Suffer Persecution: 2 Timothy 3

“Indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12, NASB).

Yesterday, I was driving home after spending time with my wife who is in the hospital. I was listening to the radio. The host of the program was inviting listeners to call in to voice their opinion about something that someone had said about Black Lives Matter. The host quoted a Black person who said that they did not support Black Lives Matter. The host asked, “Do you think that this person is a racist?” I heard the response of about four people. All of them said that the Black person that does not support Black Lives Matter is a racist. Let me say up front that I a seventy-three year old Black man do not support the organization Black Lives Matter, and as a Christian I do not support the goal to send the message that the lives of Black people matter in a racist society. As I listened to the response of the callers I remembered the words of Paul, those “who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. This article is about godly people who suffer persecution because regardless of the stated goals of an organization, it is highly possible that the person and/or organization do not conform to the teaching of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. So, I want to address some issues raised by the callers.

First, I want to know what we mean when we say that a person is a racist. I searched Goggle to find a definition. I found one from Oxford Languages. I found that the word racist can be used as an adjective or as a noun. Since we are talking about a person, let us use the word as a noun. The definition of a racist according to Oxford Languages is “a person who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.” I asked myself: If I disagree with a person or organization does this mean that I am antagonistic toward that group of people or some organization? How can we promote diversity if we all have to agree on everything? Was Jesus a racist? Is God a racist? Was Paul a racist? Jesus was one man that had twelve men as His primary followers and learners of His thoughts and ways. If what they believed and taught went against the grain of goals and methods of reaching those goals, does this mean that they were a group of racists? Since Jesus and His twelve disciples were in the minority then and now are all people that were antagonist and prejudiced against them to be called racist?

Secondly, I cannot find the word racist in my bible. If it is there I hope that I will find it or maybe someone will point it out to me. For now, I will say that the word racist is not in my bible. I asked myself why? After thinking about this for some time, this is what I found in my bible. The apostle wrote a letter to Christians in Rome. His purpose was to enlist the help of these Christians in taking the gospel of Jesus to the west, into Europe where only Gentiles lived. Why did Paul want to take the gospel to these people? It was because Paul believed that these people were in the wrong as it relates to their relationship with God. For sure, we might say that some Christians were antagonistic toward any person that was not a Christians. Jews were antagonistic toward Gentiles.

They did not believe that salvation was available to the Gentiles; it was available to Jews only because they were the chosen people of God. Yet, I do not find the word racist. So, how would the apostle Paul describe these people? According to Paul all people regardless of their ethnicity or status in life they were all the same as it related to their standing with God. He said that there was no difference between the Jew and the Gentile. The Gentiles lived in sin without the Law (of Moses). The Jews lived in sin even though they had been given the Law. He said that the Law condemned the Jews because they failed to live according to the Law. Paul concluded that both Jews and Gentiles stood equal before God. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23, NASB). Paul was no more antagonistic towards the Gentiles than He was toward the Jews.

Paul was not against either group although He did not support them in their religious beliefs; their lifestyles and behaviors. All were sinners because all of them lived in disobedience to the requirements in the Law. What did Paul want to do about these people, both Jews and Gentiles that he did not support; even disagreed with? He wanted to give everyone the opportunity to be free from sin. He opened this letter saying, “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:15-16, NASB).

You see, I do not have to support the organization Black Lives Matter and some of the thoughts and ways that they have for trying to achieve racial equality in America. Black people in America suffer in the same ways that minorities and the disenfranchised have been suffering since the beginning of human history. As a Christian I believe that the problem is not skin color and ethnicity. I believe that it is because of the sin nature that is in all people. There are no laws, marches, demonstrations, speeches, money and political powers that can solve the problem of the sin that is the etymology of all of our social problems.

Black Lives Matter is no different from the thousands of organizations, communities, societies, and religious groups that have led movements and other methods used over the entirety of human history to bring about peace and justice in the world. It is the nature of sin in us that works in all of us that determines how we think, believe, and behave. The sin nature in us wants to have things our own way. We are not really concerned about the welfare of others. We are all just trying to gain the advantage for ourselves. It is only through Jesus Christ that we are able to have peace and justice. The goal of the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that people will repent of their own ways so that they can be saved not just from the penalty of sin, but also free from the power of sin that is in all of us. We repent of our sins. We surrender our lives to Jesus who died so that we could be saved from our sins. He gives to us His Holy Spirit so that we no longer live by our sinful nature. Rather we live by the fruit of the Holy Spirit who now lives in our hearts and minds.

I do not support the organization Black Lives Matter. I believe that its platform is based on world philosophies that run counter to the teaching of Jesus Christ. I do not believe that I can serve Black people’s best interest in any way other than through the truth, teaching, and a way of Jesus Christ.