Whitney had the question of how do we know if persecution is reinforcement for doing the right things i.e. John 15:18 when Jesus says, "If they persecuted me they will persecute you also." VS. How we do know when we are persecuted because we are being disciplined for doing the wrong things i.e. Revelation 2:5 where Jesus says, "If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place," or again in verse 16 he says "Repent, therefore! Otherwise I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth!" He also says flat out in verse 19 "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline."
So we can stand assured we will face persecution in our lives. Whether it be persecution from the world because they hated Jesus first therefore they will hate us, OR God will allow persecution to happen to the church that's misbehaving in order to teach it a lesson or see which way it turns. Question is, how do we know which of the two we are facing?
We didn't discuss this for very long so please feel free to comment and answer better. But what we came up with was that God isn't going to punish you without letting you know why. He's going to send a prophet or reveal certain wisdom to the person or group that he's disciplining. Just as a Father isn't going to slap his child on the wrist and NOT tell them why, our Heavenly Father isn't going to let us suffer without revealing to us WHY he's doing that, we just have to be willing to ask him and listen to the answer. Similarly if a church that is doing all the right things and is pacing persecution BECAUSE of it, God will encourage and assure them.
What do you think?
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