The reason the Church was persecuted is because Christianity was not like other religions. Christians gave their entire loyalty to King Jesus instead of Caesar. This eventually caused a political and social conflict between the Church and the Roman Empire that resulted in persecution against the followers of Jesus.
However, for more than three centuries, instead of declining, the church grew and became stronger because of its perseverance and faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus. The early Christians understood clearly when Jesus said, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (Jn. 15:20b) Therefore, they faced persecution as if it were an honor and a blessing (Mt. 5:10).
Today the vast majority of Christians in the West are not being physically persecuted. However, we all experience spiritual persecution that seeks to weaken and destroy our faith. Currently, the prince of this world, Satan, and his spiritual forces of evil are managing to influence our modern society with greater intensity, causing our Christian faith and ethics to become increasingly more offensive to non-believers. But this should not surprise us, because again, Jesus warned us about it and we must persevere.
With that said, we must not forget there are still millions of Christians around the world facing levels of physical and spiritual persecution unimaginable to us. The evil one wants to silence followers of Jesus because of their testimony; people like you and me willing to suffer for the same reason our Lord suffered, “for being light amid darkness.” Christians who have a fireproof persevering faith that would be good for us to imitate.
Pastor Esteban Tapia