Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE RIGHT RESPONSE TO PERSECUTION”
Romans 12.14
My text for this message is in Romans chapter 12, where we will begin reading from verse 1:
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Did you notice what Paul slipped in here? Here are Paul’s readers, cruising along in the 12th chapter of Romans, being read to about worshiping God and living the Christian life, ministering to believers and such as that, and, lo and behold, Paul starts writing about how we’re supposed to respond to persecutors. Verse 14 comes upon us without any warning whatsoever. Paul doesn’t even bother to tell his readers that persecution is going to come. He just tells them, and us, how to react when persecution does come.
He doesn’t even tell us how to react to avoid the persecution. Judaism, during the Roman Catholic Inquisition in Spain, developed certain criteria for recognizing that Jews were still righteous by their understanding, even if they bowed to the threat of execution and converted to Romanism. They were referred to by Spaniards as marranos.[1] It was sort of like being a spiritual chameleon. Islam has the same type of approach to false conversions to avoid persecution for being a Muslim. But Paul doesn’t support anything like that at all here for the child of God.
Paul does not tell believers how to run. He makes no suggestions for Christians hiding. There is no provision for compromising and lying about your identity as a believer in Christ, saying you’re something you’re not in order to get relief from the persecution. There is none of that here.
What is here, and this might come as a real surprise to those of you who have never read this passage before or considered what God wants you to do amidst persecution, is advice on how to nicely treat those responsible for your persecution. No. I take that back. What is found in verse 14 is not advice. It’s a command. There are three verbs in this short verse, the verb “bless,” the verb “bless” again, and the verb “curse” with a negative particle in front of it.
In the eight words that are found in the Greek text of this statement, three of them are imperatives, commanding the child of God to respond to and treat those who persecute him or her in a specific way. Consider those three verbs. Commanded twice to “bless” and once not to “curse.” A couple of things to note before we continue our amazement at what Paul has demanded of us under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
First, this word “bless.” In both places it’s an imperative commanding the reader “to bless.” But “to bless” has different meanings in the New Testament. When we “bless” God we are praising Him and extolling His virtues. Is this what Paul has in mind for those who persecute us? “Hey guy, you crack a mean whip. And your partner has the best night stick backhand I’ve ever felt up the back of my head.” No. This is not what Paul means by “bless.”
“Bless” also refers to the Christian receiving blessing from God. This is obviously not what Paul has in mind, either, since the command is to “bless” not a directive to receive a “blessing.” What Paul has in mind here, and this is consistent with what we see elsewhere in the New Testament portion of God’s Word, is invoking God’s “blessing” upon those who persecute Christians.
That is, our response to someone who whacks us with a club or zaps us with a Taser for being a Christian, or perhaps arrests us for using the wrong pronouns to address someone, is to inform them that we want only God’s best for them. Paul’s prohibition against “cursing” them eliminates from consideration asking God to punish them in any way for what they are doing.
The Christian should not want a persecutor to be struck by lightning or the nearest train so he will die and immediately go to Hell. We don’t want that at all. We’d like to see that guy come to Christ and be transformed by the power of God. But how can we guarantee that we will want that to happen when the man is actually whacking us, when we see the man assaulting our children, or when one of our kids picks up a toy and discovers when his hand is blown off that the toy was a booby-trap?
How can I avoid trying to kill the man who kills my daughter for no other reason than because I am a Christian? How is the child of God to prepare himself for obedience when persecution for the cause of Christ befalls him? How can you prepare yourself to “bless them which persecute you; bless and curse not” when the persecution comes?
I have five suggestions for you to consider as you prepare yourself for that day when those in power begin to purge from society and persecute in the community those of us who name the name of Christ as Savior:
First, EXAMINE YOUR BIBLE
John 15.16-20; 16.1-3; 17.14:
15.16-20:
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
16.1-3:
1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
17.14:
"I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."
