In 2006 I was preparing to teach a college course called ‘New Testament Introduction’. Could I find an essay topic which would induce students to survey the whole New Testament? Was anything not covered in their other courses, but relevant for their future work in world mission? There was. So I designed this title:
What do the writers of the New Testament teach their readers about how they should live the Christian life under persecution?
At first some students were worried that they would not find enough for a 1500 word essay. And there wasn’t much in the library to help them either. But they soon found themselves overwhelmed with material. One student turned her assignment into a 6,000 word project. In later years I reduced the scope of the essay by including the words ‘in the epistles and the book of Revelation’. Nine years later awareness of persecution has grown and students know that some who sit in the classroom today are likely to face violence. Now the library has plenty of helpful books and the college is adding a new course to the curriculum on ‘Persecution and Suffering’.
How would you deal with this essay title?
The early Christians were persecuted
As they followed the Lord Jesus, the disciples already shared some of his rejection (Matt. 10:14; Luke 5:27-32; John 6:66-68). Even though the Twelve fled at his arrest, some disciples observed his greater sufferings and death (John 19:25-27, 35). They all realised that they were potential sharers in his sufferings (Mark 14:31).
Acts records opposition and violence from officials (5:40; 16:22f) and mobs (17:5; 19:29), in both Palestine (6:12) and the other countries of the Roman Empire (14:19; 18:12). Violent actions were committed against individual Christians (7:58; 12:2f) and whole communities (8:1). Some of the epistles were written in prison (Phil. 1:13; 2 Tim. 1:8). Most others mentioned the sufferings of the receiving churches (1 Thess. 2:14). Revelation was written to seven suffering churches (Rev. 2:3, 10), at least one of which had lost a member to violent death (Rev. 2:13).
Christians should expect persecution
I wonder if we all have a blind spot on persecution as we read the Bible. It’s as if we filter it out from even the best known passages. We love the Beatitudes but miss the last one, even though it is the only one that Jesus develops into a double statement (Matt. 5:10-12). Jesus says that being reviled and persecuted is as much a mark of being an heir of the kingdom of heaven as is being poor in spirit (compare verses 3 and 10).
We love the picture of the Vine in John 15, apart from the uncomfortable line on pruning. Then we stop reading at the great statement on love in v.17, ignoring the contrast in the following verse – ‘if the world hates you…’.
We follow a well-worn path to 2 Timothy 3:15-17 for our doctrine of Scripture and ignore the persecution that Paul foresees in v.12 for ‘all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus’. There are similar warnings in Acts 14:22; 1 Thessalonians 3:3f; 1 Peter 2:21; 4:12-14.
And of course Revelation has been a happy hunting ground for all sorts of theories developed in comfortable Christian homes and expounded in the safety of Christian meetings. But it was written to persecuted churches by an exiled apostle, ‘your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus’ (Rev. 1:9).
How Christians should live under persecution
In John 15:18-16:4 the Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples how to respond to persecution:
- with foreknowledge. ‘I have said all these things to you,’ says Jesus, ‘to keep you from falling away’ (16:1). ‘Know,’ he had said in v.18. ‘Remember,’ he added in v.20 and 16:4. Keep in mind that this happened to Jesus and it will happen to you. Forewarned is forearmed. Be warned by the people in the parable of the sower who fall away ‘when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word’ (Mark 4:17).
- with love (v.17). How sad that in our churches we often know each other well enough to criticise faults, but not well enough to sympathise with each other’s pain and burdens. Support each other, wrote James, don’t grumble (James 5:8-10). And don’t forget the most amazing command of the Lord Jesus, to love even our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44).
- with hope (vv.18-20). There are at least three grounds for hope in time of persecution.
- First, God foresees all of this trouble and it happens under his sovereign control. In verse 25 Jesus quotes from the experience of David 1,000 years before.
- Second, the Lord has made us great promises for both now and eternity, even calling on persecuted believers to ‘rejoice and be glad’ (Matt. 5:10-12; 2 Tim. 2:12).
- Third, one of the greatest persecutors in church history was later converted (1 Cor. 15:9; Phil. 3:6). We don’t know if the very person who is breathing threats and slaughter against us is already feeling the pangs of conscience which will bring him to Christ.
- with Jesus as our example (v.20). Are we tempted to yield under pressure to save ourselves from pain or humiliation? Remember then that Jesus ‘endured the cross, despising the shame’ (Heb. 12:2). Are we riled by hostility and injustice? Remember that ‘when he was reviled, he did not revile in return’ (1 Peter 2:23).
- without a cause (v.25). There is a note of caution here, which the apostle Peter develops in 1 Peter 2:18-25. We are not to complain about being persecuted if we bring trouble on ourselves by bad behaviour, unreliable work or foolish words.
Well, that’s a brief survey of the New Testament. Now, I suggest you read the Old Testament and answer the same question.