I Peter 4:12-19

I Peter 4:12-19

What we in the American and Western European Church have experienced over the last three hundred years is by no means the norm for Christianity. In fact, in most of the world and for most of history, to be a disciple of Christ was to invite suffering. While we can be thankful for our religious freedoms, we must also notice that we all have lost something in the “low-risk, low-cost” kind of discipleship we enjoy. Most of the great problems of the church in America today are the result of people who are only marginally committed to Christ. Discipleship will cost them nothing. It requires them to give nothing and may not actually affect their behavior. But in circumstances like those into which Peter was writing, being a Christian might cost you your position in society, your job and well-being, your physical comfort in moments of torture, and even your life. The non-persecuted church can easily slip into the comfortable social church. Persecution purifies the church, strengthens its witness, and testifies to the coming age. The comfortable church does none of these.

In verses 17-18, Peter is warning, again, about the destruction of Jerusalem. The persecution of “mad” Nero was about to ramp up to the next level. Under the agitation of the Jews, the Romans had begun their persecution of the church. Ironically the agitation of the Jews against the church turned back on the Jews themselves. Within five years of Peter writing this letter, the “War of the Jews” would result in the destruction of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the home to many Christians who, having taken the word of Jesus seriously, left the city before the Romans arrived.

It was during the reign of Nero that there was a chance for the church to be destroyed. She was still small enough then that an organized persecution effort might have routed her out, but providentially, Nero was a poor administrator, and by the time of his death, the church had spread too far and too wide to be rounded up. The new Temple, the Christian Believers, would survive, but it would be with difficulty. The physical temple in Jerusalem would not survive; the judgment of God had fully come. We realize that the season of peace the church in America has enjoyed is not the norm for church history. This exception may not last. Being put to death for our faith may not happen soon, but that is generally the last step in persecution.

“Lord, give me strength so that if persecution comes I will be able to stand faithfully. AMEN”