Persecution in the West

I never ended up following up on my post about Christians and law. I got distracted by current events and my annual thoughts about Christmas. I've still been thinking about it though.

I've recently started to realize just how true Paul's/God's claim that all that are faithful in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. For a long time I just thought that things were different in the Western church. Sure, some people face grief at work or from family but that persecution was somehow not the norm here because our society was more tolerant. I've come to see things completely differently now.

The more radical my understanding of Jesus' demands on us become the more I realize that the world is going to hate those that really follow him. Jesus' expectations of believers run contrary to the established norms of every culture that has ever existed (with the possible exception of Israel for short periods of time in ancient history). The gospel is still the stench of death to those that are perishing.

If I love a brother in Christ enough to tell him that his perpetual sin leaves him in danger of the fires of hell then his natural response is going to be hate. If I radically extend myself toward the outcasts, inviting them to live with me, then my neighbours are likely to complain and try to involve the law. It's just the natural course of radical obedience.

Christianity has somehow become about have a good reputation, being loved by all, never offending, always affirming. I must stand against this. Jesus said, ""Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets." The same is true today.

I think that some of the reason that we don't see persecution is that we are so used to thinking of appropriate Christian ministry as falling within the socially acceptable constraints of our society. We never get cussed our for street preaching or door to door evangelism because the negative reactions lead us believe that is not a God honouring ways of loving the lost. We don't have our named spurned as evil for confronting fellow Christians about their greed because greed is considered an unchallengeable sin within the church (see 1Cor 5 to see how the early church dealt with greed). We don't lose face within our community by selling all our possessions because we never consider that there is an alternative to perpetually improving the aesthetic state of our home. We don't lose our jobs because we don't consider our work place as a place where we can share the gospel. The list can go on. There are lots of legitimate ways that we could be ministering that would get us despised and rejected by men but negative reactions lead us to believe that they are inappropriate.

I'm not suggesting that we go out looking for trouble. I just think that we need to be so fixed on Jesus that we can't help but be offensive. He is as offensive today as he was 2000 years ago. As we become like him in his love we also become like him in his offensive nature. Don't be surprised when the world hates you because they hated him first.

I suppose that I should add a disclaimer that I see radical Christianity as different then standard conservative Christianity. I'm sure some people hated the pharisees and I'm know some people hate moral majority style Christians. Their actions are offensive for a different reason than Jesus' actions. Their gospel-less demands are arrogant and hypocritical. Radical Christianity will sometimes be mistaken for this. It is different. Jesus' demands came with forgiveness and acceptance. Jesus' demands are God's demands not man-made demands. I could go on but that's for a different post.