The Cost of Witness (12)

 The Cost of Witness (12)

“These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me” (John 16:3).

“But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me” (John 15:21).

The context of the latter verse is “the world”; the context of the former verse is the synagogue, “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue…everyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God” (16:2). The truth of Jesus’ words was not only borne out in the first century, in the Acts of the Apostles and beyond, but we have seen its fulfillment in persecutions instigated by the professing church throughout history. Even today, in some lands, “Christian” churches in power, usually aligned with the state, use their power to stifle believers who will not acknowledge that particular church’s primacy.

I am at a loss as to how such institutions can claim to be the one true church, the ancient faith, when the nature they display is contrary to the Lamb of God who gives Himself for all peoples of the world. I cannot understand how anyone can excuse or defend religious persecution. If our respective traditions have this sin in their histories, let us acknowledge the evil – yes evil – learn from it, and resolve not to commit the sins of our ancestors. 

And let’s be honest enough to recognize that there must be errors in thinking and theology and church practice that led to such heinous behavior. We cannot separate the behavior from the theology, somehow, some way, the theology, the thinking, led to the evil of persecution. 

This should also be a warning about attitudes that may stop short of persecution, as we normally think of it, but which nevertheless are ugly and mean spirited within the professing church. I have been in some nasty church leadership meetings as well as congregational meetings. There is something amiss when professing Christians act like vipers – such behavior does not display the Nature of the Lamb, and if not His Nature, then whose nature? Let’s always recall that the Upper Room begins with Jesus washing our feet…the moment we stop washing the feet of our brethren we can expect problems. 

Those who persecute followers of Jesus, whether they are in the world or in the professing church, do so because they do not know the Father. If what Jesus says is true, then what does this say about those professing Christians in history who have persecuted other Christians? 

It is easier to understand, I think, persecution from the world, for the world is the world is the world, and Psalm 2 will always be true. It is difficult, at least for me, to understand persecution from the professing church, for I want to assume that professing Christians are Christians in nature, the Nature of the Lamb. I don’t fully understand these things. I do know that the Cross will attract opposition, within and without the professing church; I do know that the children of the natural, of the flesh, will persecute the children of the spirit and promise (Galatians 4:29). I often find more honesty in the world than in the professing church, the people of the world often have no reason to play hide and seek, while folks in the professing church are adept at maintaining religious self-righteousness. 

“If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains” (John 9:31). 

As we conclude our passage, John 15:18 – 16:4, which I’ve titled The Cost of Witness, let’s again note that Jesus has told us these things so that we “may be kept from stumbling” (John 16:1), and that He wants us to ponder these things as we face opposition within and without the professing church (John 16:4). To follow Jesus means to be identified with Jesus and the Father, it means to display His Nature to others, and it means going outside the camp to Jesus, bearing His reproach, “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the City which is coming” (Hebrews 13:14). The “camp” which we are to go outside of is the religious camp; we live in the world but not of the world, and we are careful to understand that there are two Jerusalems, two mothers, and that our City and Mother is that which is above (Galatians 4:21 – 31).

The validity of our traditions and doctrinal and practical distinctives is the measure in which they encourage us to seek that City which is above and to seek the communion of saints in the Trinity which we see in John Chapter 17. Their validity is the measure to which they encourage us to lay down our lives for our brethren outside of our traditions. Their validity is the measure in which they teach us to think of ourselves as the People of God, the Bride of Christ, the Temple of God, as opposed to other self-identifications. 

We ought not to be surprised when we are put out of the church, nor when folks think they are doing God service when escorting us to the altar of sacrifice. 

There is, after all, a cost to witness, a cost to be paid for discipleship. (Mark 8:34 – 38).