There is
much meaning in our golden text today and all of it relevant to Christians
today. Those of us watching the world see
the way the wind is blowing. Already any
who call on the name of our Lord Jesus in many parts of the world face severe
persecution and even death, as is reportedly going on in Syria today. But what about those of us in Western lands
where the right to worship as we choose is traditionally respected?
Those lands
are becoming increasingly secular, and just as happened under the secularism of
the French Revolution those calling on the name of Christ are increasingly
coming under attack. We’re already
mocked as out of touch with society and unenlightened. As society pushes us into the margins while
it celebrates the losing from all moral restraint laws are promulgated to
marginalize us even further and even punish us for taking a stand for God’s
standards.
On campus,
Christian speech is relegated to hate speech and students taking a stand for
God’s way receive failing grades or even find themselves put out of school
altogether for their stand. Hate speech
laws are used to silence us, as in the case of a minister in Canada who was
punished for the act of posting a billboard with a quotation from the Bible on
God’s position on homosexuality. A
couple was fined in New Mexico for declining to take a job memorializing a gay
commitment ceremony, something which wasn’t even legal at the time. Yet that didn’t matter, punishing the couple
for standing up for Godly morals was more important than little things like
legality. The same for another couple
who refused to let an old church building they owned be used for a gay wedding,
and one could go on.
The fact is
that we who call upon the name of Jesus Christ, whether wheat or weeds, are now
coming under a secular government intent on bringing all under its thumb and
allowing none to question the new orthodoxy motivated by Christophobia. That means one thing, persecution. Many are in shock that this could take place
in a land where freedom of religion is enshrined in its foundation document. Others now fear this new development. Could it happen to me? When?
How? Yet God’s word gives us
plenty of reason to have comfort as we watch events unfold.
Our golden
text at 1 Pet. 5:10 gives us assurance and explains the purpose of persecution. We are assured that after undergoing
suffering God will, “restore, confirm, strengthen and establish” us. Yes, he will restore our equilibrium, confirm
our calling in him, strengthen us through our suffering and establish us strong
in his truth and way. The thing is that
we aren’t really perfect or ready at our calling for the role God has called us
to. We are nothing more than raw
material needing further work before we become fit for his purpose for us in
heaven. We need to be purified and then strengthened
for our job up there, which brings us to the first picture from the scriptures
which comes to mind.
As the time
for the writing of the Old Testament drew near the prophet Malachi was inspired
to write a prophecy which is quite applicable to our subject:
"Behold, I send my messenger,
and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly
come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight,
behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his
coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and
like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he
will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they
will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. (Mal 3:1-3; ESV)
Fuller’s
soap is a mineral which used to be used to bleach fine linen to a pure white
color. It is also kind of harsh, it had
to be to get that sought after pure white.
But the one we seek here is the picture of the refiner in verses 2 and
3. The refiner mentioned is generally
recognized to be the messiah whom we know to be Jesus Christ. The “sons of Levi,” or the tribe of Levi, was
a type for the household of faith in the Gospel age. So the picture presented to us is that of our
Lord Jesus refining those of us called by God to his Church.
Recall that
we wrote earlier that we are all raw material.
Even is the raw material is natural gold, it still has to be removed
from what little base material which clings to it and then refined by the fire
to the point that all impurities are removed and the gold is pure. That is what persecution and sufferings are,
they are the fire which our lord uses to purify us and make us into the finest
of gold, fit to be members of his heavenly bride as well as co-rulers in his
kingdom. Just as gold undergoes
adversity to reach its purity, so must we.
But there is another biblical picture which applies.
In
Revelation chapter twenty-one we are presented with the wondrous picture of the
New Jerusalem descending out of heaven. Of
course it is the Church, and one part of the awesome spectacle is drawn to our
attention when it tells us “And the foundations of the wall of the city were
garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was
jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald…”
(Rev 21:19) We are informed that the
twelve foundations of the holy city are garnished, or adorned with all sorts of
precious stones, something which no picture of the scene we’ve seen really shows. Since the foundations are the Apostles, the
precious stones decorating those foundations are likely members of the church,
thus we are in part likened to precious jewels of the finest of work.
