Conclusion
Chapter four
“Ordinary” Christians and Suffering
There is no such thing as “ordinary” Christians, since all of us are born from God’s own Spirit (1 Pet. 1:3, 23; 1 John 3:9). But lest anyone protest that biblical accounts about apostles (chap. 2) and prophets (chap. 3) are irrelevant for them, I need to show why suffering is expected for all believers in Jesus.
God demanded a lot from prophets in times when the culture rejected his values. To protect Jeremiah’s heart for God in the coming time of judgment, God would not let Jeremiah marry (Jer. 16:2). God would not let Ezekiel mourn when his wife died (Ezek. 24:16–18). Hosea probably wished God hadn’t let him marry (see Hosea 1:2). God made Isaiah run around fairly naked and barefoot for a few years (Isa. 20:2–3) and, had his wife not been a prophetess (8:3), she probably would’ve wished she hadn’t married him.
But when a prospective disciple of Jesus wants to just go and say farewell to his family, Jesus says, “No one who looks back after setting his hand to the plow is a good fit for God’s kingdom” (Luke 9:61–62).1 When Elisha is plowing, Elijah calls him to be a disciple. Elisha requests that he first be allowed to say farewell to his family (1 Kings 19:20). By this he means a little farewell party for himself, where he would turn his back on his many fields and post-famine prosperity (see 19:19, 21). Elijah lets him do it (19:20), but Jesus tells a prospective disciple no. Being a disciple of the kingdom is more radical than being the disciple of an Old Testament prophet. Are we ready to follow Jesus wherever he calls?
Generic Suffering
Lest we think that suffering is only for apostles, prophets, or evangelists, Scripture is clear that persecution and various other hardships can strike anyone. As Paul writes,
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” (Rom. 8:35–36 niv modified)
Paul quotes here from Psalm 44:22. Whereas some psalms lament God’s people suffering his judgment, this psalm laments God’s people suffering despite or even because of their faithfulness to him (44:17–18). And whereas the psalmist never saw descendants of the righteous begging for food (Ps. 37:25), Paul in Romans shows that believers, like others, may be caught even in famine. But his list also highlights persecution—my primary focus in the first part of this chapter.
Opposition Is the Norm
One evangelist in India was beaten, driven permanently from his home, and jailed for having shared the gospel. He explains, “Persecution is not an accident. It is the expectation.”2 In some places and periods, the experience is minimal, but we can never take such lulls in history’s storm for granted.
Paul on Persecution
Everyone who wants to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. (2 Tim. 3:12)
After noting his own experiences of persecution known directly to Timothy (2 Tim. 3:11), Paul says he expects this experience to be normal for all followers of Jesus.
For it has been granted to you not only to trust in Christ, but also to suffer on his behalf. (Phil. 1:29)
The Greek term here for “granted” is not the more generic term for “given”; it is a term specifying a gift of grace, of unmerited favor. God gives some of his people the privilege of suffering for Christ. We might translate it as “God has blessed you not just to trust in Christ but also to get to suffer for him.” Paul goes on to say that the Philippians were now experiencing the same sort of suffering they had witnessed him suffer for Christ (Phil. 1:30). Paul had suffered public humiliation, beating, and imprisonment. Perhaps the intensity of their suffering was less, but it was no less real.
To another church Paul wrote that he sent them encouragement to keep them from being distressed by their sufferings:
You know that we are destined for affliction. For even when we were with you, we warned you in advance that we would suffer affliction, even as also it has happened and you can recognize. (1 Thess. 3:3–4)
In his next letter to the same church, Paul praises those who endure through suffering:
Among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. (2 Thess. 1:4–5 niv)
As noted earlier, Paul regularly warned new believers to expect coming affliction, urging them
to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22 niv)
Luke is here summarizing not simply any random speech of Paul’s but the heart of Paul’s message to new believers!
