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                        THE THORN OF PERSECUTION

.    "Henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear on my body the
marks of Jesus." -- Galatians 6:17

.    "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but
not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but
not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that
the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  For while we
live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that
the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So death is
at work in us, but life in you." -- 2 Corinthians 4:8-12

.    The opinion that Paul's thorn in the flesh was persecution has
been a widespread one.  Persecution could explain 2 Corinthians 12:7-
10, but it would not fit very well in Galatians 4:12-15.  Would Paul
pray three times for persecution to be removed?  Did not Paul write,
"Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted" (2 Tim. 3:12)?  Was not Paul surely aware of the teaching
of Jesus on the blessings of persecution: "Blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven" (Mt. 5:10)?  Did not Paul say, "For the sake of Christ, then,
I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and
calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10)?  The
proximity of this last verse to the passage telling of the thorn in
Paul's flesh might imply that Paul's thorn was persecution (2 Cor.
12:7).  If persecution was Paul's thorn in the flesh, though, it
certainly could not be Paul's "bodily ailment" (Gal. 4:12-15).
Persecution is something one might boast about, yet Paul's bodily
ailment was something for which the Galatians would normally have
scorned or despised him.
.    Whether or not Paul's thorn in the flesh was persecution,
persecution is a problem for many today.  Much time could be spent in
this chapter telling of the persecution of the early church, but no
one in America has to face this type of problem.  Much space could be
devoted to telling of the persecutions that Christians are having to
face in foreign countries, especially those under Communist domination
or right-wing dictators.  Again, though, few readers of this book have
to face such problems.  The main type of persecution that the average
Christian faces today is little more than slander or rejection from
one's peers.  Although this is much easier to bear than persecutions
such as Paul faced, it is, nevertheless, a problem with which to
contend.
.    When faced with persecution, slander, or opposition in living the
Christian life, the first thing to do is to remember that persecution
is common to God's people.  From the early days of Old Testament
history to the end of the book of Revelation, from the events
surrounding the beginning of the church to present day newspaper
headlines, God's people have had to face persecution.  Stephen, whom
himself was martyred, asked, "Which of the prophets did not your
fathers persecute?  And they killed those who announced beforehand the
coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered"
(Acts 7:52).  The church in the early days was everywhere "spoken
against" (Acts 28:22).  To quote Paul again, "Indeed all who desire to
live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim. 3:12).
Peter told his readers, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery
ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange
were happening to you" (1 Pet. 4:12).  John wrote, "Do not wonder,
brethren, that the world hates you" (1 Jn. 3:13).
.    Persecution has been the common lot of God's people for
centuries.  The Old Testament prophets were persecuted.  The New
Testament apostles were persecuted.  Jesus himself was persecuted and
crucified.  Throughout history the church has suffered many different
waves of persecution.  Throughout these difficult times, Christians
have realized that they were following in the footsteps of Jesus and
declaring their devotion to him by their sacrifices.  Peter explains
the example we should look toward:  "For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you
should follow in his steps" (1 Pet. 2:21).
.    John, maybe more than any other New Testament writer, brings out
the relationship between Jesus' sufferings and those of his disciples.
He quotes Jesus as saying, "If the world hates you, know that it has
hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world
would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose
you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (Jn. 15:18-19).
Later Jesus prays, "I have given them thy word; and the world has
hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the
world ... They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world"
(Jn. 17:14, 16).  Later John himself writes, "The reason why the world
does not know us is that it did not know him" (1 Jn. 3:1).
.    The truth of these verses has been summarized well by William
Barclay: "The world suspects people who are different.  That comes out
in the simplest things.  One of the commonest things in the world
nowadays is an umbrella; but when Jonas Hanway tried to introduce the
umbrella into England and walked down the street beneath one he was
pelted with stones and dirt.  He was in fact persecuted.  In the early
days of the Boy's Brigade, the boys who marched down the street in
uniform were often attacked and pelted with stones and garbage.
Anyone who is different, who wears different clothes, who has
