All that live Godly shall suffer Persecution

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    I read a verse years ago that really startled me.  The verse was 2 Timothy 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”  I read this verse about 30 years ago and I remember telling the Lord that I felt that I was living godly by following Him, but I was not suffering persecution.  I actually prayed a prayer that God would help me experience persecution.  That was one crazy prayer!  That was the only prayer that I think that I have ever taken back.  During the next few weeks, I experience a number of things that I definitely felt could be called persecution, and during that time the Lord showed me more about what it means to suffer persecution.  That is the subject of this post.

   I do remember an incident in 1979 when I felt persecuted.  We were part of a Mission Team that was traveling throughout part of Mexico.  We were preaching and teaching the Bible house to house and in Churches.  Once we were driving into a village that knew we were coming to distribute Bibles and when we pulled into the center of town, a group of people ran at the van and started pushing on the sides of it trying to tip it over.  We were getting bounced around a little bit inside.  We were shocked and we weren’t sure what to do.  The driver slowly backed up and eventually, we got away from the people and drove away.  I remembered that, but I did not remember anything more recent.  When I prayed that prayer, I started experiencing some stronger forms of persecution that I had not experienced before.   Let me tell you about one of the things that happened.  I was working the nightshift at a large factory in San Antonio Texas, and we got word that a new District Manager was in town.  He called a meeting during the day, and we were all expected the be there.  There were 250 people who made it in.  He gave a short presentation and then said a number of times that he was interested in any input we may have, and he would open it up for questions at the end.  At the end of the talk, there were a few questions that people had about adding the cafeteria and other things.  I held up my hand and asked the question “Was there anything that he could do to reduce the amount of profanity that was being used in the factory?”  Can you imagine?  I just felt that the amount of cursing in the factory seemed to drag down the atmosphere and made for a dark place to work.  After I asked the question, immediately I got a lot of jeers from the people around me, but the manager surprised everyone by saying that he didn’t like it either and he would see what he could do about it.  He asked me whether I noticed that he had not used any profanity during his speech, and I said that I certainly did.  It was wild that he and I were having a personal conversation in front of everybody.  I left the meeting and went back to bed.

   I worked that night and got a phone call the next day around 11.  Calling a nightshift person at 11am is like calling someone at midnight!  It was my supervisor and he demanded that I see him in his office asap.  I got out of bed and quickly dressed and drove to the plant.  He was very mad about having been called into a meeting by the District Manager who was asking them to try and curb the amount of cursing in the factory.  He was cussing when he asked me “What the * did I want him to do?”  I told him, that I didn’t know, maybe issue some kind of guidelines or something.  I did not suggest that he try and set a better example.  He asked me if I was referring to him, or to the maintenance department when I asked my question?  I told him that I did not have a specific department in mind, but I thought it was a factory-wide attitude and I would most certainly appreciate whatever he could do to address the issue… since the District Manager thought it was important enough to address.  I guess you can feel how I felt that I might have felt persecuted.

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   There is a key to our verse.  The verse says that “those that will live godly.”  I think that a lot of times we as Christians do not experience as much persecution from the world – because we are acting just like them and “misery loves company.”  I have found out that “Misery does not like seeing people who are free!”

   I was reading in Matthew one day and I feel like the Lord showed me something about persecution, that I had not seen before.  There are some verses in the sermon on the mount that I had never connected together before.  The passage is in Matthew 5:38-41 “You have heard it that it was said, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”  But I say to you, do not resist evil. But whoever shall strike you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. And to him desiring to sue you, and to take away your tunic, let him have your coat also. And whoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him too.”

   The Lord showed me that there are at least 3 types of persecution (physical, social, and financial).  Here is the passage again with the categories. 

Physical Persecution:  But whoever shall strike you on your right cheek, turn the

other to him also.

Financial Persecution:  And to him desiring to sue you, and to take away your tunic,

let him have your coat also.

Social Persecution:  And whoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him too.”

The Roman soldiers would often force the Jewish citizens to carry their military pack, so this was a form of social persecution.

   Sometimes we may be suffering from being a Christian, but do not realize it.  For instance, if you are not invited to a party because you are a Christian – then that may be a form of social persecution.  If you do not get a raise like the other people around, you – it may be because you are a Christian.  Since I am a Christian and God has dealt with me about abusing alcohol – I tend to not drink very much.  When people find this out – they assume that I don’t want to be around them socially.  Maybe you have suffered in some of these ways because of your godly convictions and godly behavior.  God bless you as you stand for him regardless of the way that you have been treated.

   In closing – I would like to say that experiencing any form of persecution can be uncomfortable.  I do thank God that we as Christians have not experienced a lot of physical persecution, but regardless of what we may experience – we need to remember the words of the Lord that remind us to rejoice, for great is our reward in heaven.  I think that in the United States, rather than rejoice with persecution, we would rather call a lawyer and the media and whoever else to try and get it to stop.  Maybe not necessarily the most spiritual thing to do!  

 

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Written by Lee Malden  2022

For more information: email lmalden@hotmail.com

 

These are my thoughts today, what do you think?  Please leave me a response or email me and I would be happy to hear your thoughts.