Jesus on Persecution
Jesus had prepared his disciples for the same dangers:
If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. (John 15:18)
Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:28–30 niv)
Some more prosperity-oriented charismatics quote part of this passage to promise a hundredfold return on whatever Christians sacrifice for the kingdom (and sometimes for the charismatic preachers themselves). Yet in light of the rest of Mark’s Gospel (especially 3:31–35), the hundred times as much probably refers to Christians sharing their resources with their displaced fellow Christians (see chaps. 8–9). It should therefore imply that we who are not facing persecution should be partnering with those who are suffering it. Helpful organizations doing this include Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs, Global Christian Relief, and Christian Solidarity International. Additional organizations, such as Compassion International, Salvation Army, World Relief, World Vision, OneChild, Convoy of Hope, and others, help both believers and nonbelievers who face other extreme circumstances.
Preachers who quote only part of the passage have sometimes also been known to leave out the line that promises persecutions (Mark 10:30). Perhaps Peter did not initially pay it much attention either. He noted that he had abandoned everything to follow Jesus, but his “everything” was not quite true—he would soon deny Jesus to save his own life (14:66–72). Yet Peter later, empowered by the Spirit, continued to preach Christ and eventually did give his life for Jesus. The Spirit makes the difference, empowering us with boldness for Christ even in the face of persecution (as in Acts 4:8, 13: “Peter, filled with the Spirit, spoke. . . . When they saw the boldness of Peter and John . . .”). Nor is Spirit-empowered boldness for Peter alone. Acts 4:31 refers in context to the entire assembly:
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke God’s message with boldness.
Thus, for example, Mariam Ibraheem, tortured in Sudan and on trial for her life because of her faith, felt weak in herself. But she experienced the Spirit giving her supernatural boldness whenever she needed to speak for Christ.3
Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. (Mark 4:16–17 niv)
Jesus speaks in Mark 4 of the seed of God’s message sown on four kinds of ground. Not all those who receive the message persevere. Some get distracted by the affairs of this life (4:18–19), and others abandon Christ when they face persecution—like Jesus’s disciples the first time around (14:50). Still others, however, become fruitful (4:20). May we be like the fruitful soil.
Real Faith in Hebrews 11
Charismatics often put an emphasis on trusting all of God’s Word, and that can strengthen the rest of the church—especially our cessationist brothers and sisters who want to relegate much of the New Testament narrative’s theological message to the past. But some of our fellow charismatics are, like cessationists, inappropriately selective. They may highlight only the happier promises, sometimes taking them out of context. Naturally, we pray for the happier outcomes; the Bible provides plenty of models. But faith also entails recognizing the less happy promises.
Some people say that if we have enough faith or righteousness we can avoid such suffering. What does the Bible say? God always does what he says, but he does not always do what we might want him to say. Faith means trusting God—both when he does what we want and when he doesn’t.4
Persevering Faith
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Heb. 11:1 niv)
Some popular teachers, whose teachings have influenced millions of people, have read this affirmation of faith as requiring belief that God will answer immediately: “If it’s not now, it’s not faith!”5 Happily, this approach is less common today, but originally they based this teaching on the word now in Hebrews 11:1. In English grammar, however, now is an adverb, so if the Greek term here meant “now,” it would modify is rather than faith. More important is the fact that the Greek term translated “now” is de, which does not mean “now” in the sense of time (that might have been the Greek word nun). De simply means “but” or “and.” That is, if these popular teachers had even bothered to look up the term in an interlinear Bible, they would have seen that the verse has nothing to do with time.
This is not to deny the value of taking God at his word now. In the Gospels, people usually express their faith in desperate acts rather than simply hoping they will get better someday. The paralyzed man’s friends are ready to tear up a neighbor’s roof to get him to Jesus; Jesus recognizes their action as faith (Mark 2:4–5). The woman with the flow of blood actively touches the hem of Jesus’s garment, despite the scandal of her touching anyone when she is ritually impure (5:25–29). Jesus calls her desperate action faith (5:34). Instead of taking Jesus’s first no for an answer, the Syrophoenician woman humbles herself and explains why just a fragment of Jesus’s power will be enough (7:27–28). In Matthew 15:28, Jesus calls her persistence and confidence in his power faith. Blind Bartimaeus cries out all the more for Jesus when the crowd tries to silence him (Mark 10:48), and Jesus commends his faith also (10:52).
But the kind of faith addressed in Hebrews 11 is not “faith that takes the answer now.” It’s faith that endures, awaiting God’s promise. The entire context shows that it is faith for the long haul.
