Faithful Endurance

Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.

John 16:2–3

We should not be naïve about what is in the world, neither should we become paranoid because of what is there. To be a follower of Jesus Christ means that we take our stand alongside of Him, regardless of rejection or acceptance. Eventually we will be brought into conflict with the world on some level. Amy Carmichael wrote, “Can he have followed far who has no wounds nor scar?”

Within the hearts of humans brews a vast caldron of impurity that can quickly turn into hate. All it takes is a little agitation and it can overspill on any side. It is true that often this has spilled onto Christians, but it has also often bubbled up within so-called “Christian communities” to spill on to others near them — the Inquisition comes to mind. We may argue that the extremists in the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages did not represent our faith or true Christianity. Agreed, but still they had the gospel of love and did not act accordingly.

The sincere believer in Christ, however, sets himself up as more than just a random victim of human violence. He is a target for demon-inspired attacks against him. God is our Defender, and we can and must ultimately rest in Him, trusting in His deliverance. Whether He delivers us this side of death or the other side is His decision, but He surely will deliver us. But we can expect that there will be attacks on us.

Some of this is because any moral progress in the world seems to be opposed at first, as the old saying goes, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Christians, along with any moral crusaders, will expect ridicule and rejection, even and especially from the very people we are trying to help.

Another level is directed at us because we belong to Christ. Our Lord was rejected by men, despised and crucified, and He said that if they so hated our Master we should not expect fairer treatment. Amy Carmichael wrote:

Hast thou no scar?

No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?

I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,

I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,

Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?

Yet I was wounded by the archers, spend,

Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent

By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:

Hast thou no wound?

No wound, no scar?

Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,

And, pierced are the feet that follow Me;

But thine are whole: can he have followed far

Who has no wounds nor scar?

These wounds we are not to boast in nor despise too greatly — though, like Christ, we should despise the shame inflicted on us by others (Heb. 12:1–2) — but neither should we seek them out. They will come soon enough on their own. A child of the King of Kings should not be subject to ridicule or rejection, so when we do we should expect the Spirit to bring us the consolation and comfort that He alone can bring. We should also seek to stand along side of our fellow believers when rejection comes to them.

Archaeologists digging in the remains of a school for imperial pages in Rome found a picture dating from the third century. It shows a boy standing, his hand raised, worshiping a figure on a cross, a figure that looks like a man with the head of an ass. Scrawled in the writing of a young person are the words, “Alexamenos worships his God.” Nearby in a second inscription: “Alexamenos is faithful.” Apparently, a young man who was a Christian was being mocked by his schoolmates for his faithful witness. But he was not ashamed; he was faithful.[1]

There comes a point in our walk of faith, as we grow in our relationship with Christ, as we learn to die daily to self and sin and ambition, that we develop by the grace of God and through the Holy Spirit, a quiet gentleness of surrender to Him. We expect nothing from the world but we expect all that He has promised from Christ, and we live in the reality of the Spirit. Wounds still hurt, and pain is still pain, but there is also the inner strength of the indwelling Holy Spirit, who gives joy and peace and purpose.

Some of the wounds and scars we have are due to taking the gospel of Christ out into the world, away from the safety of a mere “Christian” environment. As we go out into the by-ways and the lost ways of the world, we do so bearing the disgrace that He bore, and carrying within our hearts His compassion for the hurts of the world (Hebrews 13:13).

Prayer:

Lord, can we have followed You very long or followed You very faithfully if we have no wounds or scars? Teach us to patiently endure rejections and hardship. Give the grace to be gentle and faithful under all circumstances. Amen.

[1] Leighton Ford, Good News Is for Sharing, (David C. Cook, Nashville, 1978), p. 78.