"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim 3:12) "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim 3:12, NIV) Today, we all have come to assume that living a godly is the sureway to peaceful life, success, prosperity, breakthrough, etc. This is very true but it is not the whole truth; and when only a part of the truth is emphasized at the expense of the other parts, it becomes a lie. As beautiful and glorious as it is to live a godly life, we must also be aware of the caveat, the warning and the consequences. It is important that Christians especially new believers are taught the whole truth about serving God and living a righteous life. One of the fall out of becoming a christian is persecution. Paul told His son Timothy, anyone who wants or dares to live a godly life will suffer persecution. The question is "what is persecution?". I come from a religious background where denial of personal comfort, poverty and poor dressing habit is sometimes wrongly equated with suffering for Christ and spiritual growth. We sometimes mistake "suffering" with "persecution". The truth is that persecution can lead to suffering, but not all suffering is persecution. Some sufferings are self-inflicted as a result of ignorance and negligence. But that is not my focus today. I want us to know what persecution is all about..
I took the liberty of checking a few dictionaries, and here are the two most outstanding definitions I found. Persecution is
- hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race or political or religious beliefs; oppression (Google dictionary)
- the act of harassing, oppressing, or killing people because of their difference from society. Christians are persecuted because their belief in Jesus Christ as Savior does not conform to the godlessness of a sinful world. (https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-persecution-700685)
From this background, it is easy to see the rationale behind christians suffering persecution. The truth is that we live in a corrupt and evil world. So if you try to be a force of good, people will oppose you. They will seek to destroy you. They will seek to even kill you. If all your colleagues in the office are collecting bribe, and you refuse to collect; they will see you as a threat and turn against you to persecute you. Take the examples of Joseph, Daniel and many other people. Joseph went to jail for refusing to sleep with Potiphar's wife. Danirel's conspired to throw him into the lions' den because he was different. That is what is called persecution
To be continued...