Faith to Endure for God’s Future Promise
The preceding context is the endurance of faith. After their conversion, the letter’s first audience had suffered insults, confiscation of property, and in some cases imprisonment (Heb. 10:32–34). They had done so because they trusted that in Christ they had a more permanent possession than what they had lost (10:34). “Don’t throw away this confidence!” the author exhorts, since it “has a great reward” (10:35). Instead, his audience needs to hang in there, so that after they have done God’s will, they may receive what God promised (10:36).
When would they receive this reward? Quoting the Old Testament, the author emphasizes that it will be at the Lord’s coming (Heb. 10:37). The righteous are those who persevere for that day in saving faith, rather than shrinking back for destruction (10:38–39). This is the faith that Hebrews 11:1 says provides us certainty even before we see it with our eyes (11:1). The God who formed the world from invisible things (11:3) is true even before the outcome is visible.
This future orientation of faith continues through the rest of the chapter, giving examples of our predecessors in the faith (Heb. 11:2). Thus Abraham relocated in faith, living in tents, without yet experiencing the inheritance of the ultimate promised land—a city built by God (11:8–10). The patriarchs
were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. (11:13 niv)
Here was their positive confession of faith:
[They confessed] that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. . . . They were longing for a better country—a heavenly one, [and God] has prepared a city for them. (Heb. 11:13, 16 NIV)
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons. . . . By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. (Heb. 11:20–22 niv, emphasis mine)
By faith Moses . . . chose to suffer with God’s people rather than to enjoy the short-term benefit of sin. He deemed bearing reproach with Christ better than Egypt’s treasures, because he looked ahead for the reward. (Heb. 11:24–26)
Faith When God Doesn’t Deliver Before Death
Hebrews goes on to summarize other people of faith and their victories in 11:32–34. But the author is not concerned only with victories in this life. He mentions mothers who received back from death children who were raised, presumably in miracles worked through Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17:23; 2 Kings 4:36–37). But then, probably thinking especially of the Maccabean martyrs, he mentions others who were tortured to death, refusing to compromise their faith to secure release. They endured because they looked ahead to a better, more permanent resurrection than what Elijah or Elisha could bring (Heb. 11:35).
Others experienced the testing of mocking and whipping, and further chains and imprisonment. (Heb. 11:36)
Thinking of stories about the prophets, the writer continues,
They were stoned, sawed in two, murdered by sword, traveling around in sheepskins and goatskins, deprived, afflicted, badly treated . . . wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and pits. (Heb. 11:37–38)
That is, these heroes of the faith experienced severe deprivations for their faith. Elijah, for example, spent much time in the wilderness (1 Kings 17:3–7; 19:4). When Jezebel killed prophets, others had to hide in caves (18:4). Joash had Zechariah stoned (2 Chron. 24:21). Later Jewish tradition says Isaiah’s persecutors sawed him in half.6 In the midst of the list of sufferings, the author adds,
The world was not worthy of them. (Heb. 11:38)
They belonged to a better world than this present one.
But while God commended the faith of all of them, none of them—including the earlier heroes in the chapter—received the perfected promise (Heb. 11:39) of the coming city (11:10, 16; 12:22; 13:14) and resurrection bodies (11:35). These remain in the future.
The original Bible had no chapter breaks; in Hebrews 12:1 the writer mentions the great cloud of those who testified for their faith and calls again for endurance. But then the writer turns to the ultimate hero of the faith:
Jesus, the forerunner and completer of the faith. (Heb. 12:2)
Jesus also modeled faith for us by enduring in the present because of confidence in future reward:
For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:2 niv)
Jesus himself was made perfect through sufferings (Heb. 2:10). By considering what Jesus endured, we can strengthen our own resolve to endure (12:3).
Unlike many of those the author has mentioned, including Jesus, Hebrews’ first audience had
not yet resisted to the point that your blood has been shed. (Heb. 12:4)
So what, the author asks, do they really have to complain about? God sees our suffering, the author assures us, but God uses this suffering like benevolent parental discipline, to make us better (12:5–11). God’s discipline for us is not abusive, but an act of love for our good, so we may share his holiness (12:10; compare Rev. 3:19).
