Closer Day By Day

Have you ever been persecuted for being a Christian before?

The closest I’ve ever come to being persecuted was when a person refused to pay any attention to a few of us and shouted something along the lines of “You believe in your God and I’ll believe in mine” from within her house when we were doing door to door evangelism.

This is hardly worth mentioning compared to what the disciples had to suffer in the name of Christ and in today’s chapter, we see the beginning of persecution of the church closely following its rapid growth.

Bible Passage:  Acts 4

The beginning of persecution was actually rather mild compared to the later persecution. While Peter and John were ‘put in custody’, they were unharmed physically and let off with warnings and threats. However, because they, as well as the church, had the correct mentality in their work of preaching, this persecution helped them to become more convicted of what they believe in and strengthened them in preparation for later, more severe persecution to come.

Let’s see, from the words of Peter and John, what we should bear in mind so as to amour ourselves against wavering in the face of persecution.

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

A firm recognition of the need for the salvation and the only way to receive it is necessary to help us tide over difficulties in our journey of faith, be they persecution or otherwise.

Inevitably, there will be times when things do not go well in our own lives or we meet with wall after wall in our preaching work. At times like these, not knowing why we are walking on the Christian path will result in us choosing an easier, seemingly better way.

On the other hand, if we realise the need for salvation for both ourselves as well as others, we will not leave this path and give up preaching no matter how tough the going gets because as the verse says, there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved meaning there’s no other path to walk on that leads to salvation.

Peter and John also said,

[...] Whether it is right in the sight of God listen to you more than to God, you judge. (Acts 4:19)

This shows very clearly that they knew who they should obey.

Just the past Saturday, during Bible study with a truth seeker, my co-Bible study leader mentioned that there are three forces we can choose to submit to: God, the devil or man. Which force do we usually submit to?

Sadly, because usually man makes his force more prominent, we tend to obey men and choose to disobey God who does not force anyone to do anything. If we submit to ourselves and the people around us more than God, how can we stand firm in the face of persecution?

Therefore, while we are still enjoying religious freedom and a general lack of persecution, let us train ourselves up to have the spirit of the disciples so that when the time comes, we can rejoice and praise God even amidst persecution like they did.