Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12
Recent advertisements urging people to vacation in Las Vegas have featured pictures of people enjoying themselves in a variety of boisterous activities, including gambling and partying. To all outward appearances, the participants were having fun, and they probably were, for a season. The caption at the end of the advertisement said ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’. Of course, that is contradicted by Revelation 20:12 where the books will be opened revealing all that has transpired in this world, including everything that has happened in Vegas. For all of its sin and debauchery, Las Vegas puts on a front of being religious. It has more so-called churches than any other American city of its size. The city is also a favourite place for so-called Christian singers to perform. The devil has people fooled into thinking that there is something Christian about the place. Las Vegas is godlessness at its worst. How different is godliness, which, our verse makes clear, will involve persecution instead of partying.
A young Christian once approached an old and wise Christian for some advice on how to give up the world. The old saint told him, ‘If you carry a Bible, you won’t have to worry about giving up the world; the world will give you up.’ That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? If you carried a Bible with you everywhere you went (instead of your iPad), and handed out Gospel tracts to everyone you encountered, how interested would the people you work with be in inviting you to their parties or including you in their conversations? You would become a social outcast in a hurry. You would be rejected and mocked – persecuted. The devil and his cronies don’t mind a wishy-washy weak-kneed Christian who compromises, condones, and mingles. But they pour out their hatred on all who will stand up to the immorality and lies and the evils of the day. Of course, we don’t like the rejection and mockery. But our text declares that persecution is the price we have to pay for living godly in Christ Jesus. Is it a price worth paying?
Someone once declared that it is better to live for God and be judged by the world than to live for the world and be judged by God. The secret to enduring, and even accepting, the persecution is to see beyond it. The world will be judged for all of its sins, and the judgment will be severe. But there is a judgment for the Christian, too, the Judgment Seat of Christ. And it is there that those who counted persecution as an acceptable price to pay for faithfulness to our Lord will enter into the joy of the reward. Saints who suffer for their Lord today will tell you that it will be worth it all when they see Christ. Like Moses, they esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward (Hebrews 11:26).
None of us are going to go forth today seeking persecution. But if it comes, we can be confident that we are doing something right. – Jim MacIntosh