Testing and Trials
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1 Cor. 10:13 niv)
It will be well for anyone who endures testing, because after proving faithful in the test they will receive the award of life that God promised to those who love him. (James 1:12)
Loved ones, don’t think strange the fiery burning that comes to test you, as if something strange were happening to you. (1 Pet. 4:12)
We can stand firmly, even stubbornly, on God’s Word; Abraham and Moses appealed to God’s character and promises until God answered them (Gen. 18:23–32; Exod. 32:10–14; 33:12–17). The Gospels present as models those so sure that Jesus could help them that they refused to let any obstacle deter them from getting his help (e.g., Mark 2:4; 5:27; 7:28; 10:48; John 2:4–5). Yet Scripture taken as a whole promises not only blessings but also hardship, and even the blessings get tested.
Testing to Prove Versus Testing to Trip Up
In the Bible, both the wicked and the righteous may suffer, but the wicked may experience suffering as judgment whereas the righteous experience it as testing.
“The Lord tests both the righteous and the wicked,” the psalmist observes (Ps. 11:5). English Bibles sometimes speak of “trials” or “testing” or “tempting”; these reflect the same terminology in Greek. The Greek words for the verb (peirazō) and noun (peirasmos) refer to putting us to the test, but the motives for such testing may vary, depending on who is testing us. A hard professor may test students at a high level to raise the standard and help them to excel; or (in principle) a mean professor could test them with the objective of flunking them. The Bible speaks of both kinds of testing, the former characterizing God and the latter characterizing the devil (“the tempter,” Matt. 4:3; 1 Thess. 3:5) and people like him.
James says that God does not test us (James 1:13–14), in this case meaning that he, unlike the devil, does not seek to make us fall (“tempt” us). Scripture does claim that God tests us, but it is in a different sense; his interest is in solidifying our faith through us enduring the test, strengthening our faith muscles by forcing us to exercise them. God is sovereignly at work even when evil is testing us (e.g., Deut. 13:3), but God’s purpose is different from the devil’s. God sometimes visibly sorts out those who are his, and proves to the world and the devil that some really do model the faith that others should have had (compare Job 1:8, 12; 2:3, 6). Those who endure may rise up at the judgment and render the rebellious without excuse (compare Matt. 12:41–42; Luke 11:31–32).
Jesus warns us to pray that God won’t lead us into testing (Matt. 6:13; Luke 11:4), but he is not implying that we won’t be tested. Jesus himself faced testing. Rather, the point is that we won’t fall when tested. Jesus uses the same wording later, when he warns his disciples in Gethsemane, “Stand watch and pray, so you won’t come into testing. Your hearts are willing, but your flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). When Jesus said these words, testing—in the form of the arrest party—was already on its way up the hill. The point was not that they could escape being tested but that they would be ready so as not to fall. Jesus watched and prayed that night, and he was ready when his test arrived. His disciples fell asleep instead of watching and praying, and they were caught unprepared.
Passing Our Tests
God may test our faith as we await the fulfillment of what he has shown us. God refined Joseph like this (Ps. 105:19). God sometimes tests us to show what we are truly made of (Deut. 13:3; Judg. 2:22; 3:1, 4; 2 Chron. 32:31; Jer. 17:10; 20:12). As Mariam Ibraheem learned during her imprisonment for Christ, “Our faith cannot truly be revealed to us until it is tested, and it is not tested during good times.”7
Abraham passed his ultimate test (Gen. 22:1–19); Israel in the wilderness failed their tests multiple times (Exod. 15:25; 16:4; Ps. 81:7). When God tests us to humble us, though, it is for our good (Deut. 8:2, 16). The psalmist sometimes even invited God to demonstrate the psalmist’s righteousness by God’s testing the psalmist (Pss. 17:3; 26:2; 139:23),8 though he probably meant something more like a spiritual CT scan than the kind of testing Job experienced!
