In Danger

2 Corinthians 11:26 ²⁶ I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.

As a Western Christian in today’s world, I have not had to face persecution like my brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. For years they have faced danger just for being a follower of Jesus. They have lost house and home, job and profession, and even liberty and life. The cost for them has been high.

But the cost of being a follower of Jesus in the United States has been especially low. For most  of us, being a Christian has had very little practical impact on our lives. There hasn’t been much push back from our neighbors and friends. We haven’t lost jobs and livelihood. We certainly haven’t had our lives threatened.

But for the Apostle Paul, danger was part of his experience. He faced many dangers that he endured for the cause of Christ. The list of ‘dangers’ found in our text is surrounded by other dangers that Paul endured. He seems to have drawn around him those who wanted him dead! And they did. He was whipped, beaten with rods, pelted with stones, and shipwrecked.

If I were Paul, I might have given up! I might have shut my mouth.

As I write this, I am sitting in Germany. Just this week visited the prison camp where Dietrich Bonhoefferr was executed. He was a German pastor and theologian who fled Germany at the rise of Hitler, but then returned to Germany for the cause of Christ. He was arrested and sent as a political prisoner to a prisoner of war camp. He was transferred and executed just weeks before liberation.

It was sobering to consider what he endured. Would I be willing to make these same types of sacrifices? Here is a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
“If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering.”
Am I in danger of leaving my faith, or accepting a faith that is so impotent that it is no danger to anyone? Lord, forgive me if it is so.

Christianity is the most dangerous faith in the world. When it is embraced and lived it radically alters the trajectory of your life and all those with whom you are in contact. If it doesn’t, then it isn’t a faith worth having. Love takes over and becomes the driving influence, even love toward those who radically oppose you and your lived out beliefs.

In the coming weeks and months we will have to make choices about our faith. Will we dig in deeper into Jesus and the love He wants to spread through us, or will we fight with the world’s weapons of hatred and derision? We have the choice, non-believers don’t. Let’s make the right choice.