This is the fifth of a six-part blog series on “obstacles to obedience,” reasons we tell God, “No.” This comes to you courtesy of Ryan Doherty, the Summit’s North Durham campus pastor. Be sure to check out the rest of the series here: Introduction, Obstacle 1 (Not Recognizing the Call), Obstacle 2 (Time), Obstacle 3 (Earthly Treasures), & Obstacle 5 (Lack of Training).
When missionary James Calvert boarded a ship bound for the Fiji Islands, the ship’s captain tried to turn him back: “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” Calvert coolly replied, “We died before we came here.”
Calvert was thinking of Jesus’ statement to his disciples: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt 16:24-25). As Dietrich Bonhoeffer summarized those verses, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” That’s not usually a promise Christians readily claim. But when we realize that persecution is the norm for millions of believers around the world, we begin to break through the barrier to obedience called safety, comfort, and security.
For over 30 years, Nik Ripken has interviewed approximately 600 believers who live in environments of persecution, totaling 72 countries to date. He recalls that one Russian pastor told him, “For us, persecution is like the sun coming up in the east. It happens all the time. It’s the way things are. There is nothing unusual or unexpected about it. Persecution for our faith has always been – and probably always will be – a normal part of life.”
There will be suffering. The 6,000 unreached people groups throughout the world are unreached are for a reason: they are profoundly hostile to the gospel. According to David Mathis, “Not only is suffering the consequence of finishing the mission, but it is God’s appointed means by which He will show the superior worth of His Son to all the peoples.”
Some of us want all of the benefits of following Jesus without any of the costs. We need to hear C.T. Studd when he says, “If Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” Another missionary to Africa, Rowland Bingham, weighed the costs of following Jesus and determined, “I will open Africa to the gospel or die trying.” (He almost did.) Gladys Aylward, who served Christ in China, agreed: “Life is pitiful, death so familiar, suffering and pain so common, yet I would not be anywhere else. Do not wish me out of this or in any way seek to get me out, for I will not be got out while this trial is on. These are my people, God has given them to me, and I will live or die for Him and His glory.”
As we go to our neighbors and to the nations to share the gospel, let us be ready to embrace suffering and death for the sake of the kingdom. Let us be earnest in partnering with the persecuted church across the world.
Many who initially came to Jesus with excitement ended up leaving him disillusioned when they heard him speak about the cost of obedience. Many today will continue to be offended by Jesus’ demand for total allegiance, preferring instead to cling to their illusions of safety. The gospel does not offer immediate ease, comfort, and safety. Instead, it shows us a Savior whose very life and death were marked by suffering, and invites us to follow him. But as we do, we find that death is swallowed up in resurrection.
Suffering for Christ is not a tragedy. What is tragic is missing out on the chance to join with him in his mission. As Brother Andrew aptly noted, “Persecution is an enemy the Church has met and mastered many times. Indifference, however, could prove to be a far more dangerous foe.” Indifference keeps us from obedience—and from seeing God move. After all, missionaries like James Calvert weren’t gluttons for punishment: they saw suffering as light and momentary because of the profound weight of what God was doing before them. And they got to see God move in ways that few of us could imagine.
Let’s not allow safety to stand in the way. Let’s live our lives in such a way so that at the end we be able to reflect on our obedience as Hudson Taylor did: “I have found there are three stages to every great work of God: first it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”