These testings are meant to prove the genuineness of your trust in God. Even though fire proves the genuineness of gold, gold is perishable. But your trust in God is worth far more than gold. The result of such unalloyed trust in God will be praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed! (1 Pet. 1:7)
Sometimes we might read 1 Peter 1:7 as if it were saying that our faith is more precious than perishable gold. In Greek, however, it is clear that Peter says that the testing of our faith is what is more precious than gold. Anything mortal may perish in fire, but faith tested by fire is proven and will not fall away; it is like those in 1 Peter 4:1 who have suffered for Christ and proven sturdy enough to persevere:
Whoever has suffered in the flesh has given up sin.
As something more precious than gold, faith-testing is in good company, alongside God’s Word and wisdom (Ps. 119:127; Prov. 3:14; 8:19).
Commenting on 1 Peter 1, church father Athanasius, a leading defender of the Trinity, explains: “Rather than being hurt by what they went through, they grew and were made better, shining like gold that has been refined in a fire.”9 Testing ideally produces pure metal (Ps. 66:10; Prov. 17:3; Isa. 48:10; Zech. 13:9), and God desires to make a precious masterpiece of us. Another church father, Hilary of Arles, remarked, “The glory of the redeemed will never fade after they have been raised from the dead, for it will have withstood the fire of temptation, whereas the gold of this world is said to rust.”10
Jesus’s Testing
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Heb. 2:18)
For we don’t have a high priest who’s unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who was tested in every way like we are—except without sinning. (Heb. 4:15)
Jesus faced testing at various times (Luke 22:28). One of the most obvious times occurred after the heavenly voice announced Jesus’s calling and before Jesus entered his public ministry. I would think forty days without eating (Matt. 4:2; Luke 4:2) would be testing enough, but Satan then tried to get the famished Jesus to use his power to feed himself by turning stones into bread (Matt. 4:3; Luke 4:3). At one point Satan even quotes Scripture out of context to try to manipulate Jesus (Matt. 4:6; Luke 4:10–11). It’s no surprise that Satan also uses Scripture selectively today. (Incidentally, Satan may have often heard the verses he quotes here, Ps. 91:11–12; that psalm was a favorite among ancient exorcists!) Jesus, by contrast, responds to testing consistently by quoting Scripture in appropriate ways, making an analogy between his forty days of testing in the wilderness and the forty years that Israel experienced testing in the wilderness.
After God declares Jesus his Son (Matt. 3:17; Luke 3:22; compare Luke 3:38), Satan challenges Jesus’s sonship: “So, you’re God’s Son? Then do this . . .” (Matt. 4:3, 6; Luke 4:3, 9). Satan challenges what God has said (compare Gen. 3:3–5). But Jesus responds by appealing to a passage where God treated Israel as his son (Deut. 8:5). There God teaches Israel that they should live by his promise rather than by mere bread (Deut. 8:3); as God’s Son, Jesus therefore depends on his Father to provide for him. When the devil suggests that Jesus throw himself from the temple and wait for angels to catch him, Jesus responds with a nearby passage, Deuteronomy 6:16. Israel had tested God at Massah by refusing to trust his provision (Exod. 17:7); Jesus quotes the verse that warns them against testing God again. Jesus again depends on his Father to provide for him; and after the testing, God does indeed send angels to take care of Jesus (Matt. 4:11).
But the devil’s third offer in Matthew might be the most insidious: If Jesus worships Satan, Satan will let him rule the world (Matt. 4:9; Luke 4:7). Jesus, of course, will rule the world anyway. But God’s way to the kingdom is costlier, passing through the cross, and Satan offers Jesus the world without the cross. Jesus knows better and refuses, mining again the same context (this time just three verses away, in Deut. 6:13; Jesus knows context). Jesus commands Satan to depart (Matt. 4:10).
Satan is not acting subtly here. But what happens when your best friend, your handpicked student, suggests the same thing as Satan, just more subtly? Right after Jesus commends Peter as a rock for recognizing Jesus as Christ the king (Matt. 16:18), Peter protests that Jesus’s kingdom can’t include suffering (16:22). We then get a rerun of Jesus’s rebuke to Satan in Matthew 4:10. “Go behind me, Satan!” Jesus tells Peter that he has now gone from being a good rock (16:18) to being a bad rock, a stumbling block (16:23). Testing can strike even from unexpected angles.
