Do you enjoy a comfortable life? Do you like having a nice home? Do you have a nice car to take you from place to place? Do you love getting coffee from a coffee house? Are you popular among your co-workers or fellow students? Have you considered being persecuted?
We often live a pretty comfortable life. Sure, we wish we had more. Maybe we want a special person by our side. We might desire a bigger house. Perhaps we don’t get to eat at a restaurant as often as we like. In all likelihood we cannot buy everything we want.
The early Christians had it a bit harder. They weren’t always being pursued, but they often were considered the outcast. There were times when they were persecuted or martyred if they were caught worshiping Jesus. The Jews would persecute them for not worshiping properly according to Jewish laws and customs. The Romans would persecute them for rumors that circulated about them drinking blood or eating flesh, thinking they were cannibals.
This is why the Apostle Peter writes to his audience about being called to suffer, much like Jesus suffered. They were misunderstood. The Jews and Romans did not really care to understand them. Suffering for their faith in Jesus Christ was worth it. They knew they were going to be with Him forever.
We do not normally face persecution in the same way the early Christians did. Yet, we do suffer. Often it is fear of professing our faith. Why? We do not want to be ostracized for it. Hmmm. Sounds a lot like the early Christians. They were ostracized for their faith, and we can be, too. Yet, as Peter tells the early Christians, he tells us, this is what we are called to. We are to profess our faith and if we are ostracized, we can take solace in the fact that we will spend eternity with Jesus.
I pray we all profess our faith. I pray we ask God to give us the courage to profess our faith. I pray each one of us will forget about being ostracized by knowing we will spend eternity with Jesus. Profess your faith. Be willing to suffer. Know you will spend eternity with Jesus.
1 Peter 2:21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
Marty Pressey 