The Bible indicates that Christians will be persecuted. And therefore, you will occasionally hear a pastor say that if you aren’t being persecuted, then you might want to consider how well you are living out your Christianity.
This used to concern me, because I didn’t sense a heavy amount of persecution toward me. As much as it is possible, I strive to live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18). I know other Christians who try to do the same. And that means not much persecution has come my way. So does that mean I’m a sub-par Christian?
I certainly don’t believe you have to be highly persecuted to prove your Christianity, but I do believe that if you faithfully live for Christ and speak for Him, then you will have people around you who will not always appreciate what you have to say. At the very least, those people will probably seek to avoid you. In those instances, we must be willing to remain true to our Christian beliefs and not shrink from them in order to win the approval of others.
In studying this issue, I ran across the following information from a commentary that was helpful to me in getting a better definition of persecution. It is from the 1800s, so I’ve tried to modernize the language to make it a bit more readable:
Devoted Christians who live as the Savior did and who carry out His principles will always experience some form of persecution. By persecution, we mean that a person will be subjected to a disadvantage on account of his opinions. This is more than just arguing with him about his opinions, it is inflicting some injury on him; depriving him of some privilege or right; subjecting him to some disadvantage; or placing him in less favorable circumstances, because of his beliefs.
This may be an injury to his feelings, his family, his reputation, his property, his liberty, his influence. Or it might be by depriving him of a position which he held, or preventing him from obtaining one to which he is eligible. It could be by subjecting him to fine or imprisonment, to banishment, torture, or death.
If, in any manner, or in any way, a person is subjected to disadvantage on account of his or her religious opinions, and deprived of any rights to which he or she would be otherwise entitled, this is persecution.
Now, it is doubtless as true as it ever was, that a man who will live as the Savior did will be subjected to some such injury or disadvantage. On account of his opinions, he might be ridiculed, or treated with neglect, or excluded from part of society. The person who lives as the Savior did may be shunned by those who might otherwise value his or her friendship.
These injuries and slights may be expected in the best times and under the most favorable circumstances; and it is known that a large part of the history of the world, in its relation to the church, is nothing more than a history of persecution.
—Albert Barnes (from the mid-1800’s)
So now that we have a broader (or better) definition of persecution, we realize that we do not have to be physically threatened to consider ourselves persecuted. Just the fact that some people exclude you because of your Christian beliefs falls into the category.
(But let’s also not mistake the fact that if we are arrogant or condescending about our beliefs, then that might be what is excluding us! So don’t get confused and indicate that you are being persecuted for your Christianity, when you are actually being persecuted because you are being a jerk to others. The label “persecution” only works if you are striving to be a good friend and yet you are still being excluded.)
So the follow-up questions after getting a better definition are: How should we respond to such persecution? How should we respond to being excluded because of our Christian beliefs and behaviors?
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In his book, Death by Suburb, David Goetz indicates that American Christianity has drifted into a focus on success and prosperity and the fulfillment of the American dream. The suburbs developed as a place where those with sufficient means could escape some of the unpleasant circumstances of both city and country life (not living in the stress of the inner city, but also not living too far away from modern conveniences). Doing so provides the residents of the suburbs with a high level of comfort, and now we have allowed comfort and security to become idols for us, discouraging us from doing anything uncomfortable for God. This suburb mentality has infiltrated our Christianity and taken our focus off of radical and dangerous living for Christ and His mission.