Some Places Harder Than Others
Jesus warned that we will be hated by all nations (Matt. 10:22; 24:9)—that is, all the world (Mark 13:13; John 15:18). That does not mean, however, that every place will hate us equally at all times. Christians in Corinth experienced relatively little hostility at a time when Macedonian Christians in Philippi and Thessalonica were enduring much (Phil. 1:29–30; 1 Thess. 1:6; 3:4).
The outcome of suffering also differs from place to place: James was beheaded (Acts 12:2), yet Peter was miraculously released (12:7–10). Although it’s possible that prayer made a difference in Peter’s case (12:5, 12), sometimes the difference is just a matter of God’s plan. Jesus promised Philadelphian Christians deliverance from their suffering: “Because you have obeyed my command to endure, I’ll also protect you from the hour of testing” (Rev. 3:10). By contrast, he warns Christians in Smyrna that their suffering is about to get worse: “Don’t fear the things you’re about to suffer. Look, the devil’s going to cast some of you into prison so you will be tested, and you’ll face affliction for ten days. Stay faithful until death, and I’ll give you the award of life” (Rev. 2:10). God would preserve Philadelphia’s Christians in hardship but would not prevent Smyrna’s Christians from facing death.
The modern Western world and past Western colonial regimes (despite their severe failings) have sometimes protected Christians or offered a measure of religious freedom, leaving a legacy in which such protection is seen as a right. (This despite growing anti-religious sentiment in some of Western culture today, and despite the fact that past Western colonialists often repressed missionaries and especially some indigenous Christian movements.)11 Many of the cultures that emphasize hospitality also value tolerance. But not everyone everywhere today shares these perspectives; evil prevails more in some places than in others (e.g., Ps. 12:8; Prov. 29:12).
The modern Western legacy of religious freedom should not blind us to global realities. I discuss persecution more extensively in chapter 6. Like Peter during Jesus’s arrest, some of us Christians in the United States might want to defend Jesus or ourselves with a worldly sword (John 18:10)—without which we would rather flee or follow only from afar. But Jesus calls true disciples to pick up not a sword but our cross to follow him (Mark 8:34; compare Matt. 26:52). This is not to deny the importance of speaking for justice (e.g., Mark 12:38–40; James 5:1–6), including for ourselves (compare Luke 22:48; John 18:23; Acts 23:3). In the final analysis, though, the one thing we can always control is not how others treat us but how faithfully we follow Jesus.
Many cultures even disdain Christianity as a Western import—even though Jesus birthed his movement in western Asia (in the Middle East) and an estimated 80 percent “of the most active Christians” in today’s world live outside the West.12 Some plausibly suggest that church attendance may be higher in China today than in all of western Europe put together.13 Jihadists attacked the home of my acquaintance, Bishop Benjamin Kwashi, who soon after became Anglican archbishop of Jos, Nigeria. He complains that Islamists treat the African church as a convenient scapegoat and proxy for the West.14 Yet Christians flourished in much of what is now the Muslim world before the birth of Islam—for example, in Persia (Iran) from the second century onward.15 Egypt, Syria, and Turkey were strongly Christian, and Christian faith remained strong in many of these lands into the late Middle Ages16 and early twentieth century17 (and in Egypt even today). The western Asian kingdom of Armenia (AD 301) and the eastern African kingdom of Axum (330s–350s) became Christian before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire (380).18
Because most Western Christians right now do not face imprisonment or death for their faith, in contrast to many early Christians, I will defer models of major persecution for chapter 6. Those who are severely persecuted, too, are ordinary Christians. But in less conspicuous ways, at least in most of the West, we are aware of some non-Christians’ prejudice against us for our faith. (Indeed, most religious and cultural minorities experience prejudice, although this book’s focus is on Christians.) Our suffering isn’t always due to our faith, though; we as believers often suffer the same things other people do so they can see our distinctive, eternal confidence. If Christians never suffered, the world would convert for the wrong reasons, and their conversions might dissolve when they are tempted (compare perhaps the situation envisioned in Rev. 20:7–8). Paul’s “trouble or hardship or . . . famine or being poorly clothed” (Rom. 8:35) includes facing difficulties beyond those provoked by our faith. It’s a supreme blessing to be human, but part of being human is hardship. We undoubtedly have much to learn from our brothers and sisters who suffer more than we do (again, more of their lessons appear in chap. 6).
