Remember
the prisoners as if chained with them--those who are
mistreated--since you yourselves are in the body also. (Hebrews 13:03,
NKJV).
Although
muted in much of today's media, the persecution of Christians is on
the rise throughout the world. In many areas, professing faith in
Christ is a felony. Evangelizing others is a capital offense. Pastors
are imprisoned and mistreated daily. Families are torn apart.
Missionaries are beaten and murdered. It is a trend without precedent
even given the hostility of the Roman world of the 1st
Century and subsequent Christ-rejecting eras.
Other
forms of persecution, especially in the West, are more subtle but
nearly as repressive, and none of it should be a surprise. In fact,
it is exactly as Jesus said:
“If
the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you,
‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted
Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will
keep yours also.” (John 15:18-20, NKJV).
Make
no mistake. If you are a true follower of Christ, the world is
against you. The more closely you walk with Him and the more you
speak the truth in love, the more enmity will come your way. Those in
your own household may turn away from you and betray you; your own
family may despise and slander you.
There
are really only two camps; those whose allegiance is with Christ, and
those who are of the world. You can attempt to straddle the
dividing line, closeting your faith, holding your tongue, trying to
fit in, and you may, for a time, succeed. But know this, that is
precisely what the world wants you to do: shut up.
If
you have never suffered from this kind of pressure, your are either
fortunate, or guilty of compromise.
While
we are commanded to live peaceably, as much as it depends on us, we
should not expect peace. We are soldiers in enemy territory, and
while we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, it is often from our
own flesh and blood that the deepest hurts come.
So
what are we to do?
From
the verse above, the strategy is profoundly simple. We are to so
identify with, and support, each other, following Christ's own
example, that what is done to one of us, grieves us all. There is no
room or place for apathy in the Body of Christ. Indifference to the
persecution and mistreatment of our brothers and sisters in the Lord
is not an option.
We
are to weep with those who weep.
Know
this too, there are many forms of imprisonment, as there are forms of
mistreatment - not just the physical kind. Chains are not always
visible, and abuse does not always leave marks.
The
writer of Hebrews exhorts us to remember the prisoners.
Remember them in prayer. Remember them in anyway that can provide
comfort and support. Remember them as you would remember the parts of
your own body.
Think
how desperately hard it is for you to forget a broken limb, or your
own chronic illness. That is the model to follow.
When
one child of God suffers, we all suffer, and in remembering them in
this way, we are not only following the example of the Lord Himself,
but we are reminding ourselves of His care for each one of us, and of
His so extravagantly identifying with our own suffering and sin that
He went to the Cross on our behalf.
This
is not to say that weeping is our only recourse, for we are also to
rejoice with those who rejoice. Martyrs throughout history have
counted it joy to suffer for Christ's sake. From the Apostles onward,
there are astounding accounts of men, women and children who, by
God's empowerment, have faced persecution and death, not with sorrow,
but with supernatural grace and resolve.
In
the Book of Acts, we see Peter, John and others rejoicing with great
joy to be counted worthy to be beaten and imprisoned on behalf of
Christ. Not that they sought such outcomes, or by their own actions
deserved them, but that when persecution came, they understood the
glory of suffering for their allegiance with the Savior of the World.
This
kind of attitude and way of life makes Christians indomitable. While
the world wants to exterminate us like vermin, all they can do is
kill our bodies. They can never take away our faith or our faithful
witness.
And
as was said by Hugh Latimer to Nicholas Ridley as they were burned at
the stake in Oxford, England:
Be
of good comfort, Master Ridley, play the man! We shall this day light
such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be
put out.
Above
all we are to remember that this world is not our home, that our true
citizenship is in Heaven as children of the King, and that nothing
that comes our way in this life is without His purpose and meaning.
But
even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed.
“And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” For it
is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than
for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:14, 17, NKJV).
Remembering
the prisoners, then, is a way to bring us back to the Cross of
Christ, to affirm our unity under one God and one Spirit, to remind
us that we are utterly and solely dependent on the One who Himself
purged our sins.
And
to bring to mind this truth: nothing is ever truly lost in Christ.
For those in chains are not prisoners of the world, but of Christ.
