Understanding and Responding to Persecution
Setting the Right Expectations
Michael was the fastest kid on our soccer team. In eighth grade he held the best pace for the entire team at just over six minutes per mile. Although we were good friends, I typically didn’t run with him. I just couldn’t keep up. But on this particular afternoon, we were running in lockstep. Stretch after stretch, stride after stride.
That day I heard we were just running a mile. I know I can hang with him for a mile, I thought. And I was right. We started together and darted in and out of the slower runners until we were pushing each other faster and faster at the front of the pack.
We turned the last corner, and I was still keeping pace! I could see the end of the run. With every stretch of my legs, I was more determined. Only one hundred yards to go! Fifty! Twenty!
“All right, let’s do one more lap, guys! Let’s do another mile!” yelled my coach. The strength in my legs gave out. Another mile? On a typical day we ran 2.5 miles, but at this point, another mile seemed impossible. I had set my expectations and now another mile was discouraging, disheartening, and frustrating.
I fear that my running experience too often mirrors our experience with persecution. We assume a mile’s worth of persecution and we are quickly discouraged, disheartened, and frustrated when one mile becomes two. Only the right expectation encourages the right response, so we must let Scripture set our expectation and inform our response.
A New Testament Survey of Persecution
My purpose is to provide a basic New Testament framework for understanding and responding to persecution. As with any area of doctrine or practice, the Word, not our own opinions, must direct us.
Understanding Persecution: Agents of Persecution. The New Testament teaches Christians to expect persecution from several different groups: governments (Mark 13:9), religious leaders (Acts 5:17), and unbelieving family members (Matt. 10:21).
One umbrella designation, however, dominates the biblical material: the world (i.e., the satanically directed opposition to God visible in the willful rebellion of unbelievers). Persecution takes place when the world opposes us because of our connection with Christ. So Scripture instructs us to “Marvel not . . . if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13), for “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). If we heed these passages, we will rightly expect persecution.
Understanding Persecution: Motives for Persecution. The writers of the New Testament present at least five motives for persecution: envy (Acts 5:17–18), greed (Acts 19:23–27), fear (Matt. 2:3), hatred (1 John 3:12), and conviction (Acts 7:54–60). Although the world may persecute believers for one or all of these motives, one primary motive stands behind and energizes them all.
Ultimately, unbelievers persecute Christians because unbelievers oppose God. This is true for a few reasons. First, our Lord habitually teaches that the world’s hatred of believers is an extension of their hatred of him (John 15:18–19). Second, many scriptural examples explicitly connect our persecution to the Lord’s (Acts 4:27, 29). Finally, the entire course of the world is ultimately movement against God. In a sense, opposition against believers is always secondary, not primary.
Opposition to God is the driving motive for all hostility against Christians. In our persecution, however, it’s easy to turn that around. It’s easy to believe that the world is chiefly against us, not our Lord. If a man runs forward from cabin to cabin on a train, is he primarily moving forward because he is running or because he is on a moving train? Although he is running on the train, ultimately he moves because the train moves. So it is with persecution. Does the unbeliever oppose us personally? Yes, but ultimately he moves against us because he moves against God.
Understanding Persecution: Forms of Persecution. We can organize forms of persecution into two categories: physical and non-physical. The New Testament provides examples of physical persecution ranging from beating, torture, and imprisonment (2 Cor. 11:23–25) to death (Acts 7:57–59).
Too often we equate “persecution” with “physical persecution,” demoting non-physical persecution to a second class. But the New Testament evidence does not allow for this two-tier system. Non-physical persecution is real persecution. In fact, it is the predominate focus in the New Testament. The writers identify several examples of nonphysical persecution, including revilement (Matt. 5:11), derision (Heb. 11:36), deception (Acts 6:10-14), threats (Acts 4:17), slander (1 Cor. 4:13), and ostracism (John 9:22). What are the dangers of devaluing non-physical persecution?
1. We will misunderstand Scripture. Scripture speaks of physical and non-physical persecution, but it throws the accent on the non-physical. Consider one example: even Christ primarily suffered from non-physical persecution. With a few exceptions, He faced only physical persecution in the last few hours of His life. Certainly, however, we would not deny that Christ faced persecution before His Passion.
2. We may dismiss believers facing verbal persecution. If we view verbal persecution as “less than real persecution,” we will fail to support other Christians properly. Instead of praying for these believers, we may be tempted to think, “It sounds like they need to grow a thicker skin.” If the Holy Spirit does not dismiss believers facing non-physical persecution, though, neither should we.
