Standing for God's Truth Even When It's Hard

We live in a time where facts are defined by subjective feelings and abstract ideas. As Christians, as we spend time in the world, it becomes increasingly hard to distinguish the truth from lies. Being a Christian isn't supposed to be something that is easy to do. The Christian life is one that means that you will often be met with opposition.

In Scripture, we see these struggles demonstrated in a much more dramatic fashion. In the time following Christ's death, when Rome ruled the majority of the Middle East and Europe, Christians were subject to death.

In Acts 7, we see Stephen, the first documented martyr of the faith, speaking to a crowd before he is stoned to death. Acts 7:51-53 (ESV) shows Stephen saying, "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so did you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it."

In this part of the Scripture, Stephen is scolding those around him for not listening to the Holy Spirit and continuing to persecute those who believed in Christ. Like Stephen spread the Word of God and sacrificed himself (by means of being martyred) we are also called to spread the Word of God, no matter what the cost.

In Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV), we see Jesus telling his followers what to do. The Scripture states, "And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."" There are four extremely important things that Christ tells us to do:

1. Make disciples of all nations. 
2. Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
3. Teach them to observe all that I [Christ] have commanded you.
4. Jesus is with us always, to the end of the age.

As I said before, there will always be resistance to the Word of God. The Scripture speaks extensively on the nature of absolute truth and as we see in the verse above since there is capital-T-truth, we are given the duty to spread that truth and make disciples all over the world. 

The Christian life is one that needs to be lived with the knowledge that things will not be easy. Standing for God is not easy. In Him, we find truth and true structure. The question is, are you willing to take a stand for God?

A few Scriptures to help (all are taken from the ESV):

• 1 John 3:18 - "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth."
• 2 Timothy 2:15 - "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."
• Ephesians 6:14-18 - "Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication."
• James 1:18 - "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
• John 1:17 - "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
• John 14:6 - "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
• John 16:13 - "When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come."

Love,

Jennifer xo