PHILIPPIANS 1:28-30

28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

Verse 28 There’s one more sign that we are living in a manner worthy of the gospel: we’re not scared by opposition. When we are able to stand firm in the face of antipathy and hostility, and not simply hang on by our fingernails but stay calm and purposeful, it’s an indication that God truly is doing something powerful in our life. Paul says much the same thing in 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5. And Jesus, when he’s listing the signs of the end of the age, says that one of them will be the persecution, betrayal and execution of believers. Opposition is not a reason for despair, but for hope – our salvation is drawing closer. “When you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door” (Matthew 24:33).

This, I suppose, is why Western Christians sometimes envy the simple, clear faith of the persecuted church. When you’ve never been put to the test of unbearable pressure, how do you know you will last in the time of trial? But once you’ve been through the loss of all things for Christ, you know just how deep and durable is the work that God has done inside you, preparing you unmistakably for a future with him.

The unity and the lack of fear Christians can show in extreme situations can also act as a sign to their persecutors that they are opposing God himself. No one knew this better than Paul; even before he had heard the Aramaic voice on the Damascus road, he’d started to become dimly aware that he was “kicking against the pricks” (Acts 26:14). He knew just how often the bluster and seeming assurance of Christianity’s most hostile critics can be a desperate attempt to cover up a growing, nagging feeling that perhaps these people are actually right.

Verse 29 And so suffering for Christ is not a regrettable calamity that befalls some particularly unlucky believers. It is a gift which God grants, a privilege for which not all qualify.

This wasn’t a new idea Paul was introducing. Right from the beginning, in the Beatitudes, Jesus had said that those who were persecuted because they belonged to him were actually blessed (Matthew 5:11-12); and so the first Christians to face hostility in Jerusalem had rejoiced that they were “counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (Acts 5:41). A few years before Philippians, James had already written his letter (we think), exhorting his readers to “count it all joy” when trials came (1:2); and shortly afterwards, Peter – who had obviously read Ephesians and Colossians, and possibly Philippians too – wrote to say that persecuted Christians should rejoice, “for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Peter 4:14).

So it’s the consistent teaching of the New Testament that suffering for Jesus’ sake is a sign of God’s favour – not the opposite. It isn’t that God has deserted us, and left us in trouble, but that he wants us to experience his reality more dramatically and more starkly than ever before. Like the three friends of Daniel who were thrown through the air into the fiery furnace, we will land on our feet, unsinged, and realize that we are there in the cauldron alongside the Son of God.

Just theory? Only in the Bible? Mehdi Dibaj was murdered because of his faith as recently as 1994. Before then, he had lost his wife and family, sacrificed his comfortable background, and endured prison sentences.

And yet, while in prison, he wrote, "What a privilege to live for our Lord and to die for Him as well."

We bear the torch that flaming
Fell from the hands of those
Who gave their lives proclaiming
That Jesus died and rose…

Verse 30 One of the things that can give us courage in our spiritual struggles is the fact that we’re not alone. God asks no more of us than he is asking of others; and if they can make it, so can we. Paul says, “You know what I’ve been through. You’ve heard what I’m going through now. Well, welcome to the club. Feel special!”

Peter tells his readers to resist the devil and stand firm “because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:9). Why does it help to know this? Because one of the devil’s most insidious lies is: you’re all on your own now. When we start feeling alone, and sorry for ourselves, we lose the will to continue. (That happened to all three of the men in the Bible who asked God to take away their lives: Elijah, Moses and Jonah.)

And so when temptation strikes it’s vital to know that “no temptation has seized you except what is common to man” (1 Corinthians 10:13). It’s easy to feel that no one on earth has ever had to go through quite what I’m going through, no one could possibly understand the depths of my struggle. That’s rubbish; and sometimes when we have the courage to confess our sins to one another, we find to our surprise that we’re healed.