The story of the young Roman mother Vibia Perpetua and her servant
2. COURAGE TO BELIEVE
The story of the young Roman mother Vibia Perpetua and her servant Felicitas – who lived in the city of Carthage in North Africa around AD 200 – is one of the most inspiring in Christian history. Although she was only twenty-two years old and was living in an antiChristian society, Perpetua had the courage to believe when many had lost hope and she was willing to pay the ultimate price for her belief. A recent convert and a new mother, Perpetua was also well-educated and left the first known diary of a Christian woman and a firsthand account of her own experience leading up to her martyrdom.
When the Emperor Septimius Severus (AD 145-211) attempted to obliterate Christianity, which he believed undermined Roman patriotism, he focused his attention on North Africa, which had become a center of the Christian faith. Among the first to be arrested were five new converts taking classes to prepare for baptism, one of whom was Perpetua.
When Perpetua and her servant Felicitas were arrested and thrown in prison, her father came to her and begged her to renounce her faith for her own sake, for her new baby, and for her parents. Although this was a heart-wrenching situation, Perpetua famously replied, "My father … you see this pitcher. Can we call it by any other name than what it is?" When her father replied "No," Perpetua said "Nor can I call myself by any other name than that of Christian."
In her diary, Perpetua tells us about the prison: "I had never known such darkness … There was great heat because of the closeness of the air, there was cruel handling by the soldiers. Lastly I was tormented by concern for my baby." When Christian friends bribed the prison guards to let Perpetua see her family and child, they brought her baby to her and she was able to nurse him. Concentrating not on her own situation, but that of her family, she tells us "And being concerned for [my baby], I spoke to my mother and strengthened my brother and entrusted my son to them. I was sad because I saw they pined for my sake."
Others recorded that when she was taken to the arena where executions were performed Perpetua refused, as a Christian, to offer a sacrifice to the emperor and was duly condemned to die. Bound in nets, Perpetua and her servant were exposed to an enraged bull, which charged and tossed them for the enjoyment of the crowd. When the people had finally seen enough of the torture and the arena guards came to finish
them, the Christians kissed one another with the kiss of peace and without flinching faced the swords.
Perpetua's name in Latin means "everlasting" and that of her servant Felicitas means "happiness," and there is no doubt that these courageous women gained exactly these things beyond this life. But their story is only one of countless others that tell of individuals, families, and sometimes whole communities who, down through history, have had the courage to believe despite the cost they knew they might have to pay.
In many parts of the world today, the situation is no better, of course. Persecution of Christians and the need for the courage to believe is just as real now as it was in the days of the Roman arenas. The story of Vibia Perpetua and Felicitas, as well as many others, are linked across the centuries and around the world. In some cases, in his wisdom, God has allowed believers to be killed; in other situations he has protected them. But in every case, God made it possible for his people to have the courage to believe just as Jesus himself promised: "In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!" (John 16:33 BSB).
It is the knowledge that Jesus overcame the world (Colossians 2:15) and death (2 Timothy 1:10), and that through him we may also overcome these things, that can give us the courage to believe no matter what the cost. The apostle Paul spoke of that same courage and the certainty it gives the believer when he wrote that we can believe "without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you," knowing "that you will be saved – and that by God" (Philippians 1:28). "Therefore," Paul tells us, "since we have such a hope, we are very bold" (2 Corinthians 3:12).
The Courage to Live Our Beliefs Fortunately, in most countries today, Christians do not have to risk dying for their beliefs. But wherever we live, we still need the courage to believe in a great many areas of life. Perhaps we need this courage when we face resistance, ridicule, or rejection for our beliefs from family members, coworkers, or others, or for some other reason. It is probably true that most Christians find some need for courage to accept and maintain their beliefs at some point in their lives. That is why the Psalms tell us to "Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the LORD" (Psalm 31:24 NASB, emphasis added). All who look to God need to have courage!
Of course, when we talk about the courage to believe, we mean the strength to follow through on what we believe. It takes little or no courage to simply believe what we come to see is true (James 2:19). The courage is needed to act on our beliefs – to live them. But we are given encouragement for this. If we think about it, many of the stories in the Bible are about individuals overcoming their fears and both believing and acting on what they knew was the right thing to do.
