Yesterday I got to chat with a long-time friend, Pete G. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that Christians in some countries put their lives and livelihood at risk by following the Christ. This reminded me of our bold brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. Some Christian Afghanis identify themselves as Christians on their national identity cards. In so doing, they risk death and certainly discrimination.
Pete's purpose in mentioning this was to contrast it with how we, and particularly Christians in Higher Education, are so often fearful of being persecuted for our Christianity. We both asked, "What is the worst thing we could face in following the Christ?" Well, our status might drop, in a worst case we might be denied tenure. Now compare that with death.
As I have mentioned before, in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5:11-12 Jesus tells us that if we suffer for His sake, our reward in heaven will be great. Our problem is that we have doubts about those rewards. We are confident of the benefits of status now, and clearly earning tenure is a big deal.
And, of course it is easy for Pete and I to be brave, because tenure is not at stake for us. Likewise we are not worried about our status. But, what do we Christians have to fear? Our biggest problem has already been solved by Jesus the Christ.
"Fear not!" is a common command in Scripture. "Fear G^d!" is also a common command in Scripture.
Let's put these two commands together and let us be bold in proclaiming the Christ/
Good point.
ReplyDeleteNeil