Persecution
11 January 2015
I was watching a film recently called ‘Murder In The First’. It’s about a young lawyer defending an inmate of a notorious prison in which he murdered another inmate. There were some parts of the film that I wasn’t happy with but the part that struck a chord with me was the way the young lawyer came under attack as he tried to do good.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also”. And indeed Jesus was persecuted so we should expect to be persecuted also.
When I say that we should expect to be persecuted I’m not talking about the kind of suffering that we all experience such as physical pain or mental anguish. I’m talking about attacks that come when we do good. Throughout my Christian life I have always found that, as something good is about to happen or I’m in the midst of doing something good, or something I’m involved in is bearing fruit, I come under attack. By ‘doing good’, I mean doing God’s work. These attacks come in many forms and they are designed to distract me or put me off or take me away from the good that is happening. During one period in my life I came under sustained attacks from one source for over twenty years!
Sadly when I was a young Christian I succumbed to these attacks all too easily and the good that I was involved in was destroyed. Now I take them in my stride because I know to expect them as part of doing good and because I recognise them for what they are and deal with them accordingly. And how do I deal with them? I turn to the truth of scripture just as Jesus did. Remember the armour we have (Ephesians 6:10-18) and that the devil is just a roaring lion. He can roar but he can’t devour us. Stand firm and keep doing what God has told you to do no matter what attacks you come under.