The first two passages record the last-minute instructions the Lord Jesus Christ gave to His disciples shortly before His arrest, unjust and illegal trials, and criminal execution by crucifixion. In these last comments before His great passion He informs the disciples that they will be persecuted because of Him. This wicked and sinful world hates with a great hatred God and the things of God. Why? God is holy. God is true. God is righteous. God is good. And the Lord Jesus Christ, God clothed in human flesh, is the embodiment of all that is right and good and holy. Because of this, though He never, one time, harmed a single human being, they crucified Him. And He told His disciples that what was done to Him would be done to them. Why? The servant is not better than his master. Even in His final prayer to the Father He said, in John 17.14, that this world hated His disciples. Think this does not apply to you and me? Do you think the world has fundamentally changed since then? Do you think that since we are not apostles of Jesus Christ things like this couldn’t or shouldn’t happen to us?
Romans 1.18-32:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
What has changed from Paul’s day to ours? Oh sure, technological advances have been made. We now consider ourselves civilized and quite advanced. But has anything changed? Really? Has there been any change in the human condition? Slavery for thousands of years. Wars throughout the world. The wholesale murder of the unborn. Is not the human heart still deceitful? Is not man still a depraved creature, in desperate need of the grace of God? Do lost men still hate those who tell them the truth about sin and salvation? Skin heads, neo-Nazis, Planned Parenthood, Antifa. If the answer is “Yes,” don’t sit there and think such a thing as persecution cannot someday happen to Christians in the United States. Social media networks are now conspiring to suppress the voices of conservatives and Christians.[2] LGBTQ activists are suing Christians into bankruptcy for not decorating a cake to celebrate same-sex marriage.[3] And several major news media outlets are being sued for slandering a sixteen-year-old boy for doing nothing more than standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial wearing a MAGA hat while an older native American man approached and intimidated him while beating a drum and a group of black racists shouted obscenities at him.[4]
Second Timothy 3.12:
“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
If men’s hearts are still the same, if technological advances have changed the soul and spirit of man not one whit, if riots can break out in the streets at any time and bombs can be planted anywhere, and if unborn babies are murdered by the millions, don’t think Christians cannot be persecuted. Our freedom from persecution in this country over the last 200 years has been an historical anomaly. It’s unusual. But things are going to return to normal in the United States in the not-too-distant future. You’ve heard of the ethnic cleansing that was once conducted in what used to be Yugoslavia? And you’re aware of the laws being passed against so-called hate crimes? And you know that freedom of speech on college campuses has been limited so that intolerance of others’ ideas and lifestyles is now the norm? Well, you mark my words. Someday Christians, those judgmental people who are intolerant of alternate lifestyles such as sodomy and incest are going to be found guilty of hate crimes for telling people that they will die in their sins and go to Hell if they don’t turn to Christ. And efforts will be mounted to purge such disharmonious and de-unifying elements from society. We will be purged. Make no mistake about it. Examine your Bible and you will see that persecution is coming. All that’s needed is a pretext for doing it, with the pretext that’s being cultivated being our so-called “hate.”
Second, AFTER EXAMINING YOUR BIBLE, EVALUATE YOUR LIFE
If someone went around trying to gather evidence against you to convict you of being one of those Bible-believing Christians, would there be enough evidence gathered by good investigators to convict you of being a genuine believer in Jesus Christ? I asked that of a young man one time, and he said “No.” He was being honest, because I already thought he was lost.
How would you evaluate yourself in terms of having a good testimony of God’s saving grace in your life? If investigators examined your finances, would there be evidence enough to show you a serious Christian? Do you support the cause of Christ with your finances, or do you just talk a good talk? And how about your talk? Do you minister grace to those who hear you? Do you tell the old, old story? Do you put shoe leather to your salvation? Or are you a hearer, but not a doer, of the Word?
Evaluate not whether you smoke or drink or chew or go with girls who do. Evaluate not whether you are religious. Evaluate not whether you responded and cried at an old-fashioned altar many years ago. Evaluate not whether you are even born again. The question is, are you a born-again Christian who is perceived to be a threat by those who oppose God? Are you a fighting soldier of the cross? Are you in the fight?
