Wilderness Wonderings

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The Heart of the Kingdom

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You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Matthew 5:21-26

The heart of the gospel of the Kingdom is a spirit of reconciliation. Anger that drives a wedge between people to the point of spiritual division within the body of Christ breaks the heart of God. The act of murder is an act born of hatred and unreconciled anger. And by the letter of the law, murder required judgement that exacts the price of death. But Jesus takes the letter of the law further and gets to the heart of the law. If unreconciled anger is at the root of the act of murder, then the heart of the matter is that anger makes one just as guilty as the one who commits the act.

Now let me be perfectly clear. Biblically speaking, anger in and of itself is not a sin. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:26-27: “Be angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” By definition, anger is nothing more than an emotional response to unmet expectations. The question comes down to the righteousness of our expectations. Jesus Himself showed anger at various times within His ministry, but His anger was justified. In every case of anger that Jesus displayed, it was the case of where religious authority was abused to the point of twisting God’s word to manipulate His children. And nothing throughout the history of the Old Testament or the New Testament burns the wrath of God more than those who intentionally lead God’s people astray. That is why some of the harshest penalties of the law of Moses were reserved for false prophets. (See Deuteronomy 13:1-5)

There are plenty of things to be legitimately angry about in this world. Human trafficking. The selling of children within the sex trade. Racism. Murder. All of these are crimes against the image bearers of God himself. And it’s particularly heinous when such crimes are perpetrated against innocent children. These are things that anger the heart of God and should anger all of us. However, the heart of the gospel is one that seeks to reconcile sinners to grace of God. Yes, even the murderer. Yes, even the racist. Yes, even the seller of children and other human traffickers. And there are nothing in this world that burns my own heart to anger more than the scourge of child sex trafficking. However, the truth of the matter is that it is the only the grace of God that brings repentance, not the other way around. The only way we end human trafficking is to reach the heart of traffickers and inspire repentance. The only way we reach end racism is to transform the heart of the racist with the gospel of Christ that reconciles all people until Him.

And Jesus speaks directly to the heart of the gospel by getting to the heart of the law within the heart of mankind. If you have anger in your heart to the point of hatred for another person, then yes, you are just as guilty as if you had murdered them. Whether it be an individual or a class/group of individuals. When we look at the cross of Calvary, and recognize the price God paid to reconcile us, we forfeit all rights to have an unforgiving spirit within our own hearts. And when we harbor anger, bitterness, and resentment within our hearts, we shackle the gospel and put it in a box reserved for those that we find deserving of grace. The truth of the matter is that none of us deserve grace. Otherwise, it isn’t grace; it’s merit. If God can forgive an adulterous, murderous, liar of a king to the point that he is restored and called a “man after God’s own heart,” then He can change the heart of anyone that is willing to seek transformation. Anyone.

And I speak from experience. There have been different people in my life that I have harbored anger and bitterness towards over the years. And every time the name of that person would come up, it would make my heart twist and my head grow cold. And the reality of it all is that my anger was borne out of my own self-righteousness in those cases. My prideful need to be right. In many of those cases, I have sought reconciliation and forgiveness for my attitude towards those individuals. In other cases, I am still working on that. Forgiving and seeking forgiveness.

Now forgiveness and reconciliation do not always mean that the relationship will go back to “normal”. It doesn’t mean that you will be best friends with one another. But it does mean that you no longer hold the offenses of one another to account. The debt is cleared. The line item is vetoed. In fact, by definition, the heart of the word “forgiveness” is “give.” It means you give grace and take the debt that is owed upon yourself. That is what Jesus did on Calvary. That is what we must do with one another for the sake of the Kingdom.

Unresolved anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness within the body of Christ makes a mockery of the cross of Christ. Yes, we are called to hold one another accountable to the law of God and the heart of God. And we must remember that anger does have a proper place and should inspire us to hold one another accountable in a spirit of love. However, the goal of such discipline is not separation, but reconciliation. Discipline is intended to spur repentance in the heart of the offender and reconciliation between parties, but ultimately full reconciliation in our mutual relationship to our Abba Father.

