“We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.” – The Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 4:10-13

This is a very sobering and thought provoking passage of scripture.

How many Christians could make such a statement as this?

How many preachers?

I cannot help but hear a tinge of sarcasm in the Apostles renunciation of the Christians at Corinth. They felt {it seems} as though they were top notch believers. They considered themselves wise and honorable and strong. It reminded me of the church of the Laodiceans. Jesus told them a similar truth about their condition;“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”

They evidently felt like the church at Corinth; “We don’t need a thing”

Jesus said, “…be zealous therefore, and repent.”

In John 16:2 Jesus told His disciples …“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”

He also warned His followers in Luke 21 “And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”

Some may be thinking; “well, that’s a tribulation text. I am not worried about that. When tribulation comes…I’m out of here!”

I would like to borrow a thought from the late Leonard Ravenhill about that kind of thinking. God didn’t have a rapture for the millions of Chinese who suffered for their faith. The Christians who suffered under the former Soviet Union didn’t get raptured. The Christians in Muslim countries who are being persecuted and dying for their faith today are not “out of here”

Paul didn’t get raptured and those early Christians who suffered under Nero didn’t get raptured. There are millions who went through terrible persecution down through the ages just for being followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Read the Foxes Book of Martyrs. You might learn something.

They probably were not too surprised though. They probably had read those passages in Gods Word that warned them to be ready for it.

Verses like;

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Acts 14:22 “Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

1 Thessalonians 3:3-4 “That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.”

Most Christians have not been told to expect persecution and tribulation. But that is exactly what the Bible tells us to expect. American Christians somehow believe that we will escape persecution. I hope that’s true. But the world is changing quickly. Bible believing Christians are more and more becoming “the problem”.

Jesus said; “…ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”

We are heading in that direction.