Persecution If all of us would understand how persecution affects badly our lives. It dehumanises us but there is hope in what the bible explains about it. For instance if we follow the way early Christians were persecuted,Persecution is the suffering or pressure, mental, moral, or physical, which authorities, individuals, or crowds inflict on others, especially for opinions or beliefs, with a view to their subjection by recantation, silencing, or, as a last resort, execution.1 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (1 Cor. 15:9).2 For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it (Gal. 1:13). “By his own repeated account, Paul’s first relation to the young Christian movement was that of a persecutor.”3 Paul understood the limitless bounds of grace, mercy, and love to the degree that he knew he was not deserving of them because he persecuted the church. Paul must have been rent with emotion when he realized that in his zeal to serve God, he was actually attacking Him. As a Jew, Paul surely remembered how confident he felt about what he was doing and how he thought that surely God must have been on his side to help destroy the Church. He also remembered how God struck him with blindness and stopped him before he had time to do any extensive damage. There must have been some question why God would take someone who was opposing him and make him an example of suffering to others. Paul felt greatly humbled by the Lord because according to every human standard God had every right to utterly destroy him. Paul did not deserve the grace which God showed him, nor did Paul deserve to be counted among the righteous; however, God, in His magnificent wisdom and grace chose Paul to be his representative. Paul’s life would now be an example to Christians everywhere of the suffering which would come upon many in the Church for the sake of Christ. Indeed, Paul was one of the most persecuted Christians of all time. Paul’s attitude toward suffering would set the stage for many who would come after him. He became an example of living and dying for Christ, both in conduct and in attitude. He taught that Christians should have the same attitude that Christ Himself had, to be “obedient to the point of death” (Phil. 2:8). In Paul’s mind (as well as many Christians who followed), he knew that to live life meant he had to live it for the Lord, but to die for the Lord only meant that there would be gain – gain in the sense that he would be with the Lord Jesus and there would be no more sorrow, tears, pain, and all of the old things would pass away and all things would become new as he entered into the kingdom of heaven. May the Lord break the chains that are persecuting our spirits,Amen
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 00:39:04 +0000
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