The Law of the Kingdom

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“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:17-20

In order for a Kingdom to exist, there must be a King. In order for a King to have any authority, there must be laws that undergird that authority. Otherwise there is chaos and anarchy, with every man for themselves. And if every person is a law unto themselves, then what happens when you have mutually exclusive, opposing moral compasses? How then would we know who is “right” and who is “wrong”? By necessity, that would require a standard that is external to ourselves in order for it to be equally applied to everyone.

Unfortunately, there are many within the Kingdom that ascribe to the idea that because we are under grace, that somehow the Old Testament law has been done away with – that somehow, the Law of Moses is no longer valid. As Jesus said Himself, He did not come to abolish or do away with the law, but rather to fulfill the law. The word here for fulfill literally means to make it complete.

The Old Testament law required payment or sacrifice for breaking the law. There was a prescribed punishment or offering required depending on what the law was that was broken. Typically the sacrifice was of apparent equal value to that which was lost as a result of the sin. If you stole from your neighbor, then restitution would be required. This would also mean that if you commit murder or a crime of violation against another of God’s image bearers, then often that would mean equal dismemberment or even death.

And Jesus said the standard of the law of Moses has not changed. His standard for our behavior is still the same. And the prescribed penalties are still in place, except with one difference. Jesus fulfilled this prescription. “For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.” (Romans 6:10) The writer of Hebrews made a clear case for Christ as the substitutionary payment for the our sin of breaking God’s law in chapter 10: “First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…Then he adds: Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.” (Hebrews 10:8-10, 17-18)

Now grace and forgiveness do not mean we are given free reign to go back and continue to live a life characterized by sin and not in keeping with God’s law. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This is evident even as far back as the time of the prophet Samuel:

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He has also rejected you [Saul] from being king.”

1 Samuel 15:22-23

Contextually speaking, Saul had disobeyed God by taking spoils from the victory over the Amalekites, specifically against God’s orders. Saul then decided to take those spoils and offer them in sacrifice to God as an act of worship. Let me rephrase it like this: Saul offered the very act of disobedience as an act of worship on the altar of God. How much more blasphemous can one be? And the worst part about it is even when he was confronted with his sin, he blamed the people instead of taking responsibility for his own disobedience.

Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.”

1 Samuel 15:24

Well, you might say, “I would never do such a thing.” But do we not? Do we harbor grudges against our brother/sister as we enter into worship? Have you ever wished harm to someone in the name of “justice” for the sake of our own self-righteousness? Do you judge the appearance of the person sitting in the pew next to you, or decide instead to sit on the other side of the sanctuary to avoid them? Do you sit in worship and ignore the sermon in favor of following your social media feed? Have I relegated my tithe to the end of my budget, giving God only a portion of what remains, instead of the first fruits of my harvest? Do you give your offerings expecting a blessing from Him in return, as opposed to expecting to be a blessing for the Kingdom? Have we ever done an actual honest assessment of our heart in the midst of our ritualism?

It’s not the sacrifice that God desires, even though the law prescribes it. It’s obedience. He desires our obedience to His word. But not obedience out of blind obligation. Not obedience out of ritualistic incantation. To do so reduces the name of Jesus to an act of witchcraft – which is blasphemy of the highest order.

Jesus wants our heart. He wants our devotion. We obey His word because we know that He loves us and He proved His love for us by taking the punishment that we deserve. That doesn’t mean that we escape consequences for our sin that we commit today, even though we are forgiven. Consequences are still inevitable.

The very idea that there is a moral concept of “right” and “wrong” is evidence of a natural, moral law that we are all bound to. If there is a natural or moral law, then by common reason there is a moral law giver. A law giver who has given us a guide by which we as His people are called to obey.

