Persecution and Church Discipline

With this post, I have to disagree right off the bat. I don't know a single Christian who LIKES to talk about persecution. It's not generally considered a fun topic. Sometimes, it can be a necessary one, but not exactly enjoyable. It certainly has not been my experience that people like to talk about persecution.

And this is probably going to be a long post because there's a lot here to talk about. Fair warning.

In general, I think Threnody is right that very few American Christians get persecuted. However, I think her definition of persecution is a bit narrow. According to the dictionary, to persecute is to pursue with harassing or oppressive treatment, especially because of religion, race, or beliefs; harass persistently. Synonyms range from things as serious as killing and banishment to something as non-serious as pestering or teasing. The only constant is that it has to be a somewhat regular thing, an aggressive thing.

If every time I thank God for my food when Person A is around, Person A mocks me or gives me a dirty look or something of the sort - that counts as persecution. Is that very MILD persecution? Absolutely, without a doubt. But it IS persecution.

Now, on the other hand, Christians should not be surprised, nor should they be complaining or boasting about such things. We should be happy, like the disciples, that we are counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ (and yes, I think suffering for my Christian beliefs is suffering for the cause of Christ - living out Christianity is one of the greatest witnesses there is); but that's about all the impact it should have. Really, it shouldn't be of much note to us, except by way of encouragement.

Christians also ought not to hold unbelievers to the standards that they hold each other, nor ridicule them (or persecute them) when they don't. To use an earthly example, growing up in my parent's house, we had certain rules. We were only allowed to play video games for 25 minutes each day. I had cousins who would play video games for hours. It would be ridiculous for me to try to hold my cousins to a rule that my parents had for me and my siblings. It would have been wrong for me to try to impress that on them and it would have only made them unhappy with me for being naive.

In I Corinthians 5, Paul specifically argues against judging those outside the church. Verses 11-13 read: "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person."

Christians aren't to judge the world; we're to judge WITHIN the body. Let God worry about the rest of it. We need to take care of OUR house, OUR family.

And this leads me to my last point. We ARE supposed to judge inside the body. So every person claiming to be a Christian IS to be held to that standard. Again, this is one of the reasons, I'm glad that Lalaith and Threnody got out. Now if I were to find out that Lalaith had become a drunk (which is so hard to picture, it's pretty laughable), I would still try to get her out of it because it could really mess up her life, but I can associate freely with her, because she's not saying, "I am Christlike" while her life is saying "I'm a drunk."

See why this is important? It's SO important that habitual sins be dealt with in the Church. Once they come to light, they MUST be addressed otherwise Christ's name will be dragged through the dirt. By not associating with Christians who are in open habitual sin, we, as a body, proclaim that no matter what that person says, they aren't living as part of the family of God.

Also, I wanted to say that if there are people who are claiming to be Christians who are actually praying for Threnody to die, and if they were confronted about it, following the directions in Matthew 18, and they still didn't change, I would not be able to associate with them. That's wicked. Christians ought not pray for God to kill people. When did Christ do that? When did Stephen do that? They were under HEAVY persecution. When did they pray for their enemies to DIE? Had Christ prayed for His enemies to die, every single person would have perished.

Whichever Christian is praying/has prayed for someone to die is forgetting the immensity of the debt that God forgave them. They are the servant in Matthew 18 who is forgiven an enormous amount then goes and finds the guy who owes him ten bucks and starts strangling him. That is not being Christian; that is not being like Christ.