#57 Persecution

On Sunday, I preached from 2 Timothy 3:10-17 to highlight the Reformation theme of Scripture alone. That passage picks up after Paul has been warning Timothy about the threat of false teachers. Paul urges Timothy to be different than these false teachers by following Paul's example and by standing firm in the truth of the Scriptures (and the Christian tradition that in Paul's time was still being solidified into the New Testament). Because I was focusing on the importance of the Word of God, I didn't have time to deal much with verse 12: "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." So I'd like to turn my attention there in this post.

Paul doesn't pull any punches here. Jesus suffered throughout His life and especially His ministry on earth, and so the followers of Jesus should expect to suffer. I don't think you could throw a stone into Paul's Christian past without hitting some instance of persecution, and Paul did not think that part of his experience was unique to him. And from everything I could learn, there's nothing uncertain about the translation there. There's no limiting the scope of "everyone," and there's no hint of uncertainty in "will be persecuted."

So what does persecution mean? As best as I can figure, it's not only what most people think when hear the word "persecution." Certainly, Paul's statement includes the idea of death threats, physical harm, systematic oppression, total social ostracism. Those things happen to Christians around the world, and we Christians who don't face those extreme difficulties should never, ever, ever forget our brothers and sisters who do. But there's quite a lot of religious freedom in some parts of the world, and a truly Christlike life is marked most of all by love (see John 13:35), so I'm not sure the full intensity of persecution is realistic for all Christians. So in order to apply Paul's statement to all Christians, I think persecution must include some more benign responses: mockery, harassment, partial social exclusion. I think persecution in this sense might even include suffering that isn't caused directly by other people: spiritual warfare, diabolical calamities along the lines of what Job experienced. The devil doesn't need to use other people to attack God's people.

(To the best of my knowledge, I think that's the best interpretation, but it's also a slightly dangerous one. It's easy to read that and conclude that because everything isn't right in our lives that we must be expereincing persecution for our faith. But for something to qualify as persecution, it must come as a result of a person's beliefs. Not every difficulty Christians face is tied to religion. I'm also a little worried about equating these milder forms of "persecution" with the death threats and total ostracism other Christians face. I don't know what their lives and struggles are like. I maybe need another word for the lighter troubles I described.)

But most of all, what I think the passage means is this: if our lives as Christians are comfortable, if everything is smooth sailing for us, I'm convinced we need to take a serious look at ourselves to see if we're really trying our hardest to live for Christ. Sometimes God does give us times of peace and flourishing, and I would never tell someone to go seek persecution. But I think I and most Christians I know are too comfortable with the world around us. We're too scared to stand up to the wrongs our culture willfully commits and doesn't consider wrong. We're too timid to truly love those our society considers unlovable. We hide our lights under bushels. We're losing our saltiness—if we haven't already lost it entirely. We need to stand up. We need to truly strive to live godly lives. We Christians need to be clearly different from those who care nothing about Christ. We need to be ready for persecution, but we also need to take heart from Paul's testimony: the Lord rescued him from all his troubles. Jesus is always with us to help us through.

Grace and peace,

BMH