And Jesus challenges us in our obedience. Our righteousness must “exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.” These scribes and Pharisees were keepers of the law. They knew the letter of the law down to the smallest mark. And they followed it to the letter, but did not hide the spirit of the law within their hearts. They followed the law out of a spirit of ritualistic obligation rather than heartfelt devotion to the God who delivered Israel from the bondage of slavery to Egypt. But God desires our devotion – that we follow the law out of reverence and humility, as opposed to vanity and pride. Then and only then will our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees for it will be a righteousness that is imparted to us by Him through the Blood of Christ due to our faith in His word.

The Light of the Kingdom

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“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 5:14-16

In 1990, I began my first stint with college life. As a freshman, and newly reborn believer, I invested a huge amount of time in the Baptist Student Union – now known as Baptist Collegiate Ministries. It was through this campus organization that I had numerous summer missionary opportunities in such places as Cochise County in Arizona, Hong Kong, Cuidad Acuna in Mexico, and Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana. It was also the place that I developed some of the longest lasting friendships that I still have today. One of those friendships was with a young student evangelist named Kenny Moore.

I still have one of Kenny’s business cards from those days. It had the usual contact information while in the background it had the picture of a lighthouse. When Kenny gave me his card, he asked if I knew what the lighthouse meant. Well, I was familiar with the old gospel song “The Lighthouse” and I assumed that it meant that the lighthouse was a representation of Jesus – a light shining in the darkness to guide us to the safety of shore. However, Kenny gently corrected my misconception when he said, “No, the lighthouse is me. It is us as believers who are called to shine the light of Jesus in the world.”

Thus began my fascination with the imagery of lighthouses. I’ve always been drawn to paintings and photographs and posters of lighthouses. I’ve always loved ceramic and porcelain mantlepieces of lighthouses, even though I have none of my own to this day. And there are some things about lighthouses that I learned over the years that has stuck with me, thanks to Kenny’s enlightenment.

First of all, lighthouses are not built on beaches, but rather on rocky cliffs overlooking the sea. This provides for more stability when the storms of the sea come crashing in. Secondly, a working lighthouse must never be abandoned – someone must always be there to tend to the light and ensure that it is always shining. Finally, the beacon is actually a large mirror that reflects the light within it and projecting it through a rotating lens so that it can be seen from all around.

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was the great Lighthouse of Alexandria, built during the reign of Ptolemy II, and was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world in its day. It was severely damaged by earthquakes and then abandoned to ruin. The last portions of it were used to build what is now the Citadel of Qaitbay, built in the 15th century.

In the Christian life, we are called to be a lighthouse to the world. We are called to build our lives on the solid rock of the proclamation of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This firm foundation is one that is unshakable, even as the storms of life come crashing in around us. The truth of Jesus as the Messiah in unchanging and eternal and is our anchor in the storm. We must anchor deep within Him and abide in Him in order to withstand the trials and tribulations of this life.

Secondly, we must always be tending to the light and keeping it shining. That is our number one responsibility as ambassadors of Christ – to shine the light of the King upon this dark world so that others can see the safety of shore and be warned of the dangers below. And we must always be attentive to the light, ensuring that it is shining as bright as possible so that the whole world can see Jesus for who He really is – our safe harbor in the midst of the storm.

Finally, the light that we shine is not our own light, but it is a reflection of His light that is focused outwards towards all around us. This is evidenced by our works of service that are done with a pure heart that seeks not its own gain or reward through pats on the back. It is so that those we minister to will come to know Jesus as the provider of eternal safety in this life and beyond. As we saw in Matthew 4:23-25, Jesus met the physical needs of those who came to Him first and then He addressed their spiritual need for the Kingdom beginning with the Sermon on the Mount.

In a typical home in Jesus’ time, when it reached sundown, it was the duty of a member of the household to light an oil lamp and place it in a position so that all in the home could see in the dark. Darkness in and of itself has no substance. It’s empty. When we are in the dark, it is not so much that we are “in darkness”, but rather we are absent from the light. That’s all darkness is – the absence of light. If you go into a dark closet and close the door, typically you can not see anything once you are in there. All it takes is the tiniest of lights – like the one on your watch – to pierce that darkness and allow a small amount of sight. The brighter the light, the greater the vision.