3. We will not derive full encouragement. If persecution promises are given only to those suffering physically, we will not receive the full benefit from these precious passages. We will not be encouraged to continue believing through non-physical persecution. Instead of being strengthened, we’ll be weakened. We may think, “If I can’t stand up against mere verbal opposition, how will I ever face ‘real’ hostility?”
4. We will hyper-sensationalize physical persecution. I don’t want to diminish the struggle of physical persecution. Physical persecution most certainly carries its own challenges. We should pray for our dear brothers and sisters undergoing physical persecution, but we should not idolize them. Hyper-sensationalizing any persecution redirects the focus away from Christ and onto the one being persecuted. When observing persecution, our predominate response must be, “What a God!” not, “What a Christian!”
Responding to Persecution
Scripture does not simply warn about persecution. It also provides direction, exhortation, and comfort. Let’s examine a few ways Scripture directs our response.
Responding to Persecution: Rejoice. Jesus uttered many countercultural statements, but perhaps His most shocking was, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad” (Matt. 5:11–12)!
With these words Christ turns persecution upsidedown, or rather, right-side up. From God’s perspective, if we suffer persecution, we should respond with joy. Notice Christ does not encourage us to invite or incite persecution— only that we should rejoice when it comes.
Why should we rejoice in persecution? The New Testament presents at least four reasons. First, we can rejoice because we will be rewarded (Matt. 5:12). Second, persecution indicates that we have been chosen to suffer (Acts 5:41). Third, persecution for Christ participates in His sufferings (Col. 1:24). Finally, we can rejoice because persecution grants us an opportunity to glorify God (1 Pet. 4:16).
Responding to Persecution: Return Good. The Word pushes us a step beyond rejoicing in persecution. Scripture drives us to love our enemies. Our Lord gives this its fullest teaching in Luke 6:27–30.
Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.
Paul often echoes the same exhortations. “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:20–21).
At the heart of Christ’s work is grace, God’s kindness to those who deserve the very opposite. There is a certain sense in which we cannot fully illustrate the heart of the gospel without being persecuted, for it is only when we are wronged that we can truly picture God’s kindness to us. In other words, you cannot extend grace in the fullest sense unless you have been wronged by someone. In persecution rests a unique opportunity to illustrate the gospel by loving our enemies.
Responding to Persecution: Entrust Yourself to God. The first two responses presuppose the first. You cannot rejoice in suffering or return good to those who have wronged you in a world without God. But since there is a good, wise, and just Sovereign, you can trust Him in persecution. Entrusting yourself to God especially highlights one aspect of God’s nature: His justice.
It is no wonder that in the midst of passages about persecution, God is constantly calling to mind His ability to avenge and enact justice (Rom. 12:19). Paul marks God’s justice when he reflects on the trials faced throughout his ministry: “There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day” (2 Tim. 4:8).
Jesus Christ also endured persecution because He trusted the righteous Judge. Peter explains, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: . . . [he] committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (1 Pet. 2:21–23).
God’s role as the righteous Judge fuels our trust. And this trust is not misplaced. How does God respond to persecutors? Scripture provides three answers. First, God can gloriously transform persecutors so that we may say, “He which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith” (Gal. 1:23). God can also choose to immediately judge those who persecute believers, as with Herod in Acts 12. Finally, God can delay His perfect justice.
This final category often bewilders us. Can God’s justice be just if it is not immediate? This is Christ’s focus in Luke 18 when He shares a parable to encourage faith-filled prayer in the face of delayed justice. His parable uses contrast to teach that delay in judgment is not unjust or unloving. God will “avenge his own elect” (v. 7), but why does He delay? We cannot attribute His delay to indecision. He is not laboring over His decision like the unrighteous judge, thinking, Should I avenge them or should I not? As Christ says, “I tell you that he will avenge them speedily!” His mind is made up. The question we must face is not, “Will God be just?” but, “Will we keep believing?” It is this question that Christ leaves in the air: “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (18:8). Will we still believe when His justice is delayed? Will we still be trusting the righteous Judge?
Responding to Persecution: Look to Jesus. Hebrews 12:1–2 sets our persecution in the proper context. We are not alone, for we run our race surrounded by “a great cloud of witnesses.” How did they all endure? How did they keep believing through persecution?
Further, how will we keep enduring? It is not enough to simply understand persecution and know how to respond. We may expect a rousing speech to muster determination, but the writer presents a far more powerful force: Jesus Christ.
How can we keep running with patience? Only by “looking to Jesus”! Behold Him, love Him, worship Him! In His faithfulness we find our faith! In His endurance, we find our strength. In His work, we find our rest.
Chris Pennington now serves as Associate Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church, Liberty, UT.
(Originally published in FrontLine • January/February 2016. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.)