Persecuted; Who Me?

Chuckle: A preacher related how he asked a group of high school students to write down their favorite hymns. One girl wrote, "Willie Smith."

Quote: "The way of the world is to praise dead saints and persecute the living ones." –Unknown source

"In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:12-13 NIV).

What is the greatest desire of your life? Our actions are driven by our desires and the perceived need to satisfy those desires. The operative question is what desires are we trying to satisfy? As a Christian, you know that God wants our greatest desire to be to love Him and "to live godly lives in Christ Jesus." If this is, in fact, the greatest desire of your life you will definitely find yourself swimming against the current in our culture which is rapidly moving in the opposite direction. When our Christian values conflict with those of a culture that does not value godliness, we can be assured of a negative reaction.

A good measure of our desire to serve God is whether or not we are experiencing opposition. If we never find ourselves at odds with the worldly culture, then we should examine our hearts to see if we have lost our desire to serve God as our first priority. Jesus warned us about this when He said, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you..." (Luke 6:26 NIV). When the ungodly speaks highly of a "Christian," it could mean the Christian has compromised his values to bring them in line with the prevailing culture. Sadness lies ahead for those who seek the approval of the crowd rather than God's approval.

The promise of persecution is not a pleasant one and it is not something we enjoy thinking about. Yet we need to be aware of the cost of godliness and be ready "to live a godly life in Christ Jesus" at any cost. Biblical truths should govern our lives, not the socially acceptable and politically correct values of our culture. Our ultimate goal should be to change our culture to once again accept God's standards and values.

"During the Watergate scandal, some people regarded it as a compliment to be on Nixon's 'enemies list.' They took it as a credit to them that people in the administration opposed them. In the same way, if you have enemies because of your righteousness, it will be a credit to you. You should be glad that you have that kind of enemies, and that they are persecuting you, because it means that you are not doing what they do. Instead you are doing what unrighteous men hate." –Illustrations for Biblical Preaching; Edited by Michael P. Green

“A Christian should be a walking sermon, a breathing prayer, a living poem, a visible spirit, and a human candle” –William Arthur Ward

Love, Jerry & Dotse