In Tuscany, Italy – perhaps one of my favorite places in the world – cities are built in one of two locations. They are either built near a river so that the inhabitants have access to fresh water and commerce. Examples of this include Florence and Pisa, as they were built on the banks of the River Arno. The downside to building cities on a riverbank is the potential for flooding, which can cause tremendous damage – as evidenced in the Florence Flood of 1966, which killed 101 people and destroyed millions of artistic masterpieces. There is are still marks of this destruction around parts of Florence to this day.

Elsewhere in Tuscany, cities are built on the top of hills, typically in order to be fortified against attacks by other warring city-states. Examples of this include Arezzo and San Gimignano (the Town of Fine Towers). One unique town is Monteriggioni, which is built on a hill, but also surrounded by a high wall and watchtowers, with only a single gate, the Porta Franca, in and out of the city. This city was the inspiration for the ring of giants that encircled the abyss of Inferno in Dante Alighieri‘s masterful work, The Divine Comedy.

Monteriggioni, Italy

As a city on a hill, the Church has only one entrance and that is through submission to Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. We are built upon a rock that is steady and sure so that the world can see that the work that we do in for the His glory, not ours. For that to be true, we must always be attentive to the light and continually submit to Him daily, taking up our cross – not a cross of obligatory burden, but a cross of victory over sin, death, and the grave. Above all, we must remember that He is the light that lives within us and we must live in a way that is reflecting His light to all around us, so that they will see the dangers below and be guided safely home to shore.

The Salt of the Kingdom

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“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

Matthew 5:13

Salt is undoubtedly one the most common chemical compounds on the earth. It comes in many forms and in multiple chemical combinations. The most common of which is NaCl – one positively charged atomic ion of sodium and one negatively charged atomic ion of chlorine. Seawater contains an average of 2.6% salt by weight, which amounts to an estimated 78 million metric tons per cubic kilometer of water in the oceans and seas of the world.

Throughout the history of the world, salt has had a wide variety of applications. The most obvious use of salt is to add flavor, or rather to enhance the natural flavor of food. Prior to refrigeration it was the most common preservative of meats. In fact, the word “sausage” is derived from a word that literally means “salted meat”. Our word “salad” originates from Romans using salt on leafy greens and vegetables prior to eating. It also where we get the term “salivate.” If we “oversalt” our food, we ruin it. If we don’t use enough salt in cooking, the food is bland and tasteless. It’s all about the right amount of seasoning to perfect the dish.

It has also been used for medicinal purposes as an antiseptic. It has been used in hygiene and cosmetics as an exfoliant in soaps to scrub off dead skin cells. It is used as a bonding agent in pottery and as a chemical agent in textiles, leather tanning, fabric dyes, and bleaches. Salt is often used in dry, arid places in the world to stimulate water retention.

Salt has often been used in various religious rituals as a symbol of purity. There are numerous references to covenants in the Old Testament that were sealed with salt. The word “salvation” also comes from this element of spiritual purification.

There are also military uses for salt. The term “salting the earth” is a reference to a practice of spreading large amounts of salt on the grounds of conquered lands in order to curse the ground and prevent the growing of healthy crops. Salt is used in the production of gunpowder and dynamite.

Salt is also important to our health and diets, but in proper amounts. Too little salt in our diets can lead to blockages in the small intestines, underactive thyroid, heart failure, higher propensity for sunburn, and diarrhea. It can lead to lethargic brain activity resulting in muscle twitches, seizures, cramps, loss of consciousness, coma, and even death in extreme situations. In fact, it is reported that more of Napoleon’s troops died during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 than the invasion of Moscow itself because their wounds were not properly healing due to a lack of salt in their diets.

Too much salt in our diets has been link to osteoporosis, kidney disease, and hypertension – leading to cardiovascular disease and stroke. Excessive salt in the bloods causes the body to pull more water into the bloodstream, thus increasing the volume of blood within the cardiovascular system. This puts more strain on the heart to pump the greater volume of blood, stretching the walls of blood vessels, leading to aneurysms and easy bruising.