Third, EXPECT YOUR PERSECUTION
The Bible tells us that all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, Second Timothy 3.12. This lets us know that, saving something unusual, such as these last two centuries in the United States, God’s plan for every spiritual child of God is to go through the refiner’s fire of persecution for His name’s sake. And one reason for going to Church is to prepare for the persecution.
Such has it always been since the Lord Jesus left to sit at His Father’s right hand. And such will it be until He returns for us, as First Peter 4.12 teaches us:
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.”
You’d better make up your mind that one of two things is going to happen to you: either you will compromise your testimony for Jesus Christ or you will endure some bitter trials at the hands of men for no other reason than your willingness to serve God no matter who tries to stop you. Your persecution may come in the form of a planned, government-sponsored effort to rid society of these horrible and anti-social types who home-school their children or send them to Christian schools. Or it may be the result of your company firing you for disruptive behavior; reading your Bible in the lunchroom in front of everyone, where the whoremongers and the sodomites and pot smokers who work for the company will be offended. It may even come in the form of verbal abuse for having the gall to insist that your children obey you in a public place and backing it up with a stern look and a serious voice of authority. For that matter, you may even have the police called on you for doing that.
In the Soviet Union children were encouraged, and in China children are encouraged, to report their parents to the authorities if they read the Bible or pray or attend worship services at unregistered Churches. But the Christians in Russia didn’t alter their behavior one bit for fear of their children turning them in. Yet we have Christians in the United States who won’t correct their kids for fear of the authorities taking them into custody. Friend, you’ll lose your kids if you withhold the rod of correction. Better to lose them doing right than lose them doing wrong.
Learn to expect persecution. Expect it from your unsaved co-workers. Expect it from lost people who walk around in the guise of backslidden Christians. Only they’re not backslidden. They’re lost. Expect it at the grocery store. Expect it at the park. There is not a single person who cannot, potentially, persecute you. We have people in our Church who are persecuted by their own family members.
Fourth, EDIT YOUR RESPONSE
To “edit” something is to prepare it for publication, to prepare it for broadcast. So, when I suggest that you edit your response to persecution, I mean that you should consider and weigh your options and decide ahead of time how you ought to respond, and plan and practice responding that way. Parents, you should do this with your children.
You’re on your way out of the grocery store and an armed robber, a crazy guy trying to get drug money, grabs you and puts the muzzle of a pistol to your head. As the police are responding to the hostage crisis the thug takes you up the stairs to the store manager’s office where he can see everyone. After several hours of negotiating with the police and talking to you the kidnapper figures out that you are a Christian. And he hates Christians. So, he gives you the option of denying Christ or getting a bullet in the head.
What should you do? There’s no question. You can’t deny Christ. What if the crazy guy grabs your daughter and insists that you deny Christ to save your daughter’s life? What should you do? What should you plan on doing? What does the Bible teach you to do? You can’t deny Christ. That is the one nonnegotiable. And you must train your children that they should never deny Christ either ... for any reason.
But Paul’s words in Romans 12.14 don’t stop there. They go on. His words call for more than a refusal to deny Christ. His words call for the Christian, perhaps right at the point of death at the hands of a persecutor, to bless him, to ask God’s blessing for him, to minister to him in some way.
How in the world do you think you’ll be able to do that unless you prepare to do that, unless you train your children to do that, unless your family is prepared to avail themselves of God’s grace in that hour of greatest need?
I suggest that you sit down and discuss the various scenarios that could occur in which persecution could come your way, either from government or individuals, either planned or unplanned, either with or not with your life on the line. And during your discussion, decide what God wants you to do in each case. And decide what to say to be a blessing to your persecutor.