In our
teenage years we had the hobby of lapidary.
That means we worked and polished valuable stones. The stones had to be cut, then ground down to
their rough shape before being polished, which was done by more grinding down
of the stones with finer and finer grades of material until they had that shine
so smooth one could see themselves in it like a mirror. Well does that illustrate the process of
turning those called to heaven into those fines and precious jewels which adorn
the City of God!
Just like
the precious jewels which start out as rough stones, our Lord uses adversity to
shape and polish those rare finds into the best of jewels. In the literal process of lapidary as much as
half of the stone or even more may be lost in the process. The idea is to remove all of the extraneous
material and flaws we have as imperfect human beings to reveal and accentuate
the beauty within. That means for us
revealing our character flaws and grinding them away until we become ready to
fit in the place in the Church which is reserved for us at our calling. However, we must cooperate in that process if
we want to be set by our Lord in that place.
Sufferings,
including under persecution is that polishing process. Far from fearing it or trying to put it off
we should welcome it, as James pointed out in his letter to our ancient
brethren (James 1:2-4). Now that doesn’t
mean we are to seek out extreme persecution, we are allowed to flee that if a
way out is available which does not compromise our Christian principles. We are also permitted to challenge laws which
criminalize our Christian freedom, such as hate speech laws and requirements
which compromise our Christian principles in lands where there still is some semblance
of justice, as some are doing even now.
Even in
lands where such open official persecution doesn’t exist we may still find
ourselves persecuted socially. In his
famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his listeners:
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for
my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. (Mat 5:10-12)
Yes, we may
undergo the suffering of having our good names slandered by those who hate the
truth for our stand for our Lord. That
is no trivial matter, as anyone so slandered can tell us. More and more right here in the United States
of America secular forces are marginalizing Christians and equating them with
crazy people and hateful fanatics. We
are being driven out of the public sphere and towards the underground. The media from news to entertainment portrays
us in ways which amount to lies. Those
who take a Christian stand often find themselves mocked and slanderous rumors
spread about them. While such things
aren’t nearly as pervasive here as they could be, it looks like they are well
on the way to getting worse.
In that last
quotation we also find how the Lord wants us to react. Just as James wrote his brethren to “count it
all joy,” Jesus told his disciples and others to “rejoice and be exceedingly glad.” Why should we do that, and how can it help us
as things get worse. Paul gave us a
reason:
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth
with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But
if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards,
and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much
rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily
for a few days chastened us
after their own pleasure; but he for our
profit, that we might be
partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Heb 12:7-11)
Remember the
point in the golden text about confirming? When we undergo our refining and polishing
God confirms that we are indeed his children, a part of the household of faith
with whom he is dealing. That is a
wonderful reason for rejoicing and submitting to those sufferings the same way
Jesus did, without complaint. That
knowledge also helps us to endure and even use such trials as tools to help in
our own molding by finding and rooting out any flaws the trials may reveal to
us. Paul acknowledges that those trials
may be hard and burdening at times. Yet
he also reminds us that afterwards they bear peaceable and wonderful fruit.
So in
conclusion, as we see things getting worse it is not ours to fear for the
future. Never forget that the future
will get bleaker for all at this point as mankind descends further into the
darkness. As a consequence the world
will hate us even more. So persecution
we are to expect persecution as even nominally Christian lands abandon any pretense
of following the way of the Master and turn on those who do. How hard and burdensome such trials may be we
do not know for sure. However, we
shouldn’t let ourselves worry over it.
Everything is in God’s hands and he assures us that whatever he permits to
befall us is for our good (Rom. 8:28). So
we should move forward and work in harmony with our Lord and Master secure in
that fact and assured that what comes our way he will help us and comfort us in
our time of trouble.
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