For thousands of years, and still to this day in certain parts of the world, salt has strong economic uses beyond mere commodity as a form of currency. In fact, salt was at one time more valuable than gold due to the difficult process of extracting salt from seawater or mining from rock. The word “salary” and the phrase “worth your salt” comes from this use of salt as money.

And salt that has become damaged by misuse or neglect to the point that it has lost its usefulness cannot be made salty again. It is reduced to nothing more than a useless, grainy rock. Its purpose is then lost, which is why it is so important that salt is kept in place that it easily accessible, but secured from corruption by pests and excess water.

Salt extraction from seawater

Most importantly, in order for salt to be usable, one of two processes has to happen – and in some cases – both. First, there is the process of extracting salt out of sea water. It’s a difficult and time-consuming process, but it is a process that yields tremendous results. Sometimes it happens naturally as is apparent around the edges of the Dead Sea.

Salt along the shores of the Dead Sea

The other process is by mining – which requires extracting salt out of the earth and the large rocks of salt have to be broken until it is small enough to be usable by the consumer. In rare cases, even in the case of extraction of salt from seawater, this breaking process is still required to pulverize the salt into small enough grains to be of value.

Salt mines

But just like gold, salt at its core is nothing more than a rock. It has no inherent value of its own beyond that which we place upon it. Today, salt is so common that it is rarely used as currency in industrialized countries. In fact, while gold does have value as a commodity for jewelry, it holds very little value as a liquid currency as even our own American dollars are no longer backed by the gold standard – but simply by supply and demand of government issued legal tender.

When Jesus speaks of us being the “salt of the earth”, He is speaking to our value. If we place our value and worth in the marketplace of the world, while over time we may see some profit, eventually we become so common that we are worthless. We lose our flavor and thus our value to society. The people of Israel know this imagery all too well as they were now an occupied people by the Roman Empire, cast aside as a backwater land with weird customs, but just valuable enough due to its location at the junction of three continents – Europe, Africa, and Asia – to retain worth to the Empire.

But in God’s economy you are His most precious commodity. You are His most precious jewel. He wants to use you to bring value and flavor to the world. He wants to use you to bring healing to a hurting world and scrape out that which is dead and lifeless. He wants to use you to destroy the enemy of this world. And He wants to use you to be an agent of purification in the world.

At the same time, we must be careful not to be “too salty” to the point that we drive people away. Or not salty enough so that people are uninspired to eat more at the table of grace. We must exercise discernment to the point that we provide just enough salt for the given situation so that we sate the appetite and leave them hungering for more.

But most importantly, we must be extracted from the world, set apart, and broken so that we can be usable for the Kingdom. Our hearts must be broken for the things that break the heart of God. Otherwise, our hearts are nothing but a useless, hardened stone that beats only for ourselves.

Dying for the Kingdom

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“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:11-12
Aftermath of the Sri Lanka Church Bombings, Resurrection Sunday, 21 April 2019
3 Christian churches and 3 hotels targeted, 267 people killed, 500 others injured

I find it interesting that in the Beatitudes that Jesus speaks three times to the issue of persecution, especially considering that it is so early in His ministry. He even hints at the possibility of an institutionalize, conspiratorial attack upon those who choose to not only live life in accordance with the dictates of God’s word, but for the simple act of following Him. Of course if the religious leaders of the day, the supposed representatives of God in the Sanhedrin would go so far as to beat Him in the midst of a mockery of a midnight trial who are we to expect any less of those who would elevate themselves up to be co-equal with God Himself? Who are we to think that we are any better than Jesus, whom they falsely accused of blasphemy and insurrection against Herod for declaring Himself King?

