God Is Treating You As Children When You Are Persecuted

It is becoming more and more difficult to be a Christian. That's not to say that this difficulty is the same in every country. Since I live in the U.S.A. I can only speak for us in this country. Here the challenge is to deal with hostility in a quite differing manner than in some other places. Here we face what the Hebrews writer calls hostility in a different way than say in a predominately Muslim country. Listen to what he says.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. - Hbr 12:3-8 ESV

The Greek language has a unique word for hostility, one used primarily in this letter and once in Jude. The word is anti-logia. It would be what we call contradiction or dispute. The primary manner by which we Christians face hostility here is by indirect contradiction. In other words, much of what we stand for is considered irrelevant or narrow-minded. Plenty of examples of this:

• Christians are anti-scientific. They are the idiots who claim that evolution did not happen when all of the rest of the world knows that it did. These dimwits claim that the world is only about 6,000 years old while all the rest of the scientific world knows that our planet is billions of years old. 

• Christians are anti-scientific in another way as well. They claim that the entire world was once covered with a flood that wiped out all mankind except one family. There is no evidence of this. None! And yet they hold to this silly little concept because their sacred book says something like that. 

• Christians insist on something they call a soul. Now we all know that this is an outmoded concept. We are nothing more and nothing less than biological machines that have evolved along with all other forms of life. And soon the day will come when we will be able to download this biological information into advanced computers, eliminating the need for outmoded human bodies. We won't need then to talk about souls or spirits—a medieval, non-scientific mental construct. 

• Christians insist that their's is the only religion. What nonsense that is. As any thinking person knows, all religions have something to contribute to the mankind's search for meaning and relevance. Consequently what is called for in these modern times is dialogue, open, honest dialogue and respect. Then we'll all learn from one another. 

I could go on and on to talk about how many in the upcoming generations are taught by their teachers and the media to view Christians as quaint and well-meaning at best. Above all they are sidelined in a way that says, "We'll put up with you as long as you don't interfere. But be sure that you stay out of the way. We have far, far more interesting and important things to do." 

This, I suggest, is what much of modern hostility is about. And, if you are a Christian committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of Holy Scriptures you know what I mean. We Christians in the U.S.A. are not hauled into court directly for being Christians and then thrown to the lions. No we have to deal with the lions in our workplaces, in our schools and even in our homes. There we are challenged, mocked and despised and then driven at times to weariness and exhaustion. We get so tired of having to take up yet another confrontation, another dispute. Why, why? 

The Holy Spirit's answer to all this is (in Greek) paideia. This was the whole training and education of children. It was the work of parents, mentors and teachers. It was the task of getting children to use their minds, deal with the challenges of making decisions in the right way. It was the task of correcting them so that when they make a mistake they learn from the mistake, grow from it and become better prepared the next time they face the challenge. This is why the LORD allows us to be attacked, vilified, mocked and despised. It is part of the paideia, the discipline and training the LORD is putting us through so that we might grow up. 

More on this next time.