I’m reminded of two Christian women who were taken by a man one night and forcibly raped. That is to say, the man raped the silent woman. As he was about to rape the second woman, she began to talk to him of the love of Jesus Christ. The man responded by running away. He was never captured. I am not promising an attacker will respond in the same way to you. I am saying that in order to respond correctly you must plan to respond correctly. In order to obey God, you must usually plan to obey God.
Fifth, EMBRACE YOUR OPPORTUNITY
You may be thinking, “This is crazy. I came to Church expecting to be fed the Word of God and this man is trying to convince me that I should allow some man to kill me, when I could escape with my life by just one time saying what he wants me to say.”
You are partly correct. There is someone trying to convince you that it’s better to die than deny Christ and that persecution provides a great opportunity to serve God. But it’s not me. It’s God. Read First Peter 4.12-16 with me. Let’s all turn in our Bibles to First Peter 4.12-16:
12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.
16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
Do you see what God’s Word says? First, persecution is not unusual or strange, verse 12. Second, you ought to rejoice and be happy when you are persecuted, verses 13 and 14. Third, just make sure that when you suffer, it’s not for wrongdoing, verse 15. And finally, never be ashamed when you suffer for Christ’s sake, but use it as an opportunity to glorify God, verse 16.
There’s three ways a person can respond to persecution, and two of the ways are wrong ways to respond. Understand, now, that I’m addressing the issue of persecution in a Christian’s life.
The first way you can oppose persecution is to stand and fight. But when you stand and fight against persecution for the Christian faith you are violating every single example found in the Word of God of a Christian’s proper response to persecution.
The Lord Jesus Christ was persecuted, and He didn’t fight back. And He could have called ten thousand angels. The apostles were persecuted, their lives threatened, and they didn’t fight back. Stephen, one of the first deacons, was stoned to death without lifting a hand to resist.
I am not one for rolling over and allowing someone to strike me up the side of the head without fighting back. Punch me and I’ll punch you back. But God’s command is for me, when that persecution comes into my life because I am a Christian, to offer no resistance. If you fight back against persecution, Christian, you are wrong.
The second way persecution can be dealt with is by being passive and doing absolutely nothing. This is the way so many Jewish people responded to Nazi oppression during World War 2. And this, too, is wrong. “But pastor, you said that fighting back is wrong. If fighting back is wrong, how can not fighting back be wrong, as well?” I didn’t say that not fighting back was wrong. I said that being passive is wrong.
It is wrong to resist the person who persecutes you. But it’s also wrong to simply passively allow him to persecute you. What the Bible dictates as our proper response is to bless that person who persecutes us. To ask God to work in his life. To tell him of the infinite love of God in Jesus Christ and His willingness to save whosoever calls upon Him in faith believing. Understand that the child of God can never respond in this way unless God supplies a rich measure of grace to help in time of need. But for our part, we’ll rarely do right unless we plan to do right, unless we prepare to do right, unless ahead of time we purpose to do right.
My message has been for God’s people, the born-again Christians. We know we’re going to catch it hard for being Christians, but the Lord Jesus is quite easily worth it all. Amen? But what about you? Our concern is for you. What about you? Suffering is our lot in this life, but heaven is our home. But what about you? If you are unsaved, your immediate concern should be the salvation of your eternal and undying soul.
Let me close by addressing the matter of security measures adopted by a congregation during worship, including the use of lethal force to protect against the loss of life by an attacker. I find no prohibition in God’s Word urging me to stand idly by when force is threatened, especially in the defense of others. Until I am persuaded persecution for the faith is involved, I think it my duty to protect others from violent attack.
__________
[1] Marrano, n, [Sp., lit., swine (expression of contempt). In the Spanish Inquisition, a Jew or Moor who professed to accept Christianity in order to escape persecution. From Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1996), page 1103.
[2] https://www.projectveritas.com/2018/02/26/social-media-suppression-of-conservative-views-panel-at-cpac/
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/law/2018/jun/04/gay-cake-ruling-supreme-court-same-sex-wedding-colorado-baker-decision-latest
[4] https://www.foxnews.com/us/covington-high-students-legal-team-sues-washington-post
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