaction. Following the models of our culture, Christians are easily drawn to the pursuit of political power to ensure that we hold on to this freedom and comfort we have experienced. After all, we live not only in an affluent culture of comfort, but also a culture that worships power and wealth, and sees political power as the means toward accomplishing our ends. We can further justify our pursuit of worldly power by justifying all the good we can accomplish if we are in charge.
Except that isn’t the way of Christ, or the way taught and modeled by his Apostles in the early church. On the contrary, because of his faith, Paul experienced “being chained like a criminal”. Being treated like a criminal—being chained and imprisoned— is about as far as you can imagine from being in a place of worldly or political power. Yet Paul willingly and repeatedly endured that, choosing a path of suffering for the furthering of the Gospel, that some might come to know Christ, and the salvation and eternal glory that come in relationship with Christ. Paul eschewed worldly power and chose instead a powerful witness.
Which shouldn’t be surprising, since that was the model of his savior, who accomplished his purposes not by taking over the rule of the government of Rome, or even of Israel, but by giving up all his power, and in humility suffering on the cross as a criminal. Counter-cultural? Yes. But also the way of Christ.
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