TO SHARE IN THE CAUSE OF CHRIST

Psalms 119:157 Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.

David was a godly man. He was godly because of his great love for God, his great faith in God, and because of great repentance from his sins. His heart was truly yielded to the heart of God and he did not resist the correction of the Almighty. Yet, in spite of all these great virtues, he had many enemies.

These enemies were not only foreign people, nations and armies, but were also counted among his own friends and kin (Psalms 41:9; 2 Samuel 15:4). His life seems to have been a constant struggle from within and from without. Why is it that such a man who gave his all to God found very little peace during his lifetime?

The same happens today in the world. Jesus said so. How can we, even today. Expect people who reject him to receive us. How can we expect acceptance from a world that crucifies Him daily? Why should the “prince power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) to leave us, the “seed of the woman” (Revelations 12:17), alone when he knows that we are a daily threat to his kingdom? We need to truly appreciate any moment of peace in this world; to consider it a treat that He has Himself foregone while in ministry here. Jesus is certainly better to us that he was to Himself while He was on earth.

There is yet another question to be asked. If our life seems to roll along like a song without much of a fight; If the societies of the world easily accept us as one of their own; do we share in the fate of Christ? If our virtue counts no enemy; if we find it easy to get along with all; if our own kin never would rise against us (John 15:25); do we truly share in the fate of our Lord?

The life of every true child of God in history is marked with physical and spiritual persecutions. It is so because every true child of God is a witness to God’s power, and therefore a threat to the devil’s kingdom. In the Greek, the word ‘witness’, is also the word “martyr’. There is no true witness that is not also a martyr for the cause of Christ.

John 15:20 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.

2Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.