1 Peter is a New Testament letter often (rightly!) used to teach
Christians about what it means to suffer for being a Christian and how
we can glorify God and persevere in the midst of persecution. Of
course, in a sense, as John Piper often points out, all suffering
endured by a Christian, even the "everyday" kind endured by others is,
if you believe in the sovereignty of God, related to you being a
believer. But I'm considering here suffering specifically visited on
christians by others because of their doctrinal or ethical stances
which result directly from Christian conviction.
Whilst preparing to speak on 1 Peter 3-4 recently two phrases in
particular caught my attention:
3:13-14 - "Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But
even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed."
3:17 - "For it is better,
if it is God's will, to suffer for doing
good than for doing evil."
When preaching about persecution Christians are rightly informed by
texts such as "everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted." (2 Tim 3:12). That's undoubtedly true: even in a
setting very friendly to Christian belief by historical standards
(such as the UK in the C21st) it's inevitable that at some point in
your life you will face rejection, hardship or hassle if you maintain
consistently Christian doctrine and ethics (often from others who call
themselves Christians!).
But it seems that Peter wants to qualify that point, even in the midst
of real persecution for at least some of his readers. Why?
It's worth remembering that the recipients of this letter were spread
throughout a large geographical area and that different conditions as
regards others' attitudes to Christians probably applied in each
place. There is a very different tone in 4:12-19, so it seems highly
unlikely that both 3:14 and 4:12 can be aimed at the same individual
Christian, in the same way that not every reader of this letter a
slave (2:18) or a wife (3:1). Even in this section where persecution
is much more to the fore there is conditionality -
if you are insulted
(4:14),
if you suffer (4:15) - so it doesn't seem that suffering as a
Christian is the daily normality of life for most of these
Christians.
Persecution was a present reality for some, but not for
others, at least not at that moment.
Even with a lesser kind of suffering/persecution such as "insult" (which is far more common than physical abuse or
martyrdom) at any given period of time and place in history it seems
Peter's view is that the norm is that any given Christian
or local church won't be being insulted.
Peter emphasises to those readers are currently suffering that the
gospel is sufficient to deal with it. But he also wants to avoid the
chilling effect of persecution on Christian witness amongst those who
are not being persecuted; he desires them not to develop a
"persecution complex."
This is undoubtedly a word for our times as the persecution complex is
alive and well amongst British evangelicals as I have blogged
perviously (
here).
So whilst we must not ignore the hard truth that "everyone who wants
to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" it's
erroneous to suggest that the normal Christian experience is that many
people will give us a hard time most of the time. In fact such a high
view of persecution leads to unhelpful results such as...
1. Christians who are actually living very comfortable lives looking
to understand the comments and actions of non-Christians towards them
as persecution (rather than thanking God that we live in a place of
relative prosperity and freedom for the gospel) because they feel that
to be persecuted is a vital sign that we're really living the
Christian life.
2. Christians ending up presenting the gospel offensively and behaving
in exclusive ways so that we can then say "well of course the world
rejects us and the gospel." when they don't come in to the church.
In a nation like the UK, every consistent Christian will
occasionally face opposition, laughter and mocking from friend, family
or workmates. A few Christians will lose their jobs and/or be
alienated from family and a very small number (especially those
converting from Islam) will face real threats to their personal
safety. But we need to remember that the vast majority of us will be
in the first category and not allow our Christian living to be stifled
by fear of persecution, because one of Peter's points is that it's
likely you mostly won't be persecuted if you're the kind of person who
is eager to do good.
Although there have been specific, horrific outbursts of violence
against Christians (the Armenian genocide and Pol Pot's Cambodia
spring to mind) the everyday reality of most Christians, in the
UK and in the majority of countries in the world, is that most of the time we are able to carry on with our work
and family life and even some (perhaps in some places only discreet) evangelism in a way consistent
with our Christian beliefs without coercive interference from the
state or even verbal abuse from others. I know missionaries and local
Christians in most of the central asian states and throughout the
middle east. It's really hard being a Christian there, as it is in
Catholic Europe, and I thank God he has raised up tough and faithful
servants. But mostly, praise God, they are not being questioned by the
police, locked up or put on trial, but meeting people, sharing the gospel and planting low-profile churches!
We must, of course, fight and pray
hard for those brothers and sisters who are oppressed. We need to remember how painful it is to be persecuted, even a little bit of the time. And I wholeheartedly support the work of Barnabas Fund
(www.barnabasfund.org), Open Doors (www.opendoorsuk.org) and HART
(www.hart-uk.org).
But for those of us who live in a countries like the UK, although we
must be prepared to be persecuted for our faith, we ought to expect
that most of the time even those who reject the gospel will do so relatively politely and with (grudging?) respect.
Should Christians expect to suffer? Yes, and no.
Yes in the sense that
suffering in some way as a direct result of being a Christian is a
normal part of life at some point for almost all Christians and an
intense and sometimes fatal reality for a few Christians.
But no in the sense that when we get out of bed on any given day in
any given place, and especially somewhere as free as our country
currently is, the most likely outcome is, as Peter says, that people will not
harm us if we are eager to do good.
"Marriage is the union of two people who arrive at the altar toting some surprisingly large luggage."*
