Sharing the Word

“Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

I ran across this quote this morning. I’m not sure where it is recorded, but it’s good advice for us in such a contentious time as this.

As we go about sharing God’s Word with those around us, I appreciate St. Paul’s advice to Timothy. Granted, it’s aimed at the pastoral office, but are we not all witnesses to grace of God in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus to forgive the sins of the world?

2 Timothy 4: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Still, I must remember that there will be persecution in these latter days. Jesus forewarned His disciples about this. John 15: 18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” The book of Revelation, too, tries to strengthen us before persecution falls upon us.

Until that time is abundantly clear, I’ll go with Emerson’s sage reminder. Contradiction does not equal persecution. With respect to God’s Word, it merely means there is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to change someone’s eternal well-being!