2 Timothy 3:12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

I doubt that this is very many people’s favorite Scripture! However, unless this is made clear, too many earnest new Christians will think they are unique in running into opposition. In Japan and America, the two worlds that I straddle, there isn’t much organized governmental persecution (yet), but social persecution is very operative in both cultures. It’s important to notice that Paul says here, the one who “desires to live a devout life.” The average person on the street couldn’t care less about living a devout life. That’s why they resent anyone who does, because it makes them look bad by comparison. Most people are actually comforted, in a sense, to read or hear about horrible criminals, because it enables them to feel good about themselves because they aren’t like that. When they rub shoulders with someone who is living a holy life and actively pursuing God, they feel horrible. That’s why evangelism must always be on the foundation of humility, that is, God was this gracious to me, so you can experience His grace too. An effective evangelist will always have a sharp focus on the reality that they are hopeless without Christ. Meanwhile, everyone who is genuinely living for Christ is going to encounter envy and resentment at the least, and those will often manifest in various forms of persecution. Every believer needs to keep that in mind, and indeed pray for those who persecute them and mistreat them. (Matthew 4:44)

I feel I have personally encountered very little that felt like persecution to me, but I have been yelled at in a bar because I was drinking a soft drink instead of alcohol. That’s a good illustration of what I’ve just said, but because that man wasn’t close to me emotionally, it didn’t feel like persecution. However, this church has many who are the only Christians in their families, and they encounter a wide variety of persecution every day. I need to encourage them and help them keep their eyes on Jesus, as it tells us in Hebrews 12:2-3. A problem I have encountered in trying to do that is that I haven’t personally been in their situation, and as a Caucasian in Japan I’m not expected to conform perfectly, so I sometimes get the response that “I don’t know their suffering.” That’s true, actually, but I do know our Lord, and I know that His grace is sufficient for us regardless of our situations. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Father, thank You that Your grace is sufficient for me, too, as I try to shepherd this flock. I am achingly aware of my own inabilities at times. Help me be even more aware of Your sufficiency. Help me indeed encourage and strengthen the believers to stand firm in Christ against all of the onslaughts of the devil and the fallen world we live in, whether they be physical, emotional, or spiritual, so that we may walk in Your peace and joy at all times, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!