Here's thought that popped into my head this morning:
If we are following Jesus, walking how Jesus walked and teaching what Jesus taught, shouldn't we be attracting the same enemies that Jesus attracted?
who in this world does NOT in some way get persecutions? even people who do not preach about Christ, still get persecuted for Christ sake, since Christ is the Holy Spirit, and not just words alone. therefore anyone doing any good, with any good fruits of God in them ( though they also have thorns and thistle)... still, that does not take away their good fruits. it is a wicked persecution against them to claim they have no good fruits when they plainly do, they slander the image of God that is in them, though it may have some smudges on it. they hate their brothers and so how can they love God? they persecute the poor, and thus Christ, for the least among you who does good or evil, it was done to Christ. we are plainly told to not return evil for evil, but good for evil and so even when we react in evil to evil, we are persecuting.
not many things are cut and dry. objectify something to much and you have a dull view of reality. some Christians who were good examples never had a physical finger lifted up against them. others such as jacob boehme had very many enemies, but also very many friends, of which continues to this day. saint Ignatius who wrote some early christian letters ( who is to this day is persecuted in various ways ) was burning with divine love and did desire to be slain for Christ and his church sake, and he was. paul was desiring to die, but decided that it is better if he remains due to his great concern for his brothers and sisters in this earth, then later on when the time was right, he was slain.
Jas 3:13-18 (YLT)
Who is wise and intelligent among you? let him shew out of the good behaviour his works in meekness of wisdom, and if bitter zeal ye have, and rivalry in your heart, glory not, nor lie against the truth; this wisdom is not descending from above, but earthly, physical, demon-like, for where zeal and rivalry are , there is insurrection and every evil matter; and the wisdom from above, first, indeed, is pure, then peaceable, gentle, easily entreated, full of kindness and good fruits, uncontentious, and unhypocritical: -- and the fruit of the righteousness in peace is sown to those making peace.
the more peaceful people are with each other, the less persecutions there are. people not fully mature in Christ have both good and evil angels influencing them, they have free will to pick one or the other but it is not the same as those who are walking in the spirit of liberty, of mature sonship. so often we do not even grasp that what we do is wrong, we are very dull when we are spiritual babies. those who are mature in the Spirit "know what they are saying" as opposed to peter when he was still a disciple, it was said "he did not know what he was saying". there are many many people in the world that "do not know what they are saying" but speak divine things due to the various good angels over them, and at the same time since they are trapped in a lower reality they themselves have a completely different idea of what the words they say mean. but the grace/love/mercy/transcendental orderings of God from various levels surmounts all things.
ofc james had his head bashed in after being thrown off a high place if I am not mistaken. amazing that in his time, people would kill such good people! times do change and the tactics of the enemy can change too. some places in the world are easier to control and manipulate, some types of souls are not going to be able to be foolish enough to kill others. it just depends on what evil spirit is able to take control of a person. if evil spirits can't harm the Christians in a more direct manner, they might try to harm him with other people who they already have various levels of domination over. but let us not forget all our allies, there are very many more good beings out there than evil. the root of the problem is that people are easy to control by the dwindling forces of evil in this world. as long as people let others blindly rule over them, they shall be ruled over by that which overcomes them. there are good angels over the evil spirits as well as the gospels and other rejected books that are holy claim. but evil spirits reside in a very small part of reality, much more often things are ordered by a multiplicity of good beings. we hardly understand heaven at all. persecution comes in a variety of forms. to some people, everyone is their enemy, to others, no one is.
honestly it was Jesus plan to become a martyr, he knew how many people it would help in the long run, he was very willing, completely trusting in His Father. he understood that the time he came in at was a very difficult one, that is why he came when he did. the people who worked against him only ended up serving him and all others in the end by showing us the darkness. they shall not lose their reward.
persecution is a blessing sometimes. to not be persecuted can end up being a great curse. the complexity of the various souls and groups of various spirits in this world makes complex interactions that are not easy to just give a yes and no answer to, which is why we have many different examples in the bible and in all of reality. it is all right in front of us, all we need is the Spirit of God to teach us. and the depths of his wisdom are never ending divine love. he is the author of our own salvation, of each of our gospels of our life, not only the bible. the world is real, that is where the bible was written in. to reduce the world to the bible is foolish, unless you see with the Spirit of God, then it does not matter, God can do whatever he wants and teach us however he desires. see reality and the bible from the worlds eyes and you will have the reasoning of the world, from an good angel, the reasoning of an good angel, from a person, the reasoning of a person, from God, the reasoning of God.
persecution is subjective depending on your current perception and spiritual state of being though there are various archtypes of how one will response to this or that, we are capable of responding and seeing things in various ways that do not have to conform to the status quo 'normal' human interactions and reactions. all humans are unique and this is a symbol that each is also unique in soul and spirit, in as much as they are themselves rather than slaves, and they are also mixed up and composed of many things, the same as the earth and the universe is. the closer to God we are, the more we find ourselves. reality, God made it, tis hard to explain reality, especially when you know there is also the invisible influencing the visible and that they are mixed together to create our experiences. and reality is simple too, the 2 commandments, be a child, ectect.