Mind you, these are not the pagan Romans of the day (at first), but the purported believers who wielded spiritual power and authority over the people in an effort to “keep the peace” with their Roman oppressors. And to take it further, the Romans took their cues from the Jewish authorities as they held their own mockery of a trial and entertained the false accusations and in fact found Jesus “not guilty”, not once, but twice in one night before Pilate casually washed his hands of the situation and released a murderous Barabbas to the raucous crowd. I also find it interesting that when they cried out to “give us Barabbas”, they were literally crying out “Give us the son of the father.” Granted the name “Barabbas” was a fairly common name in the first half of the first millennium, but the serendipitous irony is too much to ignore.

The first time Jesus speaks of persecution is in relation to our lives characterized by God’s righteousness. The second time Jesus speaks of persecution it is in relation to our lives characterized by our acknowledgement and devotion to Him. The third time is a comparison to the prophets that went before, who were persecuted and killed by the very people they were sent to declare God’s message to. The earliest mention of the killing of the prophets was when Jezebel destroyed the prophets and priests of God as she and Ahab instituted a nationalized fertility cult to Ba’al and Asherah – a religion characterized by ritualistic acts of sensuality and self-indulgence. And she wanted the prophet Elijah dead most of all.

Isaiah is said to have been sawed in two by Manasseh and buried by what is now known as the Pool of Siloam. Jeremiah died by stoning in Egypt, where he was buried and later reinterred in Alexandria (some believe that he was later re-interred again in Ireland during the Crusades). Ezekiel was martyred by the Chaldeans. Micah was martyred by King Jehoram. Amos was tortured by the priest Amaziah and the killed by one of Amaziah’s sons. Jesus even mentions that the prophet Zachariah was killed by the religious leaders of his day “between the temple and the altar” by stoning. And Jesus Himself would be mocked, beaten, stripped naked, humiliated, paraded through the streets of Jerusalem, and then crucified on a Roman garbage dump outside the city.

On Resurrection Sunday, April 21, 2019, the people of Sri Lanka began their day just like any other normal day. The minority Christian population of Sri Lanka entered into worship celebrating the reality of their risen Savior. Without any warning, in a coordinated attack, 6 suicide bombers attacked 3 Christian churches and 3 prominent hotels. The attack was timed to inflict maximum devastation of Christians in worship on their holiest of days and vacationers innocently enjoying breakfast at the hotels. In all, 267 people were killed and another 500 injured. This is what it is like to live under a regime that is hostile to the Christian faith.

And a time will come when we may endure similar attacks. We may have insults hurled against us for our faith in Christ as the only way to the Father. We may even have evil spoken against us and have false accusations levied that would even bring us into a court of law in an effort to smear our reputations, and thus the reputation of our God. While we are not currently here in America having to experience this on a institutionalized scale, it is happening already in many parts of the world that are hostile towards God. I pray that time is a long way off, but when that time comes, I pray you are prepared.

The prophets died for their devotion to the truth of God’s word. Jesus died for His devotion to you. Are you willing to lay your life down for Him? “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) The Kingdom of God grows because it is watered by the blood, sweat, and tears of the true martyrs of the faith. Those who lay their lives on the line for the gospel. Those who refuse to deny the truth in the face of death. I have not faced death for my faith, and I pray I never do. I know there are times that I have failed to stand up for the gospel in the face of mere jest and ridicule. And for that I am ashamed. I pray that I am bolder and stronger today than yesterday and that I will be able to stand on the rock that is greater than I if and when that times comes.

I pray that my faith does not become centered on me, but rather stays centered on the cross of Calvary. I pray that I do not mistake discipline for persecution. I pray that I do not mistake correction for assault. I pray that God will always give me the discernment that I need that is informed by the truth of His word for whatever situation He puts me in. And I pray that I have the endurance to stand where others have fallen.

The older I get, the less I fear death and the more I fear disappointing my Abba. The words that I most desire to hear on the lips of my Lord: “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23) Anything less would be a life wasted in pursuit of less worthy goals. The only legacy worth leaving is that of being good, being faithful, and being a servant. Even if the whole world turns against me, I know that His eye will never leave me and I can always rest in the shadow of His wings.

