Freedom Requires Endurance in Faith
We like to think that it would be easier to be a Christian if we never had to endure suffering. If we weren’t the target of persecution from a society that is against us. If we didn’t have to fight off temptation around every corner. I believe it would be much harder.
You see, if we didn’t have to fight for our faith that would also mean we didn’t have to choose our faith. When Christ asks us to choose Him ‘over’ the world that means something for freedom. It also means something for suffering.
A life without freedom is a life without choices. If our faith was given to us and nobody ever challenged our faith, not even the demons, what kind of faith would it be? We would be robots carrying out instructions rather than loving God through our choices. Listen to Saint Paul.
Brethren, recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on the prisoners, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised. “For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry; but my righteous one shall live by faith.”
Hebrews 10.32-38
For Saint Paul, struggle comes because we are enlightened by God. Being enlightened isn’t a small thing. God ‘lights our lamp’ with His divine light. Our hearts hear the whispers of God’s Holy Spirit. Our bodies flow with the Blood of the Son of God. How can we not choose Him!
Alas, that choice comes with consequences. Because God has given every human being, and angel for that matter, the freedom to choose Him, that means some will not. The alternative to suffering for Christ is living as robots with Him. No thank you.
Love is never forced. Love is not a list of prompts and demands. Love is a choice that can be accepted and rejected. Don’t believe me? Think back to that one time when you loved someone who didn’t love you back. Would you rather have forced that person to love you? Not me.
Now think back to that one time when someone loved you, and you didn’t love them back. Imagine living in a world where that was not your choice. Imagine living in a world where you were forced to love. The ingredient to love is freedom. Anything else is not love.
So, God loves us and has given us the freedom to love Him back. When we choose to love Him, He gives us the endurance to fight off the temptation and accept persecution until He fulfills His promise of heaven. Heaven is coming. We just must wait a bit.
In the meantime we must live among those who choose not to love God. They will never stop trying to convince us we are the wrong ones. They will temp us by trying to convince us that we are not free because we choose God over the world. How is that not free?
It’s like I say about fasting. I ‘can’ eat whatever I want. I ‘choose’ to fast because I love God. Isn’t that same thing about sin? I ‘can’ sin if I want, but what Christian wants to sin? Just because the world has chosen sin doesn’t mean we are not free to choose God.
We are free to choose the world or to choose God. In truth, both are difficult. When we choose the world, sin makes salvation difficult. When we choose God, the world is difficult. Choose your difficult. Choose God and He will give you the endurance you need. Anything else isn’t freedom.
