Short Answer
Not experiencing strong persecution does not mean you are doing something wrong. Christians are called to share the gospel with gentleness and faithfulness, not to provoke opposition. Persecution may come naturally over time, but it should never be forced.
The Overview
Many believers wonder if they are truly living boldly enough when they don’t face significant opposition for their faith. However, the absence of strong persecution does not automatically mean a lack of faithfulness. In some environments, people may simply be more tolerant or indifferent, which can result in less visible resistance. This can actually be a blessing rather than a problem.
The Bible teaches that sharing the gospel should be done with gentleness and respect. This means believers are not called to provoke hostility or intentionally create conflict. Some may try to manufacture persecution by being aggressive or confrontational, but this is not the biblical model. Faithfulness is measured by obedience, not by the intensity of negative reactions.
At the same time, believers should examine whether they are being obedient when opportunities arise. There are moments when fear or hesitation may prevent someone from speaking up. Faithfulness involves responding to those promptings with courage, even if the response is small or subtle. Over time, this may naturally lead to some level of rejection or discomfort.
Additionally, Christian living includes more than just verbal evangelism. Believers are called to be “salt and light,” which includes influencing society by promoting what is right and restraining what is wrong. This can sometimes lead to opposition as well. Ultimately, the goal is to live faithfully and wisely, trusting that any persecution that comes will happen naturally as a result of following Christ.
Key Takeaways
- Persecution Is Not a Measurement Tool
Lack of opposition does not mean lack of faith. - Do Not Manufacture Conflict
Evangelism should be done with gentleness and respect. - Be Faithful in Opportunities
Speak when prompted, even in small ways. - Cultural Context Matters
Some environments are more tolerant than others. - Be Salt and Light
Influence society by promoting good and restraining evil. - Persecution May Come Naturally
It often develops over time, not by force.
Transcript
[00:00:00 – 00:00:55] Hi, Pastor Mike. Uh, I texted a question earlier, but I’m so glad I was able to call before you got to it. My question is regarding persecution. So, I know the Bible talks a lot about how we will suffer persecution of the Christian. And I’ve been saved almost a year now. I’ve preached the gospel to give or take 50 people, you know, handing out tracks here and there. And the worst I’ve ever gotten is someone that’s uninterested. So, I’m questioning, am I doing enough? Am I not bold enough? Or what does that
[00:00:28 – 00:01:22] practically look like? especially here in Orange County. >> Yeah, I’m so glad you asked that. And I I know that some people when they don’t feel like they’re suffering enough in their evangelism, they ramp their evangelism up and they go to town. They start quoting passages at people as they walk by. They start wearing sandwich boards. They try to make sure that they they raise the the eye and the anger of the people that walk by. I used to do college ministry in Tucson at the
[00:00:55 – 00:01:45] University of Arizona. We had a group that would come out and I would get so angry at these guys. I would go over and confront them and say, “Hey, you know, this is ridiculous.” And and let me tell you why. And I would try to talk to them. Of course, they don’t want to talk to me. But uh you know, they would even go away thinking, “Oh, see, we’re being reviled for Christ’s sake, and so this is good.” But [snorts] what we have to do is not try to evoke a kind of negative response. Everything in the
[00:01:20 – 00:02:21] scripture about our evangelism says we’re supposed to do this with gentleness and respect. But I would tell you that if you don’t see some kind of exclusion, some kind of spurning, right, some kind of of of eye at least, I mean, the words are strong in Luke 6, hatred, right? Exclusion, reviling, spurning. Those are the four words there. I would say, you know, you’re in a very fortunate position. You must have a great family. You must have a you must have a great workplace. But here’s the
[00:01:50 – 00:02:52] deal. I’ll bet a lot of things if you don’t if you’re not living in a in a Christian perfect environment at home, at at at work, at school, or whatever, uh I would just say, are you really every time you sense that prompting to speak up? Are you saying it? I I even have that sometimes with strangers when they use the Lord’s name in vain or something. And I I I always want to do everything with gentleness and respect, but I I know I’m going to evoke the eye of people. I I told a story not too long
[00:02:22 – 00:03:18] ago, you might remember. And I was just driving through Canes or something and some guy I cut him up. Well, I’m going to respond, I hope, like a Christian, which is to say to him as he’s angry. Hey, I’m so sorry. You’re right. I I cut in front of you. I didn’t see you. I didn’t mean to. Even that nice response, the guy couldn’t handle it. I mean, he went nuts. I would have been better off if I were a non-Christian yelling some bad words at him. So, all I’m saying is
[00:02:50 – 00:03:45] make sure that whenever the prompting of God’s spirit or the conviction of God’s spirit to say something or to speak up when they’re talking about this, that or the other. Uh just make sure you’re obedient to that and then keep it up. Keep keep sharing the gospel and praise God that you’re living in a relative time of peace. I think a lot of our uh you know American counterparts before the sexual revolutions of the 60s and the 70s probably thought a lot the same. Hey, our church is doing great. Uh we we
[00:03:18 – 00:04:11] put in permits at the city and we get permits to build our churches and you know we want to ring our church bells and everyone goes great. No problem. So it’ll change and there are times when you’re God’s going to put you in a situation where you’re going to you certainly will qualify for verse 22 of Luke 6, right? hate, exclude, revile, and spurn. And maybe you’re joyfully doing that because it says you should should rejoice. And maybe you’re just good at rejoicing when someone doesn’t
