Bold Faith

In her article “Persecution, Whatever That Is,” Elizabeth Kendal made two important points about the persecuted church. First of all, the persecuted church is not something “way out there”—we, even in the West, are in the persecuted church. We are one body. Kendal writes:

The line some want to draw in the sand to separate "us" (not persecuted) from "them" (persecuted) is both imaginary and unhelpful. We are one body, and Christians need to understand that persecution -- which is a complex and varied phenomenon -- is integral to their testimony. This is why Jesus advised his would-be-followers to first count the cost, because unless they were prepared to carry a cross, they may as well not bother even trying to follow him (Luke 14:25-35).

The second point that she made that I see as very important is that persecuted Christians are not “victims” in the sense of being “losers.” In her words,

When hostility emerges, the loser is the one who compromises or abandons their faith in order to avoid hurt or humiliation. . . . On the other hand, those who stand firm despite the cost can never be losers even if they do end up as victims of persecution. Rather, they are winners who did not yield and could not be bowed. Persecuted believers are those who, in the face of injustice, dictatorship and threats stand firm and say, "Over my dead body!"I think these two points in Elizabeth Kendal’s article are important because it is easy for me as a Christian in the West not to identify with persecuted Christians. Nothing like “that” would happen over here, right? Well, maybe not to the same extent as persecution occurs in other countries, but we and persecuted Christians are still members of the same Body, and we should want to identify with them as “winners.” May we have bold faith like them!

Read Elizabeth Kendal’s full article here.