The Persecution of the Kingdom

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“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:10
Ruins of the Circus Maximus at the foot of the Palantine Hill and palace of Augustine
Rome, Italy (2019)

I firmly believe that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be “persecuted” in the world today. While I agree that there is a concentrated effort by some to reshape the moral landscape into a more secularized image in the name of humanism and to remove the name of God from the square of public discourse, I must admit that it falls far short of a biblical definition of persecution. So much so that we have allowed the culture of victimization that we have distorted the meaning of persecution as it was described in Scripture to the point that every little thing that doesn’t go our way is an example of persecution.

Yes, there are certain legal cases that are being brought to bear in order to try to force Christian believers to violate their Biblically informed conscience, but I wonder at times is that conscience being selectively exercised in order to put on a front of self-righteousness disguised as godliness. While we may experience legal difficulties, it pales in comparison to the persecution of our Biblical forefathers and others in some parts of the world today. For example, in 2015, 21 Coptic Christians were kidnapped and summarily beheaded on the beach expressly for the refusal to denounce their faith and turn to Islam. It was three years before their bodies were given a proper burial after the video-taped execution.

According to the foremost experts on global Christian persecution, Open Doors International, the United States is not even in the top 50 countries responsible for persecution of Christians. In fact, of the top 50 countries identified for the systematic persecution of Christians, all but one (Colombia) of them are in Africa or Asia, including the Middle East.

In the Roman Empire, Nero would systematically crucify Christians and use their bodies as torches for his nightly feasts, thus giving birth to the term “Roman candle”. Christian persecution in the Roman Empire reached its height, however, under the reign of Emperor Diocletian, who would summarily have Christians executed in the Circus Maximus (see picture above) on charges of treason for the crime of refusing to worship the emperor as a god.

In the United States, we still enjoy a Constitutionally protected freedom to worship our God in whatever manner we choose, even if that worship is not in accordance with Biblical truth. However, there have been efforts to restrict Christian expression in the public square. There has even been efforts by certain local governments to influence Christian doctrine from the pulpit. But it is still a far cry from imprisonment and execution.

The Greek word for persecution in this verse is “dediogmenoi heneken dikaiosunes”, which is translated as “ones having been chased on account of justice”. Persecution can take on many forms, but the fullest meaning is a description of “mob justice”. The Jews of Jesus’ day understood what this meant at the hands of their Roman oppressors who were known to systematically take over countries and annex them into the Empire. Their history is rife with examples going back to the Babylonian captivity and event Egyptian slavery prior to the Exodus of Moses. Jesus Himself would even know persecution intimately as He was tried, beaten, mocked, and crucified for daring to speak the truth and challenging the authority of the Pharisees.

Saul would persecute Christians in the early church in the book of Acts, with the full approval of the Sanhedran and the Roman government, two levels of citizen that he enjoyed and used to his full advantage. That is until Jesus blinded Him and knocked Him off his literal high horse, at which point he used those same advantages to spread the truth of the gospel, resulting in his own eventual beheading in Rome under the reign of Nero.

Of the twelve apostles, all but one experienced death by martyrdom. The lone survivor, John, would be boiled alive in oil, but miraculously escaped and was exiled to the island of Patmos where he lived out his remaining days after receiving his final Revelation from Christ. Fox’s Book of Martyrs gives hundreds of examples of Christian leaders and early church fathers who were martyred for their faith, sometimes in gory detail. Tertullian would go on to say that “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” While there are various translations of what he said, the intent of the message is clear – that the church grew because faithful believers gave their lives for the truth of the gospel.

Martyrdom should never be a goal for our faith, but I must ask: if your life is put on the line for your faith, will it hold true? Can you honestly say that you would be willing to die for the truth of the gospel if it ever came to it? The fact of the matter, it is happening around the world today. Maybe not so much in America…yet. But don’t be so naive to think that it may not eventually come. Empires rise and fall. Constitutions are rewritten. Countries live and nations die.

But our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will remain faithful, even through our trials and sufferings. His kingdom is eternal and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. This He has promised and this He will continue to prove true, for we are citizens of His kingdom eternally.

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