Ridicule
Sometimes hatred is expressed simply in ridicule (e.g., Ps. 44:16), something most of us have experienced for various reasons, not least for our faith. (In the US, this may vary by region and social groupings.) Scripture treats this experience as normal, and warns us not to respond in kind but rather to be gentle.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. (Matt. 5:11 niv)
Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. (Luke 6:22 NIV)
When we are verbally abused, we bless. (1 Cor. 4:12 NASB)
Behave well among the gentiles. That way, those who slander you as wrongdoers for something may see your good works and honor God on the day when he comes. (1 Pet. 2:12)
Don’t pay back wrong for wrong. Don’t answer an insult with another insult—instead, bless your mockers! Because God called you for this lifestyle, so that you would inherit blessing. (1 Pet. 3:9)
They’re amazed that you don’t join them in their wasteful excesses. That’s why they say terrible things about you. (1 Pet. 4:4)
In this we follow the model of our Lord:
When others abused him verbally, he didn’t abuse them back. When he was suffering, he didn’t threaten his abusers. Instead he handed himself over to the one who judges justly. (1 Pet. 2:23)
People make fun of others for many reasons, especially now that they can do so anonymously online. Before I was a Christian, some people thought I was strange because I was an atheist (and others thought I was strange just because I actually am, well . . . idiosyncratic). So after I became a Christian, it didn’t surprise me too much that many people thought I was strange because I was a Christian. I made fun of Christians when I was an atheist, and when I became a Christian some people made fun of me; in that sense I knew what I was getting myself into. With some notable and appreciated exceptions, non-Christian acquaintances avoided hanging out with me because they couldn’t put up with my incessant talk about Jesus! But by standards of suffering in the world, this is extremely mild.
A larger problem is when we and therefore our message get misrepresented because of people’s prejudices. It is heartbreaking when others twist our diligent labors for the gospel to misrepresent it. People sometimes misrepresent the gospel as racist, sexist, imperialist, greedy, or abusive. Some people who claim to be Christians do misrepresent the Christian faith in these ways, and then others—through stereotyping and slander—paint all Jesus’s followers with the same brush.
Yet even this is not unexpected, though we labor however possible to challenge the misconceptions. Paul had to endure misrepresentation and slander, putting up
with honor and dishonor, with negative press and good press. (2 Cor. 6:8)
Sadly, some misrepresentations come from fellow believers. Many Jerusalemite believers zealous for the law had heard that Paul taught Jews to abandon their ancestral, biblical customs (Acts 21:20–21). Some people even twisted his preaching of God’s forgiveness and charged that he supported sinning (Rom. 3:8)! Similarly, some of Jesus’s critics twisted his transformational welcome for sinners to claim that he supported their sin (Mark 2:15–17; see also Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34). Some even represented him as forbidding paying taxes to Caesar (Luke 23:2)—despite his earlier public statement to the contrary when they bothered to ask (Luke 20:24–25)!
Jesus promised:
You are blessed when people insult you and throw out your name as evil. (Luke 6:22)
Sometimes those hostile to God’s message enlist compromised members of God’s own people to make common cause with them (e.g., 2 Kings 18:22), as when atheist skeptics recruit Christian skeptics to help undermine the message. When others slander us, we can turn only to God, who puts everything else in the right perspective (Pss. 31:13–14; 119:69, 78, 86; 120:2–4). God has our back, and his honor will be vindicated in the end (compare Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:35). In the 1800s, local malicious slander endangered Hudson Taylor’s group of missionaries in China, followed by misrepresentation in the British press. But God protected their mission.19 In the former Soviet Bloc, government propaganda exploited both false accusations20 and real cases of fallen or weak Christians21 in trying to discredit the gospel. In one case in Tajikistan, misrepresentation in local media led first to more inquirers about the gospel, but then to the church planter’s martyrdom. That in turn, however, precipitated the conversion of the martyr’s son.22 In Egypt, local gossip distorted a church’s teaching as insulting Muhammad, leading some five thousand people to surround the church; several people were killed and ninety injured.23 Slander obviously continues today—even if we could otherwise forget, every election season in the US would remind us!
