For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.

It is difficult to understand, or even imagine, the suffering involved in these verses. I have not experienced this type of persecution for my belief in Jesus. But we do have a story in fairly recent times of this type of bravery and courage in the face of extreme persecution.

Jim Elliot and Nate Saint (along with two other men) were called by God to bring the truth about Jesus to a remote native tribe in Ecuador. They flew in supplies and food. They sent gifts. They tried to build bridges with them as they personally interacted with them. All seemed to go well, until one day it did not. They landed on the beach, and got out to greet their new friends. Instead, they were greeted by weapons of war. The natives murdered them for apparently no good reason.

Their wives and families’ lives were torn apart. But after a while, God returned the call to Jim Elliot’s wife, Elisabeth’s heart. The call was to share the gospel with these lost people, some of whom had violently slaughtered her husband and the husbands of some of her friends. She and some others ended up going back to the people that murdered their fathers and husbands, and shared the gospel with them. They somehow, by the grace of God, forgave them and loved them. And many of them decided to ask Jesus to be their Lord and Savior! Praise God!

Elisabeth Elliot understood the words Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. Paul says (in summary): You saw the faith of the Judean Churches, in the face of intense persecution from the Jews. And you also have received persecution from your own people. And just as the Jews who rejected Jesus will be judged, so will the Thessalonians who reject him will also be judged. And the implication is, if they attack God’s messengers, they will heap up sins on their heads that will get God’s severe wrath.

We don’t need to judge others individually. God covered this for us. Society will have its imperfect justice systems. And then the impartial, righteous, and just God will judge each man according to his faith and works. When we ask Jesus to be our Savior, then our past, present, and future sins are forgiven and we are grafted into the family of God. The evidence of this lifelong commitment to Jesus is not just a one-time prayer. It is a life lived, though imperfectly, as a disciple of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus.

This kind of bondservant devotion is an all-out effort and it results in radical faith that calls us to love those who hurt us, who torture us, and who commit cruel crimes against us. I claim this verse today and every day going forward: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭12‬-‭13‬)

I need to understand the eternal battles I fight in, each and every day!

Lord, thank you for the martyrs of the past who sacrificed so much in the name and Spirit of our precious Savior Jesus. They laid the foundation for a deep and prevailing faith. Build it up in me too. I commit to follow!