different ideas is automatically suspect.  He may be regarded as an
eccentric or as a madman or a danger; but life will not be comfortable
for him."
.    "The world acutely dislikes people whose lives are a condemnation
of it.  It is in fact dangerous to be good.  The classic instance of
that is the fate which befell Aristides in Athens.  He was called
Aristides the Just; and yet he was banished.  When one of the citizens
was asked why he had voted for the banishment of Aristides, he
answered: 'Because I am tired of hearing him always called the Just.'
That was why men killed Socrates; they called him the human gadfly.
He was always compelling men to think and to examine themselves, and
men hated that and hated him and killed him.  It is dangerous to have
and to practice a higher standard than the standard of the world.
Nowadays a man can be persecuted even for working too hard or too
long."
.    "To put it at its widest - the world always suspects
nonconformity.  The world likes a pattern; it likes to be able to
label a person and to classify him and to put him in a pigeon- hole.
And anyone who does not conform to the pattern will certainly meet
trouble.  It is even said that if a hen with different markings is put
into a hen run where all the hens are the same, the other hens will
peck her to death."
.    "The basic demand on the Christian is the demand that the
Christian should have the courage to be different.  To be different is
dangerous, but no man can be a Christian unless he accepts that risk,
for there will be a difference between the man of the world and the
man of Christ." 1)
.    Since persecution is certain to be the fate of those who seek to
be truly Christian, what should you do to face it?  Totally avoiding
it would take a sacrifice of your principles, so that solution is not
appropriate.  The answer, then, would seem to begin with your
realization of the blessings of persecution.  Jesus himself taught,
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you when men 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 men persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Mt. 5:10-12;
cf. Lk. 6:22-23; 1 Pet. 3:14-17; 4:14, 16; Jam. 1:12).  "How," you may
ask, "can persecution be considered a blessing?"
.    Persecution can help you to truly know yourself.  Peter
apparently thought he was a tower of strength until persecution
revealed just how weak he really was.  Especially illustrative of
this, though, is the story of a young man in training for the Army
reserves.  He and others were out in the wilderness for days on half-
starvation diets.  Previously he had thought that if he had only one
can of rations left, he would surely share it with a friend who had
none.  When this situation actually came up, however, he decided
against sharing his last can of food.  He would keep it for himself
and would eat it in privacy later.  As it turned out, his friend stole
it from him before he could eat it.  A real test will show our
strength or weakness and help us to know ourselves.
.    Persecution will help you to know the real values in life.  Moses
affords us with an example of one who in the face of persecution chose
true riches: "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be
called the son of Pharoah's daughter, choosing rather to share ill-
treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasure
of sin.  He considered abuse suffered for the Christ greater wealth
than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked to the reward" (Heb. 11:24-
26).
.    Persecution gives you a special opportunity to demonstrate your
faith.  Paul said he commended himself in every way as a servant of
Christ.  Among those ways he listed afflictions, hardships,
calamities, beatings, and imprisonments (2 Cor. 6:4- 5).  These trials
were evidence of his devotion to Christ.  The story is told of a man
who enlisted in the army after having been the preacher of a small
church.  Because of this background he was often ridiculed.  He was
purposely assigned the task of cleaning latrines.  Instead of
returning evil for evil, he did his work cheerfully and well.  When he
was provoked, his attitude was not one of resentment.  Eventually the
men began to turn to him with their problems.  He finally taught many
of them about Christ.
.    Persecution can make you depend more upon the Lord.  Paul said,
"For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am
strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).  When we see our own weaknesses, it should
cause us to depend more upon the power and strength of Christ.  Once
Paul even felt that death was near for him, but after being delivered
he concluded, "...that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on
God" (2 Cor. 1:9).  As Abraham Lincoln said, "I have often been driven
to my knees in prayer because I had nowhere else to go."  Often it
takes persecution or some sort of difficulty to make our stubborn
hearts realize that we need God.
.    Persecution is a blessing for one special reason more than any
other.  In persecution we are showing our corporate affiliation as a
part of the body of Christ.  Peter said that when persecutions come
our way, we should "rejoice in so far as you share Christ's
sufferings" (1 Pet. 4:13).  Paul said we are fellow heirs with Christ,
provided "we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified
with him" (Rom. 8:17; cf. Phil. 3:10).  Everyone, as our Lord told us,
must pick up his own cross in order to follow him.

 Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
 And all the world go free?
 No, there's a cross for ev'ry one,
 And there's a cross for me. 2)

 And it was Isaac Watts who wrote,

 Must I be carried to the skies,
    On flowery beds of ease,
 While others fought to win the prize,
    And sailed through bloody seas?
 Sure I must fight if I would reign:
    Increase my courage, Lord!
 I'll bear the toil, endure the pain,
    Supported by Thy word. 3)

.    One of the most fascinating statements in the Bible that speaks
of our sharing in the suffering of Christ is Colossians 1:24: "Now I
rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete
what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that
is, the church."  Upon first reading the verse one is almost shocked.
You may wonder, "In what manner is Christ's suffering incomplete?
What could be lacking in the death of the one who paid it all for my
sins?"  You wonder in what way the work of atonement needs
supplementing.
.    The difficulty is resolved if we consider the sufferings of
Christ from two different points of view.  As Lightfoot words it,
"They have their sacrificial efficacy, and they have their ministerial
utility." 4)  Certainly what is lacking in Jesus' sufferings has
nothing to do with their sacrificial efficacy.  On the other hand we
should not go to the extreme of some in opposition to Catholic thought
and try to "wrest the sense of the words." 5)  They plainly say that
in some manner Paul makes up what is lacking in Christ's sufferings.
.    The only viable alternative is the ministerial utility of
Christ's sacrifice.  From this aspect the atonement is incomplete and
lacking.  It is necessary for the church to spread the good news of
the death of Christ to the world.  Otherwise the cross is ineffective.
As the church grows, as the gospel is spread, and as the truth of the
love of God shown at Calvary is proclaimed, there will be repeated
acts of suffering on the part of Christians in order to attain these
goals.  The words of a popular poem express the thought very well:

 Christ has no hands but our hands
    To do His work today;
 He has no feet but our feet
    To lead men in His way;
 He has no tongue but our tongues
    To tell men how He died;
 He has no help but our help
    To bring them to His side.
 We are the only Bible
    The careless world will read;
 We are the sinner's gospel,
    We are the scoffer's creed;
 We are the Lord's last message
    Given in deed and word--
 What if the line is crooked?
    What if the type is blurred?
 What if our hands are busy
    With other work than His?
 What if our feet are walking
    Where sin's allurement is?
 What if our tongues are speaking
    Of things His lips would spurn?
 How can we hope to help Him
    Unless from Him we learn? 6)

.    These, then, are some of the blessings you can receive from
persecution; the opportunity to really know yourself, the
encouragement to know what is of real value in life, the opportunity
to demonstrate your faith, the prompting to make you depend more upon
the Lord, and the privilege of sharing in the sufferings of Christ.
If you must face persecution for the cause of Christ, you should
rejoice that you "were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name"
(Acts 5:41).  Now that we have examined why persecution can be a
blessing in disguise, let us review some things to do in order to
overcome persecution.

