Nearly every day I try to read a story from “Jesus Freaks” a book made by Voice Of The Martyrs and DC Talk. It highlights stories of believers who have been persecuted, and even up to the point of death. There are accounts ranging from the Apostles even up to present day martyrs in China and Iran. I also subscribe (for free) to a magazine and online access to Voice Of The Martyrs. One of my favorite books has become “Standing In The Fire” by Tom Doyle. He gives eyewitness accounts of Muslims turning to Christ in the heart of the Muslim world. The believers in Syria, Iraq and beyond are standing on the promises that many of us claim to believe in, but rarely pay the price for. All of these articles, books, and stories do more than inspire me, they convict me. As a New Testament follower of Jesus Christ, I should do just that… be a follower that matches the New Testament model. In what way? All the above and as the Lord continues to lead me.
We are not promised blessings in way of peace and tranquility in this life. On the contrary we are promised persecution and pain. Jesus promised peace, yes, but from within— “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16.33). He also said in John 15.19— “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.” This is a reality. He even goes on to say they will do more than hate on you, they will persecute you in verse 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.” We should expect no less than what Jesus himself dealt with. They followed Him around and tried to bully Him into submission too. They tried their best to hang something on Him that He said and turn people from Him. They simply did as Jesus said in John 15.18— “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” We should expect no less than the same then.
The peace promised is from the inside, because that is what matters most. This world is consumed with the ‘now’ and the carnal. Sad to say, some believers are too. When we read the stories mentioned above and we read the scripture as the ones above we shutter just a little. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul is continuing His exhortation to Timothy. He is specifying the end-times and how we are to respond. In verse 12 he said— “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” That is a promise… shall. That is an indictment… live godly. That is a dare… suffer. That is a threat… persecution. This world has no peace to offer those who have claimed Jesus publicly and often. This world is not your friend, but we must be their light. In John again, this time in chapter 14 verse 27 Jesus said the peace He supplies isn’t from without and isn’t as the world provides, which is conditional at best— “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Since the peace that is promised is from the inside, because that is what matters most… Why are we so concerned with the outside? We are carnal, our minds twisted by what this world keeps feeding us. Our thinking becomes stinking thinking.
The inside. In scripture, it is the soul. It is spiritual and eternal, rather than the carnal temporal shell we carry, and care so much about. The inside is the key. In 2 Peter 2, Peter mentions a remarkable answer to all of this, by way of an illustration familiar to us all in verse 8— “For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.” That makes total sense to me. He was a very righteous man, but his dwelling with the filth, effected him to the point his soul was “vexed”. Vexed literally means ‘tormented’. In the first century they would use this to indicate torture, piece by piece. In this usage it is then: ‘tortured from within piece by piece’. Lot’s soul and our souls are being tortured piece by piece. We allow it don’t we. In some cases the environment is not our choosing, in some others, it is. Lot chose to stay. He chose this environment. We don’t know for sure if it was because it was lucrative for him to do so (which it was). Or, if he was just too insecure to uproot and follow God to another place. We do know it got so bad that God had to send angels to remove him.
I believe with all my heart we will go home soon. By that I mean an end to this struggle and a release from these earthly chains. Between now and then, we should expect no peace on the outside, if we are living godly. Furthermore, we ought expect torture from within if we continue to love this world we are being vexed by. As for me and my house, we pray. We pray for each other and those whom we are covenanted with. We must pray for our souls to not be vexed. We must pray for our ability to be in the world that we are no longer from. The soul has to be prayed for more than anything else. It is what is eternal and therefore what matters most. Don’t fear what the world will do to you, concern yourself with what it has already done to your soul up to now.
Everyone who is a believer is under torment inside… pray one for another.