Under Pressure
Martin Fair
October 02, 2024
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Galatians 6: 12-13 (NRSVA)
12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh.
People who are particularly committed to their cause or worldview can very easily slip from passion to obsession and that tends not to end well. Such people find it almost impossible to understand that other people might take a different viewpoint. In the worst case scenarios, they opt to coerce or compel others to adopt their ways, sometimes with intimidation and violence. Courageous indeed are those who refuse to buckle under such persecution.
Think of the Covenanters of the 17th Century, those brave Scottish Presbyterians who were hounded out of their churches, many paying with their lives for their refusal to be dictated to in terms of the exercising of their faith. Think of those Christians today living in countries where their following of Jesus makes them fair game for majority populations who aren’t ready to live and let live. Indeed, it is reckoned that Christians are the world’s most persecuted people group today.
And so it was that there was pressure on sections of the early Church to conform to other ways. In his earlier days, Paul himself had been persecutor-in-chief, going from place to place to suppress the Church, even standing on as Stephen was stoned to death.
For the Christians in Galatia, pressure came from so-called Judaisers; those people who wanted to insist that new converts to Christianity had to adopt Jewish practices and traditions. They insisted that faith in Jesus was, in itself, not sufficient.
Perhaps there are occasions when we need to stand firm in our faith. Might we see more such days in times to come as Christians become increasingly marginalised and as secularising forces want to see faith pushed out of public life altogether?
Meanwhile let us not grow weary in praying for our brothers and sisters who, right now, are paying a heavy price for sticking with Jesus.
Prayer:
Lord, guard and protect those of your children who live with daily oppression. Even in the midst of the storm may they know that you are in the boat with them. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.
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