In the Old Testament, consider the story of Abraham, whom God told to leave his homeland, his people, and his family and to go to a distant land that God promised to give to him (Genesis 12:1-2). Despite the many dangers of this journey, Abraham went (Hebrews 11:8). And when God later tested Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, Abraham obeyed again (Genesis 22:1-19). But Abraham's obedience was based on his belief – he believed that God would give him the land he promised, and that God would resurrect Isaac if necessary. As the apostle James tells us, "You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did" (James 2:22). In other words, through courage, Abraham's belief was put into action.
We find another example of the courage to live what we believe in the talented young Jewish captive Daniel who rose to an important level in the government of the Persian king Cyrus. When other government officials jealously tried to destroy him by outlawing prayer to all but the king, we are told that: "when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before" (Daniel 6:610). You already know the rest of this story – how Daniel was protected in the den of lions and was restored by Cyrus (Daniel 6:13-28). Daniel obviously had the courage to live by his beliefs in these trying circumstances – and to do so openly.
We are told of individuals who grew in this kind of courage. The story of Joseph of Arimathea, the man who buried Jesus after his crucifixion, that we looked at briefly in the last chapter is a great example. All four gospels record that story, but each gospel gives only a part of the picture. Matthew 27:57 tells us that Joseph was a rich man who came to believe in Jesus. Mark 15:43 records that Joseph was also a member of the Sanhedrin Council that tried Jesus. Luke 23:51-53 adds that Joseph "had not consented to their decision and action" in condemning Jesus and continues to tell us that Joseph "went to Pilate to ask for the body of
Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had yet been laid." Matthew's Gospel (27:60) notes that this was Joseph's own tomb that he had prepared for himself. But John 19:38 adds a crucial detail to this story – that although he was a disciple of Jesus, Joseph had believed, but "secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders."
Although Joseph had been afraid to publicly acknowledge his belief during Jesus' ministry, yet with Jesus' death Joseph found the courage not only to override the desire to fit in with his colleagues and friends among his own people, but also to ask the Roman governor Pilate for the body of someone the Romans had executed as a rebel and an enemy of the emperor. As we saw, Joseph's courage also inspired Nicodemus – another individual who had been a secret believer in Jesus – to act openly on his belief (John 19:39-40). It is a story that can encourage us, also. Even if we have a track record of not being particularly brave, believers like Joseph of Arimathea show us that we too can find and take courage if we find the right motivation.
The Source of Courageous Belief But what is the source of the kind of courage displayed by so many heroes of the faith both in biblical times and beyond? The Bible does not tell us directly, but through careful reading of the accounts, looking at what is recorded of these people, and seeing what the Bible tells us elsewhere, it is not difficult to answer this question. The key to courageous belief is simply the desire to obey God. This was clearly a powerful factor for Abraham and for Daniel. Both had been told God's will – Abraham directly and Daniel through the Mosaic law – and there is a connection between belief and obedience. The great theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer perceptively noted this when he said that because someone would not obey, he could not believe. At some level what we do not obey we do not believe, and of course, this works both ways: what we do not believe, we do not obey.
The good news is that obedience to God requires belief and courage, but it also builds belief and courage! We see this in something God told Joshua: "Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go" (Joshua 1:7). We need to be courageous to obey, but when we do obey, we find successes that give us
further confidence. The courageous deeds of Abraham and Daniel did not occur in a vacuum – they came after ongoing obedience and growth of the desire to obey God. That is not to say that the desire was entirely their own; they may have been helped in this by God.
Physically and humanly, we can have a certain desire for obedience to God, but God gives the desire to us in a purer form and to a much greater degree. In the Psalms, we see David asking God for exactly this: "Give me an eagerness for your laws " (Psalm 119:36 NLT), and the apostle Paul tells us "for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose" (Philippians 2:13). The New Living Translation makes this a little clearer: "For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." In other words, God gives us the desire and the courage to act on what we believe – we need only ask him and then trust him.
Such was the confidence of Vibia Perpetua. On the morning of the day of her execution, she wrote the last entry in her diary: "And I awoke, and I understood that I should fight, not with beasts but against the devil; but I knew that the victory would be mine." If we, like Perpetua, have a great enough desire to obey God, he gives us the courage to do so. Our obedience brings the encouragement and strength of the Spirit of God.