Persecution ought never to strike us as strange...

(Tim) Tonight, family devotions fell in 1Peter 4 and again we read that wonderful exhortation of verse twelve that is destined to become ever more precious to American believers in the coming years:

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you...

Sharing the sufferings of Christ is a great privilege which should cause us to rejoice. But it rarely does. Instead, our normal response is to express shock and horror that things have come to this and to ask, "Whatever happened to our Christian nation?"

It seems clear that, rather than being surprised at persecution, we're to be surprised when it's absent. This is why our Lord warned us, "Beware when all men speak well of you" (Luke 6:26). Having a stellar reputation in this evil day is a good indication that we have not been faithful to the Lord and His Word...

But those who are faithful to the Lord and suffer for it have a wonderful word of comfort from Jesus:

(Jesus said) "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also." (John 15:18-20)

Did the old plastic Bible promise boxes ever have this promise in them?

Yes, any persecutions we suffer in America today seem utterly banal in the light of other places around the world and other times in church history. But we must keep in mind that Jesus promised it's the man who's faithful in little things who will be given larger responsibilities.

Comments

[Melissa]

One of the greatest insights I ever heard on this verse came from a teacher named Ray Vanderlaan, who reminded us of the connection made in 1 Corinthians 12:

13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body . . .
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. . . .
26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

We may not feel very persecuted here in America, but that may be more a symptom of our isolationist view, of our failure to identify ourselves with the global church. When my Chinese, Sudanese, or Indonesian brothers and sisters are persecuted, *I* am being persecuted as well.

[rob]

Persecution is a lot like tickling. Just as you cannot find your own tickle spot, you cannot benefit from homegrown persecution. Otherwise, as Flannery O'Connor has one of her characters behave, we'd all be sleeping in barbed wire and wearing a hair shirt.

That said, there's something wrong with us if we are not being persecuted. And that remains true even if we join a convent or a monastery (read Mother Angelica's bio or Brother Lawrence.)

So what is wrong with being unusually blessed? Because Christ sets before us the only way of salvation, it is his way, the way of the cross. Hebrews tells us that Christ, even the sinless Christ, was perfected through suffering. The greatest blessing Christ bestows comes heavily disguised, as Churchill once remarked, but necessarily so.

Let us then not try to remove the disguise, as if it could be removed, or even increase its popularity (lest we inadvertently promote O'Connor's protagonist), but merely strengthen the weak, those brothers chosen by God to undergo this blessing. The others won't understand anyway.

[Alex Costa]

"that is destined to become ever more precious to American believers in the coming years."

yeah, I could see that being the case.

[Ross]

After reading what goes on in some parts of the world, I could point you to many areas where the church faces significant opposition (as distinct from persecution) and still manages to survive, indeed thrive. Singapore is a case in point.

Real persecution of Christians has happened in America - it seems to have happeed to many of the early Baptists, in particular.

[Jeffrey M.]

Gen 3:15 And "I" will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."

It should also give us comfort that while giving his covenant of grace, he makes it clear that it is God himself that makes certain the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.
Note this; while it is entirely comforting to know the outcome and victory promised the "seed" of the woman, it must also be a blessing to the seed of the woman that there will be enmity between the seeds. Our fallen hearts are prone to wander and seek after the things of this age, but God in his mercy, created enmity between the world and his people to help us cling to him. Ultimately, to be rejected of the world, the way the "seed" was rejected, is one of the signs of being an offspring of the woman.

Jeff