Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:10-12
The fact that we in America are shocked when we hear of the persecution that so many of our brothers and sisters in the world endure routinely suggests three realities about we in the USA.
We are generally, and by comparison, almost completely sheltered from persecution. First, I am thankful we do not experience persecution. But we who are insulated from persecution are the exception, not the rule. People in vast areas of the world are persecuted as a matter of fact. Second, we dare not think our blessed freedom from persecution is earned or deserved by us. We may still be living on the spiritual capital amassed by previous generations, but we in this day can in no way think we are somehow more deserving than the persecuted Church around the world. Our national sins, including the sins of the American Church, must be a foul stench in Heaven. Be assured that a lack of persecution is nothing less than the kind providence of a gracious God. Third, we had better not think, “It will never happen here!” More on that in an upcoming post.
We are ignorant of history. The history of Christianity is littered with persecution of God’s people. While there have been seasons of less persecution in Church history, persecution has been a recurring theme. Perhaps the most ghastly truth about the persecution of God’s people is that much of the persecution of the godly has been perpetrated by the rich and the powerful from within the Church. We may never know how many great men and women of God have been martyred by religious imposters parading as the leading elite of Christianity. And even in our day, those in the “progressive church” malign true believers for not standing with them against the Bible—and what the Bible teaches about everything from the deity of our sinless Savior, to the biblical difference between men and women, to the so-called “right” to murder babies in their mothers’ wombs.
We read the Bible selectively. We may be experts at quoting truncated portions of scripture such as, “I can do all things…” (Yes, there is more to that verse that is literally antithetical to the way so many abusively treat Philippians 4:13!). God’s Word overflows with encouragement but it also tells us the truth about the cost of following Jesus—including persecution. More on that next time…