When I
say “persecution”, what do you think of?
You probably think of people who are
being arrest, or even killed, for their Christian faith. And make no
mistake, there are plenty of places where that does happen. In North
Korea, in Afghanistan, in India, in China, in lots of places in the world,
people can be thrown in jail or even killed because of their Christian beliefs.
Really, if you think about it,
Christianity and persecution have gone together since Christianity
started. The first Christian to be persecuted was Christ himself.
Crucified, killed in a terrible and painful way, for stating the truth that he
is the divine Son of God. And many of the early Christians were
persecuted as well.
The Apostle Paul understood
Christian persecution as well as anyone. After all, he experienced it
from both sides. Early in his career, he was doing the persecuting.
As a young, energetic Pharisee, he was rounding up as many Christians as he
could find. That’s why he was headed for Damascus on that fateful day
when life changed--he was going to Damascus to find Christians and arrest
them. But then, of course, on the road, he met Jesus. He became a Christian,
and then he experienced persecution from the other side. He was
eventually arrested and killed because of his Christian faith.
Except that’s not really completely
accurate, is it? Paul was not killed because of his Christian faith.
No one would have cared that Paul was a Christian--if only he had kept it to
himself. If Paul had just not said anything about it, he could’ve
believed anything he wanted about Jesus Christ. No one would’ve
minded. The reason Paul was persecuted is that he would not keep it to
himself. He told everyone he could find that Jesus was the divine Son of
God. He made great missionary journeys all over the world, or at least
the part of the world he knew about, to tell people that Jesus was the divine
Son of God. That’s what got him into trouble. Paul would not keep
quiet about his Christian faith. He kept trying to convince others to be
Christians, too.
And that’s what will get us into
trouble, too. The world does not mind if we’re Christians. The world
does not care if we’re Christians--as long as we keep quiet about it. As
long as we keep it to ourselves. But if we speak up about it, if we tell
people we’re Christians, if we try to convince others to become Christians,
too--well, the world is going to have something to say about that.
Now, I don’t want to be overly
dramatic. I don’t think anyone in the Wheatland Parish is going to have
their life threatened because of our Christian faith. I don’t think any
of us needs to worry about being killed, or even being thrown in jail, because
we’re Christians.
Having said that, we also need to
acknowledge that there have been times, even in the United States, where people
have lost their jobs because of their Christian faith. There are times
when people have lost their businesses because of their Christian faith.
It’s not the norm, but it can happen. Even in the United States of
America.
But still, I am not trying to compare
the kind of persecution that happens in North Korea or Afghanistan to what
could happen to us. That’s not the point. But the point is that if
we speak up about our Christian faith, there can be consequences. There
can be people who don’t like it, and who don’t like us, because of it. We
may be shunned by people. People may talk behind our backs. People
may post stuff on social media. There are all kinds of things that can
happen to us when we go public with our Christian faith, rather than keeping it
to ourselves.
That’s why Paul wrote about the
armor of God. We need protection from those things that may happen.
We have the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness to protect
us. We have the gospel of peace to help us stand our ground. And
now, we come to the shield of faith.
When you think about it, faith is
what makes all those other things effective. Truth is good, but without
faith we can be tempted to abandon the truth. Righteousness is good, but
our righteousness can seem pointless, without any reward, without faith.
It will also be hard for us to hold on to the gospel of peace, in the face of
the world’s attacks, without faith.
But notice what the shield of faith
does. Paul says the shield of faith will “extinguish all the flaming
arrows of the evil one.” And that’s entirely consistent with what Paul
said earlier, that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against
the powers of this dark world against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms.”
So what that means is that the
shield of faith will not necessarily protect us from things that happen in this
world. It’s designed to protect us from the arrows of the evil one, the
powers of the dark world, the spiritual forces of evil. And that’s consistent,
not only with what Paul says, but with what Jesus himself says. In
Matthew Ten, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid of
those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One
who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Paul believed
that. In fact, he lived it. He’s the one who said in the letter to
the Philippians “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The way Paul
looked at it, one of two things would ultimately happen. The authorities
would eventually give up and let him go, in which case he would continue to do
everything he could for Christ. Or, they would kill him, in which case he
would go to actually be with Christ. Either way, he would win! He
could live that because he knew he was protected by that shield of faith.
But you know, when you think about it,
that shield of faith protected Paul in this world, too. It protected him
from giving in to what the evil one wanted him to do. It protected him
from giving in to what society wanted him to do. Without that shield of
faith, Paul might very well have been tempted to be quiet, because he’s earthly
life would have been much more important to him. But because of Paul’s
faith, because he had confidence of his salvation through faith in Jesus Christ
as the Savior, he was able to keep speaking out. He was able to keep
sharing his faith, because he knew that no matter what might happen in his
earthly life, he would have salvation and eternal life. It was his faith,
along with God’s love and grace and mercy, that would make that possible.
And that’s what we can do, too, when
we put on that shield of faith. Because we’re often tempted to be quiet,
too. That’s what those flaming arrows of the evil one are designed to
do. They’re designed to intimidate us. They’re designed to scare
us. They’re designed to make us hesitant, reluctant to share our faith,
because of what might happen if we do. Again, society has no problem with
you and I being Christians, as long as we don’t make a big deal out of
it. The evil one has no problem with you and I being Christians, as long
as we keep it to ourselves. That’s the goal of those flaming arrows--to
keep us quiet, to keep us from making a big deal out of our Christian faith.
But that shield of faith will
protect us from those arrows, just as they protected Paul. If you and I
truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior, if you and I truly believe that
our faith in Jesus Christ gives us salvation and eternal life, then we’re
shielded. We’re protected. Yes, there may be some consequences for
us on earth. Again, there were consequences for Paul, there were
consequences for Jesus, there have been consequences for Christians for two
thousand years. But those consequences are nothing compared to the reward
of salvation and eternal life that comes to us when we stay faithful to
God. When we have the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness,
when we stand firm in the gospel of peace, and when we have the shield of
faith, there is nothing that anyone in this world can do to us. You and I
can say, as Paul did, that to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Because
we will know that, when we die, we will go to be with the Lord.
Going public with our Christian
faith is not always easy. There are often consequences, and those
consequences can be hard to deal with. But our Christian faith is too
important to keep to ourselves. Salvation and eternal life are too
important to keep to ourselves. The world needs the gospel of Jesus
Christ. It’s up to us, to you and me, to share it with them. It can
be scary sometimes. But we have the Lord’s shield of faith to protect
us. It will protect us from the temptation to give in while we’re on
earth. And it will protect us for eternal life with the Lord in heaven.
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