Nature of persecution

Persecution is characteristic of this world

Psalm 10:2 KJV 1900

The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

See also Am 1:6; Am 1:9; Am 2:1; Hab 1:6–11; Re 6:8; Re 9:7–10

Satan is the arch-persecutor of the church

Genesis 3:15 KJV 1900

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

See also Job 2:6–7; Zec 3:1; Lk 22:3–4; 1 Pe 5:8; Re 2:10; Re 2:13

The agencies of persecution

The world

Jn 15:18; 1 Jn 3:13

See also Mk 12:7; Jn 5:18; Jn 15:19; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; 1 Th 2:14–15; 1 Jn 3:1

Earthly governments

Mark 13:9 KJV 1900

But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.

See also 1 Ki 19:2; Ne 6:1; Ne 6:9; Es 3:6; Ps 119:161; Je 38:6; Da 3:13–17; Mt 10:17; Ac 12:1–3

Religious authorities

1 Thessalonians 2:13–16 KJV 1900

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

See also Je 26:8; Am 7:12–13; Mt 23:34–37; Ac 4:27–29; Ac 5:17–18; Ac 22:4

Powers that persecute the church are symbolised by beasts and Babylon:

Re 13:7; Re 13:15; Re 17:6

Family and friends

Matthew 10:36 KJV 1900

And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

See also Mic 7:6; Ge 4:8; Mt 10:21; Mk 3:21; Ga 4:29

The experience of persecution

2 Corinthians 12:10 KJV 1900

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

See also 1 Sa 24:14; Ps 59:1–4; Ps 64:1–4; 2 Co 4:8–12; 2 Co 11:23–26; Heb 11:32–38

Believers must expect persecution

2 Timothy 3:12 KJV 1900

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

See also Mt 13:21; Mk 10:29–30; 1 Th 3:4

Persecution is part of the tribulation of the church

Matthew 24:7–10 KJV 1900

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

See also 2 Th 2:3–4; Re 6:11

Persecution is sometimes part of God’s judgment on his people

Lamentations 4:16–19 KJV 1900

The anger of the Lord hath divided them; he will no more regard them: They respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders. As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us. They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: They pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

See also Je 6:22–26; Je 32:26–29; Je 39:5–10