"Persecution Is Your Fault"

One colossal misunderstanding of the modern Church is that, given enough grace and kindness, Christians should have no natural enemies. If Christians were to simply “act like Jesus,” outsiders would take no offense—they might even flock to us.

This framing assumes that Christians are necessarily to blame for those who find our message offensive. I hear the following kinds of sentiments so often that I’m compelled to write this very piece:

• “Homosexuals want nothing to do with Christianity because our people have been so hateful!”

• “I had a friend who finally came with me to church, and because the preacher was preaching about abortion, he said he’d never go back to church ever again.”

• “I saw another church member post something favorable about an elected leader, and now my wife wants to go somewhere else.”

• “I brought my unchurched girlfriend to worship today, and the preacher was talking about sanctification, which meant nothing to her. I wish the preacher wouldn’t have used Christian language. Doesn’t he know that there are visitors in the audience? Ugh. Now she doesn’t want to go with me again!”

• “I read an article about how Christianity has its lowest approval rating in American history. So I’ve decided to cut ties with organized religion. I’m removing any obstacle that would keep my secular friends from finding Jesus.”

These sentiments are running rampant, and they reek of egotism and, frankly, a failure to grasp the clear precedent of Jesus’ own life and teaching. In many respects, these sentiments promote outright heresy. The urgency of this matter is hard to overstate.

Before I really dig into the problem, let me make the most obvious of all concessions: It is possible for a Christian to act like a jerk. Yes, it’s true. It is possible for a Christian to misrepresent Christ. For that matter, it is possible for an entire church to promote a false religion in the name of Jesus. At times professed Christians have behaved in ways that destroyed their witness before the world. All of that’s true. But that’s not the problem that I’m addressing.

I’m addressing the false assumption that somebody’s sour feelings about Christianity must indicate a failure to represent Jesus. There are so many who think that if Christians were more like Jesus, nobody in our secular, atheistic, hedonistic, pluralistic, postmodern era would take offense at us. No, no. If Christians just acted like Jesus, the pluralistic culture would have no problem with our teaching that Jesus is the literal only way to the Father (John 14:6). If Christians just acted like Jesus, the transgender culture would take no offense at the first words of Scripture, “male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). If Christians actually lived like Christ, everybody would like us!

You start to get the idea that persecution is a curse only brought on by a Christian’s own faithlessness. Those who “really get” Jesus can point a finger at the bruised and tattered church with the taunt, “Persecution is your fault!”

And from their pedestals, they turn their noses at anybody who’s a subject of the world’s slanderous charge. They grovel and vie for the world’s affections, assuring the practicing pagans that they’re not like those other, unwelcoming, mean-spirited, judgmental Christians. No—They’re like Jesus.

This kind of attitude is so far from Biblical truth that it runs headlong into a host of outright Biblical heresies. It takes the clear life and message of Jesus and inverts it, leaving adherents with a disjointed theology and an absolute head-scratcher of a question, “So what exactly got Jesus killed?”

If acting like Jesus must curry the world’s favor, then why was Jesus himself driven out of town and nearly pushed off a cliff? And why were so many seething at his sermons, shrewdly plotting his demise? And why was he beaten and scourged and pierced through and hung upon a cross, naked, to bleed out before a world that mocked him and wagged their heads at him as they went by? Perhaps Jesus hadn’t acted enough like Christ?

I’ve had these conversations enough times that I know the canned retort: “Jesus was only persecuted by religious people. The sinners and the marginalized received him with open arms!”

This analysis is bereft of content and substance. It does not stand up to the faintest wind of scrutiny. It assumes that religious elites must necessarily be depraved and that wayward sinners will certainly be meek candidates of faith, just waitin’ for someone to rescue them from their simple ignorance.

This dichotomy breaks down very quickly. First of all, in one sense, nearly everybody Jesus addressed was a part of the “religious” class, for he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6; 15:24). He spent his whole life on earth preaching to covenantal Jews, who were entrenched in Levitical rites and Mosaic instruction. Some of these were faithless aristocrats, and some of them were helpless sheep without a shepherd. But they all got a fair hearing from Jesus.

It is true that most of the religious leaders rejected him—but not all of them did. Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, ultimately embraced Jesus in the light of day (John 19:39ff). Joseph of Arimathea, who was “a respected member of the council” (Mark 15:43), was a notable disciple of Jesus (John 19:38). Paul, formerly Saul, was a Pharisee of high rank, who initially rejected Jesus but ultimately became his most famous evangelist.

But perhaps more significant than this, the gospels are full of common, everyday, “marginalized” people who rejected Jesus outright. When Jesus fed the 5,000, the various gospels note how Jesus also healed them of various diseases. These were the common people. And in John 6, these very people abandoned him after he began to preach. It didn’t matter how much he’d done for them by way of service. They didn’t believe in him, and they didn’t like his message. Just read John 6:66.

The people in the rural country of the Gadarenes begged Jesus to leave their region after he cast the evil spirits out of the demoniac (Matthew 8:34).

Matthew records, “Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent” (Matthew 11:20). Jesus pronounced woes on Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. These were the country folk—not the aristocracy. They saw most of his miracles, and still, they did not repent.

Time would fail to detail the missionary journeys of Peter and Paul and the troubles chronicled in the book of Acts. They did not meet resistance from Jewish leaders only. And they did not have success with marginalized people only. Pagans rejected them and their message. Leading officials at times accepted them. And Jews, together with Romans, imprisoned them. People are people are people—no matter how much they know, no matter their class, no matter their demographic or nationality.

Or what about the book of Revelation? It is a message of hope for Christians who were being heavily persecuted, not by religious Bible thumpers, but by the pagan Roman Empire. Are you aware of how the apostles were martyred all over the ancient world?

It is profoundly obvious that faithful Christians have been meeting resistance and persecution from the surrounding world since the beginning. This point is so obvious that I’m beginning to forget why I’m even writing this piece!

It is untrue, unwarranted, and patently unbiblical to suggest or promote the idea—or even to think in your heart—that the world’s offense must indicate a bad form of Christianity. On the contrary, the opposite is true.

As a matter of fact, Jesus said, “You will be hated by everyone because of my name” (Matthew 10:22). That’s a promise. He explained why: ²⁴ “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵ It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matthew 10:24-25).

If somebody is truly a follower of Jesus, they will meet resistance, rejection, slander, and at times, worse.

Rather than broad acceptance being the normal posture of the unbelieving world, Jesus said that rejection is normal. This is why he told his disciples, “¹¹ “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12). It’s always been this way.

This means that when the world rejects Christianity, it is par for the course. Rather than a mark of failure, persecution is a mark of success. Jesus said in one breath a statement that obliterates the current sentiment: “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you” (Luke 6:26).

Do you see how Jesus’ own life and Word stands as a witness against what so many professed Christians are now advertising?

When we promote the false idea that “good Christianity = worldly acceptance”, the following results are inevitable:

1. A milquetoast Christianity that places the mitigation of offense above gospel faithfulness. The result is a failure of nerve and the avoidance of many many many Scriptures that use harsh language and address sensitive topics. Rather than Paul who was sure to preach “the whole counsel of God,” we end up with pulpits that preach only what we subjectively deem “the wholesome counsels of God.”

2. A failure to truly disciple anybody. We end up with churches that are a mile wide and an inch deep. By keeping our discussions general so as to never be precise (and accidentally poke at somebody’s idol), we set the church up for failure. Her members are left ignorant of their sins, and they’re left without a solid base for when a true trial comes. Those with ears that are willing to hear are left wanting, never being totally fed because mealtimes are either vegan or kosher.

3. A failure to actually convert people to Christ. Jesus said that self-denial and a personal death are prerequisite for following him (Matthew 16). Many people come to Jesus with no concept of the cost of following him. And our churches capitalize on it, because, if we say the hard stuff, they’ll leave. But who are we fooling? The numbers in the pews are not representative of the heavenly roster. Jesus did not lure people along with empty promises. He laid out the cost of discipleship immediately: Take up your cross, sell all you own, leave the dead to bury their own dead, etc etc. If we don’t do like he did, we are simply recording false conversions.

When John the Baptist was in prison, he began to question the faith he formerly preached so certainly. So he asked Jesus, in essence, are you really the Messiah? How could the Messiah allow me to endure prison? Isn’t he supposed to be fixing these issues?

Jesus responded back to John, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Matthew 11:6). That very statement implies that many were offended and would be offended by him. Even John was offended!

When Elijah faithfully preached throughout the land of Israel, he had no qualms about calling out Israel’s idols by name. For this reason, Ahab, the king, hated him. Ahab had mustered up several hundred “yes” men, who told him lies that made him feel good—but ultimately got him killed.

It’s funny, though, that when Ahab met Elijah face to face, he said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” (1 Kings 18:17). Elijah was seen as the troubler, just as many Christians are today. Telling the truth to people who are bound by deception often times causes a skirmish. And it’s way too easy to point the finger at the guy who called, fire! Whoever lit the match in the room full of fumes is to blame, right?

But Elijah wasn’t the troubler of Israel. Elijah was going where God told him to go and saying what God gave him to say. So Elijah responded to Ahab, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals” (1 Kings 18:18).

Conclusion

If a Christian is living a wild and reckless life, he should be rebuked. If a Christian is calling people names and purposefully stirring up strife, he should be marked. If a Christian tries to be harsh and cutting, he needs correction. If a Christian is promoting heresies, he should be put out of the church.

But if a Christian speaks faithfully into the darkness and is punished for it, the church should rally around him and fill him with courage like the New Testament church did.

After Peter and John were released from jail for preaching the gospel, the church got together and prayed like this: ^“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29).

Imagine if the early church had rebuked Peter or John for their imprisonment. Didn’t they realize how badly this represented the local Christians? I mean, Peter and John were caught up in a public scandal and a failure to follow a civic mandate!

Imagine if the church had responded like that. Many of our churches today would respond like that. And do. It troubles me deeply.

Here’s the deal. Sometimes a visitor is going to be turned off by the sermon. Sometimes a friend is going to be offended by the Bible. Often times the world is going to hate the exclusiveness of our faith. That’s not the preacher’s fault, it’s not the church’s fault, and it’s not the fault of any member who shares in it. It’s the work of God’s mighty Word as it pierces to the division of soul and spirit. It will not return empty.

Go forth and be faithful. Wrap your arms around the faithful brothers that you know. Love the world enough to share the truth that it so needs. Fear not, and worry not about the offense which will surely ensue. Seek God’s glory and seek his face. And he will provide.