.    First, you should study the great passages in the Bible that deal
with persecution.  The greatest of all of these may be the book of
Revelation.  It was written to Christians at a time when the Roman
Empire was persecuting Christians just for being Christians.  The
whole theme of the book of Revelation is that good will eventually win
over evil, although at the time it may appear otherwise.  The message
is to remain faithful even to the point of death (Rev. 2:10).
Likewise you can study the lives and examples of others like Old
Testament prophets who had to face persecution.  Most of all study the
life of Jesus Christ.  Seeing how others have been victorious against
evil will inspire you.  As Bruce Barton said, "Before you give up
hope, turn back and read the attacks that were made upon Lincoln."
.    Another way to respond to persecution is to pray for the one
persecuting you.  Jesus gave the command to "Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you" (Mt. 5:44).  Luke records him as
saying, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those
who curse you, pray for those who abuse you" (Lk. 6:27-28). 7)
.    A Christian is expected to make sacrifices for the cause of
Christ.  Paul writes, in almost shocking language, "When reviled, we
bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to
conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world,
the offscouring of all things" (1 Cor. 4:12-13).  Paul uses two words
here that are extremely intriguing and illustrative.  First, he says
Christians are the "refuse" of the world.  The term "refuse" refers to
the dirt or refuse that is removed from a vessel when it is cleansed
on the inside.  The term "offscouring" refers to the dirt or filth
that is scraped or scoured off a dirty vessel. 8)  Barclay translates
it very graphically: "We have been treated like the scum of the earth,
like the dregs of all things." 9)  The TEV renders it: "We are no more
than this world's garbage; we are the scum of the earth to this very
hour!" 10)  Other translations are very similar.
.    What does Paul mean by such degrading terms?  The latter word
"had become more and more a term of polite self-deprecation, common
enough in everyday speech." 11)  These words, then, could very well
mean little more than any common term of humility.  There is a history
behind these words, however, which could have influenced Paul's usage
here.  There was an ancient custom among the Greeks of Athens to throw
the most worthless person into the sea to avert the plague, a famine,
or other troubles.  It became an annual custom to make a human
sacrifice for the benefit of the rest of the people, saying, "Be our
offscouring."  Thus, the word can mean "ransom, scapegoat, or
sacrifice." 12)  In fact, one of the words is used in the sense of a
"ransom" in the LXX of Proverbs 21:18.
.    Paul is teaching Christians that because they are suffering
persecution for righteousness sake in order to spread the gospel, they
are a ransom or sacrifice for the rest of the world.  By this we
should not think that this suffering has any atoning value in the
sense that Christ's suffering did, but through the suffering of the
church, we complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions (Col.
1:24).  Christ's mission is to "reconcile to himself all things" (Col.
1:20); and this is being done not only through what he has already
accomplished, but through the mission of the church.  It is "through
the church" that God's plan is being revealed.  Without the church,
Christ as the head is incomplete, for he has no body.  The church as
the body of Christ is "the fullness of him who fills all in all" (Eph.
1:23).  Our sufferings and afflictions in persecution are an extension
of what Christ has already done, not in their efficacy, but in their
ministerial utility.
.    Persecution can be a blessing to the church.  As a result of
persecution the early Christians scattered everywhere preaching the
word.  "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church," we have often
heard.  Persecution, though it may deplete the ranks of the church at
times, usually results in an increase in dedication and strength.  It
is a necessary test in this life.  Persecution and suffering are an
essential part of God's plan for the church.  Just as Christ showed
the love of God to the world through his sacrificial suffering and
death, the church as the body of Christ must follow his example.  Such
a call is not an easy call, but it is the call of eternal life.
.    The only real problem with this discussion is the one we
mentioned at the outset.  Most middle class American Christians do not
really know what persecution is except in a very minor way.  This
could be considered a wonderful blessing, but it also might be a
reason for the absence of power within the church.  Pierre Berton has
asked some troubling questions in this regard: "Why is it that the
Church today is afraid to speak loudly and with a radical voice?
Perhaps it is because the Church, like too many of its members, is
afraid to look ridiculous.  It ought to be making front-page headlines
regularly by advocating what is absolutely counter to the general
thrust of society; but it does not do so.  How many Christian
ministers today go to jail for their beliefs?  How many make the kind
of physical protest that puts them outside the bounds of the social
order?  ...The institution of religion, which once generated its own
values, now merely gives its blessings to the majority-held values of
the community around it." 13)  The church can become merely a
preserver and conserver of the status-quo rather than being on the
cutting edge of change for truth and justice.  When Christians are
what they should be, there will be persecution and rejection by the
world.  It may begin with joking or making fun of Christians or their
beliefs, but persecution will come.

   When I feel that scornful glare,
   When a wrong I'm made to bear,
   E'en from those I know in prayer;
   Sweet Spirit comfort me!

                              Footnotes


 CHAPTER 4 - THE THORN OF PERSECUTION PAGES 40-51


 1) William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Daily Study Bible
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1955), 2, pp. 216-17.  Used by permission.
 2) Thomas Shepherd, "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?"
 3) Isaac Watts.  Title unknown to the author.
 4) J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Colossians and to
Philemon (London: Macmillan and Co., 1879), p. 166.
 5) Ibid., p. 167.
 6) Annie Johnson Flint, "Christ--And We."
 7) The phrase "bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you" is added from Luke 6:27-28 and is not present in the earlier
manuscripts of Matthew 5:44.  Also the phrase "despitefully use you"
is a later addition.  See Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on
the Greek New Testament (New York: United Bible Societies, 1971), p.
14.
 8) This information is from Arndt and Gingrich, Lexicon, pp. 653,
659; and Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament,
pp. 506, 510.
 9) William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians, Daily Study Bible
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1954), p. 43.  Used by permission.
 10) Good News for Modern Man.  Third edition (New York: American
Bible Society, 1971), p. 406.
 11) Arndt and Gingrich, Lexicon, p. 659.
 12) Ibid. Also Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek New
Testament, p. 510; and Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, in.
loc.
 13) Pierre Berton, The Comfortable Pew (Philadelphia: J. B.
Lippincott Co., 1965), p. 80.


.    The preceding is a chapter from 'A Thorn in Your Flesh', a book
by Steve Williams, published by J. C. Choate Publications.  This book
can be ordered from Choate Publications, Rt. 2, Box 156, Burton Drive,
Winona, Mississippi 38967.  It is paperback, 100 pages, and costs only
$3.00.  Please include 75 cents for postage and handling.  All profits
from this book go to a mission literature fund for Asia where Choate
has been working for over 25 years, primarily in India.  The book has
one chapter on Paul's thorn in the flesh and then a discussion of
various problems (thorns) people have today.  You may also order from
the author c/o Robinson Church of Christ, 428 Chado, Waco, TX  76706.

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