What is persecution, and how do Christians face it?

The Church & Christian LifeIn theological review

The short answer

Persecution is suffering inflicted on people because they belong to Christ: slander, exclusion, loss, violence and, in many places today, death. Jesus pronounces blessing on the persecuted, warns his followers to expect the world's hatred as he received it, and commands prayer for persecutors. Christians face it without retaliation, without surprise, and without abandoning the confession that caused it.

The fuller answer

Keep the word precise, because its meaning matters to those paying the highest price. Persecution is not criticism, disagreement, losing an argument or a cultural privilege, or being held to the same laws as everyone else. In the New Testament it is the deliberate harming of people for the name of Christ: reviling, exclusion, imprisonment, seizure of property and killing, promised by Jesus as the normal experience of his servants in a world that first hated him. Calling lesser discomforts persecution insults believers who this year will lose homes, freedom or life itself for a faith their neighbours in easier countries hold at no cost at all.

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Matthew 5:44 (BSB)

Jesus' teaching on it is strikingly unembittered. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and when you are reviled, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. His own commands about response point one way: pray for those who persecute you, bless and do not curse, overcome evil with good. The first martyr, Stephen, died praying for his killers, and the apostles, beaten by the council, left rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name. None of this is natural. It is presented as the Spirit's work in ordinary people, and as witness: the watching world has always noticed how Christians die and forgive.

Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well.

John 15:20 (BSB)

Facing persecution today starts smaller than martyrdom and should be practised there: telling the truth when a lie would be easier, holding a Christian conviction kindly at work or in family when silence would cost nothing, refusing to return contempt for contempt. Pray for the persecuted church by name and country, support those who serve it, and let their faithfulness correct our comforts. And if real persecution comes to you, you will not face it unequipped or alone: the same Lord who warned of it promised his presence in it, and the long record of his church, in every century including this one, is that he keeps that promise.

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

Acts 5:41 (BSB)

The Acts scene is the one to keep in front of you: the apostles, flogged and ordered to stop speaking in Jesus name, left the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name, and did not stop teaching and preaching. Two things travel together there and must not be separated: no retaliation and no retreat. The persecuted church across the centuries has characteristically refused both revenge and silence, praying for its enemies while continuing to confess. That combination, unnatural as it is, has repeatedly done what neither force nor compromise could: it has converted onlookers.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

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Dig deeper

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Why does God allow suffering?The Bible does not give one reason for every instance, and anyone who offers you one is overselling. It does give a frame: the world is fallen and groaning, human evil does real damage, God is patient toward a world he intends to judge and remake, and in the meantime he has entered the suffering himself in Jesus Christ. The final answer is not an explanation but an ending: a day when he wipes away every tear.Where is God when it hurts?With you, is the Bible's answer, though rarely in the way we would have scripted. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble, says the psalm, written out of trouble, not about it. And in Christ he has not watched suffering from outside it. The God of the cross knows the inside of pain, and his invitation to the weary is rest, not explanations.What is faith?Faith is trusting God's word and God's Son with your whole weight. Hebrews defines it as the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see. It is not believing without evidence, and it is not mere agreement that something is true. It is the hand that receives what grace gives.Who was Paul?Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles: a Pharisee who persecuted the church, met the risen Jesus on the Damascus road, and spent the rest of his life planting churches around the Roman world and writing the letters that fill much of the New Testament. No other figure explains how a crucified Jewish Messiah came to be worshipped from Jerusalem to Rome within one generation.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.Bible Character: StephenThe first martyr of the church: one of the Seven chosen to serve the widows, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, who traced Israel's history to the council's face, saw heaven opened, and died praying for his killers.Bible Character: PaulThe Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road, and who became his apostle to the Gentiles, travelling the Roman world and writing many of the New Testament letters.