Dear brothers and sisters, we can’t help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. We proudly tell God’s other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering. And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering. In his justice he will pay back those who persecute you.

2 Thessalonians 1:3-6

Dear God, why was Paul so proud of this church? Because they were accomplishing great things? Because they were fighting for their rights and influencing their community? No, because they were worshipping you through the legitimate harassment and persecution by others.

And who was persecuting them? The Romans? No, probably not. Or if the Romans were involved it was because the local Jewish church was behind it. So, yes, it was the local Jewish church who was most likely behind the persecution. And why? because these people were doing it wrong. They were blaspheming. They were teaching heresy. Frankly, from their perspective, their attitude is understandable. If I had been them, I’d have probably done the same thing. Going back to the Disney Princess Theology, I’m probably not the Thessalonian Christians in this story. I’m probably the old Jewish guard.

So how might I accidentally be making mistakes like this now? Or, on the other hand, is there any chance I bend too far in an effort to not be like them. Or, how do I need to be more like the Thessalonian Christians who are simply persevering in their worship for you in the midst of struggles? Frankly, as American Christians, hardly any of us know what persecution for our faith really looks like. We think that the government telling us not to meet in large groups (just like they are telling every other group in the country) is persecution. We are soft.

Father, I’ve asked a whole lot more questions than I’ve given answers here, but I think it’s important to remember that the odds are just as good that I am the persecutor as much as the persecuted. Either way, if I am the persecutor, please open my eyes so I can see. Give me mercy. Give me love. Give me grace for others. And if I am the persecuted (which I’m pretty sure I’m not), give me the right perspective that my life is no longer mine. It is yours, and I embrace whatever you have for me fully.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen