Description
Facing Persecution with Faith: Jesus’ Message in Matthew 10:28
In this episode, we explore Jesus’ reassurance to his di… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Jesus knew that some of his disciples and followers were about to face horrendous torture, persecution, and execution, and this was all for the sake of the gospel. And he equips them for this by saying the following in Matthew chapter 10, verse 28. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Now, often when the scripture talks to us about fear, fear of God, it means the kind of fear that is revering God, holding him in awe and respect. Jesus is saying here, don’t hold in awe, don’t feel yourselves completely beholden to those who are threatening you physically. Because ultimately they cannot do any lasting, permanent, eternal damage.
We give our reverence, our awe, our respect to God, and one of the reasons is that God is the giver of life. He is the one who can give life completely, eternal life, and who can take it away? Nobody else can do that. Only God.
This is of course one of many reasons why we respect God, why we hold him in awe. We’re not terrified of him because he loves us, because we know that he is working for good, for those who are called according to his purposes.
So we need not fear him in the sense that he’s going to do something unexpectedly dire to us that is out of character and random. No. We know he loves us. We know that he’s interested in protecting us. We know that he will bring us safely into his eternal kingdom.
Jesus says, lift your eyes above the here and now above the anguish and suffering that sometimes comes in this life, and know that you have something far better awaiting you: the opportunity to spend eternity with God.