Conclusion
We have already looked at apostles, prophets, and “ordinary” Christians. Now let’s look more at the hero who climaxes the list of faith heroes in Hebrews 11:4–12:3: Jesus, the author and finisher of the faith, whom Hebrews offers as the supreme model for enduring suffering (12:1–3).
1 One cannot plow a straight furrow when looking backward. Right after this, Jesus sends out laborers for his kingdom (Luke 10:1–2).
2 Nettleton, When Faith Is Forbidden, 71–72.
3 Ibraheem with Bach, Shackled, 153, 175, 207.
4 Compare Hagin, Prayer Secrets, 22: “The offering was about $20 short of what we had claimed. I suggested that we count it again, because the money had to be there, for we had claimed it. I told him . . . that if it were not there, then I would have to go to every church where I had preached and tell them that Jesus was a liar and that the Bible was not so. If it did not work, I wanted to throw it away. I am just that honest.” What if the problem was not the Bible or the intensity of his faith, but his interpretation of the Bible? Despite the wording here, in practice Hagin would have found a different explanation rather than throwing out the Bible. Sometimes his expectation was not effective immediately (see, e.g., Hagin, Prevailing Prayer to Peace, 75).
5 Hagin, What Faith Is, 3–4, 6, 12, 18, 20, 30; Hagin, Thresholds, 11; Hagin, in The Word of Faith (March 1983), 3.
6 Lives of the Prophets 1:1 (Charlesworth, OTP 2:385/§24; Schermann, p. 75, line 1); Jerusalem Talmud tractate Sanhedrin 10:2, §6; Pesiqta Rabbati 4:3; Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 120; Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah 5:1–14; Urbach, Sages, 1:559. Compare the gentile story in Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.758–76; for sawing apart as a punishment, Suetonius, Caligula 27.3; Genesis Rabbah 65:22; possibly (though the consensus of translations is against it) 2 Sam. 12:31; 1 Chron. 20:3.
7 Ibraheem with Bach, Shackled, 209.
8 Some have even prayed for suffering to help them grow (Voice of Martyrs, Hearts of Fire 2, 291); but testing comes easily enough, and overconfidence (Mark 10:38–39; 14:31) can lead us to underestimate our frailty (14:50, 66–72). Compare again Matt. 6:13; Luke 11:4.
9 Athanasius, Festal Letters 10 (Bray, Peter, 71).
10 Hilary of Arles, Commentary on 1 Peter (Bray, Peter, 71–72).
11 Sanneh, West African Christianity, 36, 167, 181–83; Isichei, Christianity in Africa, 233; Noll, History, 341.
12 Marshall, Gilbert, and Shea, Persecuted, 5. For the Christian movement’s origination in Asia, see, e.g., Keener, “Asia and Europe”; see also discussion in Keener, “Western Religion.”
13 Marshall, Gilbert, and Shea, Persecuted, 16, although they offered this estimate before some newer restrictions in China.
14 Shortt, Christianophobia, 117. See further Boyd, Bomb; Sanusi, Gloria.
15 Shortt, Christianophobia, 51.
16 E.g., Iraq, in Shortt, Christianophobia, 37.
17 E.g., Turkey, especially before the Armenian genocide (compare, e.g., Shortt, Christianophobia, 87, especially 91, where they remained at 13 percent in the early twentieth century).
18 Regarding Axum, see, e.g., Rufinus, Ecclesiastical History, book 1; Isaac, Ethiopian Church, 20; Jones and Monroe, History of Ethiopia, 26–31; Isichei, Christianity in Africa, 18, 31.
19 Taylor and Taylor, Secret, 141–45.
20 Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ (2023), 88, 90; see also Wurmbrand, Wife, 41, 62.
21 Wurmbrand, Wife, 185–87.
22 Voice of Martyrs, Hearts of Fire 2, 187–93. For other cases of slanderous misrepresentation, see, e.g., 204–5.
23 Shortt, Christianophobia, 13.