“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (2 Tim. 3:12, NKJV)
We are currently engaged in a teaching on mantle formation, slowly unfolding through various points of discussion. It takes Elijah as prototype. In the previous teaching we learnt how the adversary is sent by God to prepare us in developing a godly character, and to establish us in our calling and purpose. This occurs through a combination of anointing, in Elijah’s case his own and that of Obadiah, which made possible a prophetic space where God could free both of them of their enemies, gaining “true deliverance by Christ”, and in the case of Elijah, preparing him “to take up his position of leadership and authority”.
Within a New Testament context walking within one’s calling is thus never divorced from persecution. In fact, one’s calling is to some extent qualified by it, as we read in 2 Tim. 3:12 – “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” In other words – if you are not being persecuted, you are not living a living a Godly, fruitful life.
In the beatitudes this is a theme foregrounded by Jesus: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matt. 5:10-12).
Throughout Scripture there are many extensive examples detailing how intensely the heroes of faith had suffered. Paul, for instance, spells it out as follows: “in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.” (2 Cor. 11:23b-28).
Heb. 11: 36-38 confirms that the collective history of all believers is qualified by suffering and persecution: “Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.”
Where does this history leave you and I?
- Selah: Answer the question in the last paragraph.
- Read: Mark 8; Matt. 16.
- Memorise: 16:4.
