Last week we saw how Jesus warned that those who chose to be his followers would be persecuted. Not only that, but this would happen to them specifically for trying to live their lives the way he taught.
I suggested that this would happen because, despite the fact that Jesus’ teachings lead his followers to love and forgive others, those in positions of power or influence may feel threatened by the fact that a Christian’s primary loyalty is to Jesus and not to those in power.
What does this mean for us today?
The first thing we can take from it is reassurance. If you are being or have been persecuted for trying to faithfully follow Jesus – in whatever way, in whatever part of the world – this is something Jesus expected to happen to you. It’s not a punishment from God. It’s not a sign that you’ve failed as a Christian. It’s not a sign that something has gone wrong. It’s what you should expect to happen if you live as a faithful Christian.
On the contrary it may be the Christian who has never experienced any real persecution who needs to ask if something is going wrong.
In the beginning
Persecution was something to be expected for the earliest Christians. One of the first very martyrs, Stephen, was killed for his Christian faith in Acts 7. James, one of Jesus’ earliest and closest followers, met the same fate in Acts 13.
The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that James (a different James, the half-brother of Jesus and a leader of the church in Jerusalem) was stoned to death for his faith. And early Christian writings say that both Peter and Paul were martyred before the emperor in Rome.
The early church faced hostility both from the Jewish leaders in Judea as well as the Roman authorities around the empire. It wasn’t until the emperor Constantine in the early 4th century that Christianity was recognised as a protected religion by the Roman state.
Today, outside the West
Today in 2024 there are still many places in the world where being a Christian can be a very dangerous thing. In some countries in the Middle East, such as Iran, conversion from Islam to Christianity (considered to be “apostasy”) can result in a sentence of death.
Or take Nigeria, officially a secular state where the population is roughly half Christian and half Muslim, and yet according to the organisation Genocide Watch, “Since 2000, 62,000 Christians in Nigeria have been murdered in genocide perpetrated by Islamist jihadist groups”.
Then there is China, officially an atheistic state where it is not illegal to be a Christian provided you belong to a state-approved church which does not teach anything the state forbids. Many Christians find that in order to truly be faithful to Jesus, they must disobey the state’s rules, which can lead to severe consequences.
Today, in the West
I will not say much about persecution of Christians in non-Western countries, for the simple reason that it’s something I have little understanding and no personal experience of. Those who have experienced it can do a far better job of describing it than I can.
If you are a Christian who has always lived in a country such as the UK or the USA, you are unlikely to have experienced any hostility such as you might face in countries such as those mentioned above.
Does that mean Jesus’ words here have no relevance for you?
Paul wrote to Timothy “…in fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” (2 Timothy 3:12). Does this mean that if you are not experiencing persecution, you aren’t making enough effort to live a godly life?
I don’t think Jesus was suggesting that we should deliberately seek out and provoke persecution for its own sake. He was warning that persecution will come as an inevitable result of living as a faithful Christian, particularly for demonstrating loyalty to Jesus instead of other religious or political authorities.
For example, if you were to run out in the middle of a Pride parade and start shouting “Repent or perish!” you’d probably receive a hostile and perhaps even violent reaction. That sort of reaction probably isn’t what Jesus had in mind here, because loyalty to Jesus doesn’t require you to behave like that.
A better example might be if your employer decided that everyone in the company needed to wear or display a Pride symbol in order to show support for the LGBT community during Pride month. In a situation like that you might decide that your loyalty to Jesus does require you to refuse to do so, and there may be severe consequences. People have lost their jobs, been publicly excoriated and had their reputations destroyed for refusing to go along with the ideologies or political statements that are considered sacrosanct in the modern West.
Of course, this may not happen to everyone – it may not even happen to the majority of Christians in the UK for example – but nevertheless it’s an example of the principle we identified last time: where does your loyalty lie? With Jesus or with whatever ideas and values currently dominate the culture you live in?
When you are forced to choose between the two and publicly declare where your loyalty lies, what will you do? Will you choose Jesus or not? Or will you try and reinterpret his words to enable you to choose both?
It’s the same principle that, for example, Christians face when they are called up for military service. Where does your loyalty lie? With your country or with Jesus? If your country ordered you to pick up a gun and potentially kill your country’s enemies in battle, what would you do?
During World War 2, for example, many Christians faced scorn, ridicule, accusations of cowardice or even imprisonment for declaring themselves conscientious objectors.
Now obviously this does not compare with some of the consequences people might face for being publicly known as Christians in other countries, but once again the same principle applies. Wherever you live, whoever rules over you and whatever the surrounding culture believes, you will at some point and in some way be forced to answer that question: where does your loyalty lie? With Jesus or with the state or its dominant ideologies?
If the answer is “with Jesus”, are you ready to publicly declare that and live with the consequences?
It’s easy to declare yourself a pacifist who would never pick up a gun, but if World War 3 started and your government tried to conscript you to fight against the potential nuclear annihilation of your homeland, what would you do?
It’s easy to say that you stand for Biblical teaching concerning sex and relationships, but if you were asked to participate in a Pride event at work, what would you do?
Jesus said: Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven (Matthew 10:32-33)
What are you prepared to lose in order to remain publicly loyal to him? Friendships? Family? Your job? Your home? Your freedom? Your life?
Jesus also said this: Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:28–29)
That is indeed the promise that awaits you if you choose your loyalty to Jesus over anything else:
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Nihilist to Christian 