My dear readers,

Are You Worth Persecuting?

Proverbs 13:8: “The ransom of a man's life are his riches: but the poor heareth not rebuke.”

The world notices wealthy people everywhere they go. Heads of state make time for billionaires when they visit, even though they are not foreign dignitaries. They want the billionaires to invest in their country. Fellow wealthy men and women would love to meet their counterparts to become richer. The reason billionaires attract so much attention is apparent: their massive wealth. The world sees them as the definition of success and wants to emulate them and to have their children become like them one day. They are the epitome of what hard work and diligence can accomplish. They are placed on a pedestal for many young ones to view as precursors of achieving great wealth!

Wealthy people also attract plenty of unwanted attention. They can attract criminals and gold diggers who clamour to be noticed by the rich. Criminals might kidnap their loved ones and hold them ransom for a huge payday. The risk is worth it. Gold diggers will throw themselves at the rich, like baits on the sharp hook at the end of a fishing line. Once they catch one of these rich fish, they believe they can be set for life through blackmail or some other payout, like the strange woman of Proverbs 7. The wealthy have enough money to get them out of many troubles and escape poverty. They live comfortably and can afford the best of what money can buy. They can hire the best lawyers to defend them when in trouble. They have the means to keep themselves safe from all evil people who seek to hurt them and their loved ones. They ransom, i.e. cover, themselves securely and warmly with their monetary comforter in the bleakest of winter when others feel the biting cold; they remain comfortably warm and safe in their fortress of wealth.

However, the poor are ignored and rejected by all in every society. They do not contribute but are considered leeches that suck society dry. They have nothing but their lives. They sleep on park benches or in the streets and under flyovers in cardboard boxes. Nobody will rob them or bother to kidnap them or their loved ones. They eke out a living as scavengers rummaging through dustbins, hoping to find half-eaten or leftover food to fill their painful starving stomachs. No one will care for them if the society they live in does not have some welfare system to help them. These welfare systems are designed more for the betterment of the nation’s image than for any altruistic reason of helping the poor. The wasted life of the poor is used as an example not to follow. Parents will warn their children as they drive by in their cars or from the windows of buses that if they do not work hard, they will become like these poor vagrants. They may have loved ones who are ashamed of their slothfulness and blame them for their wasted life. They have no one to blame but themselves for their state of abject poverty.

The poor have nothing and are not worth noticing. Meanwhile, the rich are the focus of everyone’s attention. The former have nothing that no one wants, whereas the latter have everything, and everyone wants what they have.

The spiritual realm is no different from the physical. The devil and his minions will ignore the professing believer who is bankrupt in the knowledge of God’s Word. He has nothing spiritual in his talk and walk. The reason is that his life is carnality, void of any light of Christ. His life is crusted by thick layers of worldly living, testifying more on behalf of the devil than for Christ whom he claims to believe in and to desire to follow. His life brings shame to the Lord based on his confession that he is a Christian. His hypocritical living muddies Christ’s holy name. Since he is doing the work of the devil dressed in the garment of Christ’s army, his spiritual poverty receives no rebuke from anyone! Perhaps when he first began to stray, some caring believer might have admonished him. But he retorted with anger and self-righteousness mixed with delusional indignation; many avoided him from that experience as he viewed them as enemies rather than caring brethren. Believers still see his spiritual poverty because of his carnality. But he is ignored, and no one rebuked him from henceforth.

Conversely, the spiritually rich is a prime target of the devil and his millions of minions, both demons and demonic human beings. The devil will use every means available to bring him down. The aim is not to jeopardise his salvation (which is impossible to do as every salvation is safe in God’s almighty hand), but to ruin his holy witness and render him ineffective in witness. The attacks would be incessant if God did not stop them. Thank God, He is the Almighty and permits only what is spiritually good for His children. This is the shared experience of every child of God. 1 Corinthians 10:13: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

When these trials come, their spiritual wealth can ransom, i.e. cover, the believer from all attacks. If they attack the body, the believer is firm in faith to know that he will be present with his Lord when he is absent from the body. If they attack his heart, he bears no ill will or seeks vengeance, for the love of God constrains him in all he does. He learns to love unconditionally and sacrificially with the love of God as his godly example; the same love that constrained His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for his sin. To suffer for Christ’s sake means being counted worthy by his heavenly Father to suffer for His glory. The sufferings do not come from man but from his loving Father.

If they attack his mind, he is blessed with the mind of Christ and knows enough of the Holy Scriptures to endure and ward off all erroneous teachings; and the Holy Spirit will give him clarity of truth. He will not believe in lies, and the opinions of man, for the Word of God is the only yardstick in his life to measure every teaching and doctrine. If mammon and all forms of wickedness are used to lure him away from his path of holiness, he counts them as dung and fixes his heart and mind to pursue the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. He has experienced true wealth, truly believing that godliness with contentment is great gain. Nothing the devil or the world can offer him will appeal to him. He can do without all the trappings and accolades of the world and continues to count them as dung.

His spiritual wealth makes him a blessing to all who fellowship with him. His words are seasoned with salt. He lifts tired hands through words of encouragement. He holds the hands of those weeping, for he weeps with them. He guides the disobedient through sincere admonishment to steer them back to holiness and righteousness according to the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Spirit uses him to build up the faith of believers through his clear and biblical sharing of God’s truth. Such a blessing in God’s work will attract many fiery darts of the evil one. But the Lord protects him with the thick covering of His spiritual truth, even the very Word of God.

If you are enduring persecution where your faith is attacked, know that the ransom of your life, i.e. the covering, is true riches in Christ through His holy Word.

Is your life worth persecuting?