Suffering as a Christian

Saturday September 11, 2021

Suffering as a Christian

May none of you suffer for killing, stealing, harming, or meddling in the affairs of others. But if someone suffers because he is a Christian, let him not be ashamed of it. On the contrary, let him give glory to God in this situation. 1 Peter 4:15, 16

Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Prize for Literature) wrote a story titled : "A Day of Ivan Denissovich".

Ivan is an inmate in a forced labor camp under the Stalin dictatorship. One morning after breakfast, his team waited for orders to go to work, in the dark night, in freezing cold. At this point, Ivan hears another detainee, Christian Alyosha, read aloud the Gospel which he wrote down in a small notebook. Ivan then quotes in his account the verse that Alyosha often repeats to justify his patience and submission, out of love for Jesus : this is the verse of the day. We can rejoice that a literary work, on a subject as difficult as the concentration camps, picks up the testimony of a Christian, and quotes verbatim from the Bible. As a result, tens of thousands of readers, believers or not, have had their attention drawn to the behavior of a tried Christian because of his faith, for the name of Christ. For, in fact, Alyosha had been condemned solely on the grounds that he was a Christian. We thank God that he was a faithful witness to the atrocities in the camps and that the whole world learned about it.

Such injustices have existed since the beginning of Christianity. Even when human justice cannot blame them, those who confess Jesus as their Savior and testify for Him are often the object of the contempt, hatred and persecution of the world. The Lord told His disciples this would be so (Matthew 5:11). These lived it and the Jewish Christians, whom Peter exhorted, tested it too. Our part is not to expose ourselves to blame in the things that the world itself condemns, and not to be ashamed, either of Christ, or of the Christian witness. I endure this suffering; but I am not ashamed, for I know who I have believed, such is the example of the apostle Paul (2 Timothy 1:12). In disgrace, we can also rejoice in being counted worthy to suffer for Christ (Acts 5:41).

Source (Pleasing the Lord)