[00:03:44 – 00:04:35] invite you to that party at work because they don’t want the goody two shoes there that’s not going to drink or not going to get drunk with them or whatever it might be. So, keep living for the Lord. Just know it’s coming. It’ll probably come. And if not, then you’re especially blessed Christian. Don’t try to evoke it. Don’t try to get it happening. But I would might even put it in a journal entry in your journal somewhere that you go back to and just put the heading hatred, exclusion,
[00:04:10 – 00:04:53] reviling, and spurning. By spurning your name is evil, which means they’re calling you a bad person. Wait, and see if you can see anything coming up in the next two months that falls under one of those headings in your journal. And I’ll bet you’re going to have some things there, even if they’re small. And if they’re small, praise God. And and if you say, “Well, I’m not really suffering for Christ. I should go start a church in Saudi Arabia.” Well, that’s that’s
[00:04:31 – 00:05:28] not necessarily what you should do. But I guarantee you if you did go to some part of the world that hates Christianity, where it’s illegal to preach the Bible, you would suffer. So, you’re in a position where you’re in a unique maybe a a nice cocoon situation, but don’t stop sharing the gospel and praise God for every day without persecution. >> Does that help? >> Yeah, for sure. Thank you. I appreciate that because there are there are definitely times where I know I could
[00:05:00 – 00:05:48] share the gospel and I don’t because I feel that that person would be, you know, not wanting to listen to it and then there are times where, you know, I’m I’m faithful and I do. But, um, yeah, I’m definitely lucky and blessed that I don’t live in a place where, you know, I’m going to prison for sharing my faith. So, so that was definitely helpful. Thank you. Well, let me give you one more thing because we we’ve been talking because you brought it up about evangelism, but there’s another role
[00:05:23 – 00:06:15] that we play in the restraint of evil. Um, and and here’s something, and again, I don’t want to make this too personal, but there are times when I realize as salt and light in the world, my job in getting involved in something in a conversation, sometimes it’s even just out and about at a store, isn’t for me to say, “Hey, I’m going to lead this person to Christ.” Although, if I have that opportunity, great. I’ll try to share the gospel, but it’s I don’t want
[00:05:49 – 00:06:47] this evil to continue. And I’m going to step in so that I can say, “Hey, you need to stop. This needs to stop. You shouldn’t do that.” Now, if if a person lost their their their mind or whatever, and did something. I I think of somebody I I talked to, two people I can think of recently where they were doing something and I said, “This is bad. It’s not just bad for you, which maybe I’d pass you by if we’re bad, but it’s bad for the business owner that that you’re that you you are
[00:06:18 – 00:07:08] affecting his clientele right here and that you’re not you’re not here by permission. You shouldn’t be here. And here I was thinking, you know, I’m going to say something cuz if everyone said something, these people wouldn’t do it. There was a guy hanging out at the ATM, just I’ll be specific. And it and one guy I was like, “Hey, this isn’t the place for you to sit and hang out by the ATM. There are ladies that want to come up here and get their money and they’re
[00:06:44 – 00:07:37] never going to do it with you standing here. You’re ruining the bank’s uh customer base right now and you need to get up and move. I mean, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t expect you to do that. But I mean, if you’re a man that’s big enough to maybe handle the guy who’s there trying to, you know, sit down and and loiter around the the ATM, I don’t think he had any nefarious purpose, but it was bad. It was bad. I if I were the owner of the bank, right, and they weren’t in
[00:07:10 – 00:08:02] session at that point, I think they’d want that. And so, restraining evil, doing something that is going to be an influence of good, sometimes you need to look for the conviction in your life for that. And I don’t want, you know, a young lady in Orange County doing that kind of thing. But I think sometimes us men should be saying to people even in the in the town center, I don’t think you should be doing this and you need to stop. You could see some mom going off on her kid and and maybe you need to
[00:07:36 – 00:08:23] take all the factors into consideration. Maybe this gal’s whatever and you don’t know about her life, but maybe if you see something that’s injust, you got to step in and say, “Hey, at least say something.” Because if everyone thought if I lost my temper at the line at Costco, I know four people would stand up and say, “You shouldn’t do that.” I think people would think twice about it. But when no one gets involved and no one wants to restrain bad behavior, no one
[00:08:00 – 00:08:54] just wants to give that social pressure for people not to be bad, I do think then we’re missing that part of our job to be salt and light. So that’s another aspect of it that may that may prompt something in your mind to say next time you’re somewhere and say, “Well, this is no time for the gospel, so I’m done with my job.” No, no, it may not be the time for the gospel, but it may be the time for you to restrain bad behavior in in society. And one day all the Christians in this
[00:08:27 – 00:09:13] world are going to be gone. And and that’s my esquetology at least. And I think at that point, right, when all hell breaks loose, of course, it will be God’s direct punishment upon the planet. But a lot of that punishment as I think it says in first Thessalonians, right, is because the restrainer has been removed. The action of the spirit through the spir through the people of God and the church is going to be gone. And it’s the world’s going to be a worse place to live because when someone loses
[00:08:50 – 00:09:38] it or does something wrong and anybody that’s going to say anything like we would. Christians are restraining evil. So restrain evil and make your little chart there of hate, exclude, revile, and spurn my name is evil. And I’ll bet you’ll have a few of those to share in a few months. And that’s not a badge of honor. Although he says, “If you’re not being persecuted, you need you do need to look at your life cuz they persecuted me. They’re going to persecute you.” Uh
[00:09:14 – 00:09:43] but maybe Jesus would be less persecuted in the 21st century in a place like Orange County than he would have in Middle Eastern first century. But you get my point >> probably. I I appreciate the the response
