Suffering With Purpose

“But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.” (Mr 13:9 AV)

One wonders what purpose God has for the suffering of His children.  One of them we notice above.  Jesus is warning His followers that persecution is inevitable.  If the LORD can do all things, certainly He can stop this.  If the LORD chooses to, He could stop all persecution.  In fact, He will during the millennial reign.  Right now, however, the LORD has asked His saints to endure persecution. But not without a purpose.  It is this purpose upon which we need to meditate.

The purpose is stated clearly, but the intimation is not.  The purpose for this persecution is to be a witness or a testimony against those who would persecute.  What this intimates, however, is a responsibility on our part.  Persecution is promised as part of our walk with Christ.  It cannot be avoided if we choose to walk with God.  What it requires is a willingness to endure this persecution with the right attitude and a heart of faith.  Faith under fire is often the tool used by God to testify to those who would reject Christ as to the reality of our faith.  Think of Paul.  As Saul, this persecuting Pharisee held the coats of those throwing stones at Steven.  He saw and heard it all.  Including Steven’s prayer to God for mercy upon his persecutors.  This played a large part in the conversion of Paul.  Paul, known as Saul at the time, was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.  He was a man of law.  He knew the word of God better than most.  He would have been well aware of the prophecies concerning Christ.  He would have investigated the prophecies in light of their fulfillment in the life of Jesus.  Academically, Saul, also known as Paul, would have known in his mind that Jesus was the Christ.  What he was missing was seeing the sincerity of faith which he was not willing to exercise.  Whether Saul, also known as Paul, accepted Christ or not, Steven’s death would have testified against Paul.

It has always bothered me when I see depictions of God’s people under persecution why they fail to fight back.  Sometimes, it is the right thing to do.  I don’t think we are required to lay down our lives or suffer needlessly just for the sake of suffering.  But I also believe there comes a time when God calls us to suffer for Him so that others who question the legitimacy of our faith can see there is something more real than life itself.  That being, salvation in Christ.  This means we must be willing to suffer as a form of witness to the grace and mercy of God.  The grace and mercy of God which came to us in the form of forgiveness of sin by the offering of Jesus at Calvary is the same that can come to our persecutors.  But if we do not show that this spiritual truth is reality by our willingness to suffer for it, then those who also need Christ will write it off as another radical belief that in no deeper than the comfort it can bring.