Maybe You Deserve to be Persecuted!
This week I've been relecting on Acts 5:41, where we read that after the apostles had the tar beaten out of them: Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
As Chrisitans, we should expect persecution for our faith. For most of us in the West, that takes the form of being ostracized and rejected in fairly minor ways (compared to being beaten or killed or imprisoned).
But I think sometimes the world rejects us not because we are like Jesus, but because we're jerks or weirdos. If we go out of our way to remind people of our moral superiority, if we always insist that people who don't love God should be expected to act like they do... then we deserve whatever rejection we get. They're really not rejecting Jesus, they are rejecting us.
So I sometimes talk to my church about the "ministry of being normal". As believers, we are necessarilly going to have a lot of distance between us and those who don't follow Christ. We live differently, love differntly, hope differntely. We're citizens of a different country.
But it might be helpful if we limit the distance between us and the world in a lot of other ways. We don't have to flaunt our lack of a TV and be weird and preachy about grinding your own grain. That only serves to put unnecessary distance between us and the people we're trying to reach. Instead, we should try to engage the world around us, know what our neighbors care about, and try to inhabit the same universe they do.
If they are going to persecute us, let us at least be for things that really have something to do with being a Christian.
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Thanks for this great reminder about our call to be in, but not of the world.
I agree that Christians in America are often persecuted for being weirdos or jerks. If we are to be persecuted, it should be for Jesus. The apostles were persecuted because they taught in the name of Jesus. If the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart, let us often speak to others about our beloved Lord.
While I agree with the sentiment that Christians -- especially those of us in the USA -- are less deserving of persecution for the sake of Christ than for the sake of our own sinful false-piety and arrogance, I read "try to inhabit the same universe they do" as "in the world and of the world," not "in the world but not of the world." Perhaps I am misinterpreting what is being said, but I think that Romans 12 and many other passages in scripture -- the entire Old Testament -- make the idea of "engaging the World by inhabiting their universe" and "not being conformed to the World, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds" mutually exclusive. There is a reason that God commanded the Israelites to wipe out entire peoples when entering a land -- namely, holiness. "Inhabiting their universe" sounds like "getting inside their heads," and we are called to renew our minds, not to see a way into the mind of Man.
This is not, of course, to say that we are not to engage the world, by any means. We all fall under the Great Commission. But to "inhabit" a secular mindset for the sake of that engagement brings to bear an entire spectrum of discontinuities between our regenerated lives and those of our unsaved neighbors, from the seemingly benign to the obviously destructive. We are, first and foremost, called to preach Christ crucified, which is foolishness to the world. If Christ crucified is the central tenet of our faith -- our very lives -- how can we ever engage the world without first preaching? Our lives are foolish to an unregenerate mindset. We should certainly be loving, kind, gentle, humble, and peacemaking with the world, but does this mean we fail to express our differences on a regular basis? No, it does not, but we do it in love -- always in Spirit empowered love (1 John). If, then, we are hated for that Christ-like love -- which includes speaking the truth of sin and redemption -- then we have achieved a godly reason for persecution.
I wonder sometimes if we are too smart for our own good. Sure, let's live wisely with regard to our neighbors and try to treat them as we would like to be treated. But I'm so tired of Christians throwing stones at other Christians because they are not doing things just right. The fact is the world hated Jesus, and Jesus assured us that it would hate us as well. The reasons for this hatred are probably as varied and multiple as the psyches of those who hate. But maybe it's time to stop judging our fellow believers for their inability to live perfectly before the world. The only One who did live perfectly, the world crucified. Besides, is it really up to me to determine why someone hates me and other Christians?
In my opinion, we should strive to be faithful to God and his Word and seek to love others with the help of the Spirit, but we also need to stop judging our fellow believers, whom we deem to be doing it wrong.
Just my opinion.
I agree there are people out there that are "jerks or weirdos" as you describe. But I think there are far more professing Christians in the West that want to be accepted by the world and are rejected because of their hypocrisy. They profess to be Christians and act like the world which is far more repudiating to the world.
When we let the light of Christ shine through us there will always be those in the world who will assume we are jerks and weirdos without us having to "brag" about our morality and there will be some that will be drawn to Christ.
Well said.
Very well said.
Thanks,
Dave
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