3 Incredible Lessons the Persecuted Church Teaches Us

There are more than 360 million Christians around the world who endure persecution for their faith. It’s not hard to imagine that our prayers, encouragement, and financial support are important things we can offer them in times of need. However, we are not alone in having something to offer. Have you ever stopped to consider that those suffering persecution because of their faith have something incredibly important to offer us? 

Learning to Be at Odds with Culture

While we still possess many religious freedoms here in the West, few would argue that we are increasingly living in a post-Christian culture. The prevailing biblical worldview that has historically shaped our political, cultural, and social influences is increasingly seen as counter-cultural. This reality is new territory for so many of us. 

In fact, for many of us, the historic expression of our faith here in the West never placed us at odds with the prevailing culture. For many, we even felt there was an alignment between our faith and culture. While we can certainly celebrate and be thankful when that alignment between faith and culture truly exists, the problem is that many of us have wrongly believed that alignment between our faith and culture here in the West is inherent. 

When we live our lives as if the alignment between culture and our faith is inherent, it invites all sorts of problems. Specifically, when the culture changes around us, it’s not uncommon to see many of us allowing the expression of our faith to change in ways that help us maintain that feeling of alignment. While rarely at an intentional or conscious level, many of us have allowed changes to our faith without even recognizing it – we are like the proverbial frog in a pot of water slowly being brought to a boil.

For many of us, we have followed the lead of our culture and have increasingly engaged our faith as consumers rather than as disciples. For many of us, the changes have seeped into our faith practices until the Christianity that we profess looks no different than the lifestyle practiced by our neighbors and coworkers, save for the occasional weekend church attendance or the extra dollars we might give to church or charity. While we’ve been called to impact our culture by living as salt and light, many of us are being impacted by our culture and find our salt is losing its flavor and our light is being dimmed. 

Strengthen What Remains

Brother Andrew, who famously became known as God’s Smuggler and gave birth to the work of Open Doors by smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, was inspired by the admonition to the church at Sardis in Revelations 3:2 – “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die.” This scripture served as a rallying cry for him and continues to do so for many others who have come alongside our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church.

Ironically, the church in Sardis was not weakened and about to die because of persecution. Rather, they were weakened by their comfort. 

Historians say Sardis had been a prosperous city, and by most outward measures, the church had not been excluded from this prosperity. However, when God saw the church in Sardis, He saw a congregation that needed to be on life support. The church needed to be awakened and strengthened. 

There are some obvious parallels between the church at Sardis and the modern-day church of the West. While we in the West do have something to offer the persecuted church, we desperately need what the persecuted church has to offer to us. It is my firm conviction that the Western church needs to be walking in fellowship with the persecuted church for the good of the Western church. 

Instead of being discipled by our consumer culture, we need to be learning from our persecuted brothers and sisters, who are not afraid to engage culture with their faith, no matter the consequences. 

When we see and hear about what fellow believers around the world are experiencing at the hands of their persecutors – Bibles confiscated, families torn apart, imprisonment, torture, and even death – it serves as salt and light to us. We need their example of faith, righteousness, and complete obedience. 

Like Brother Andrew, as we seek to respond to the Revelation 3:2 rally cry by coming alongside our persecuted brothers and sisters, we find that the engagement wakes us up and can strengthen what remains among us. 

We Need Each Other

The fact that we can learn from our fellow believers who are enduring persecution is a testament to the beauty of how Christ designed the Church. It’s not just those with money that have something to offer. We all have something to offer. We truly are one Body, and we need each other. 

We are reminded of this principle in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, where verse 26 specifically points out that when one member suffers, we all suffer. It behooves us to be better informed about the persecution our brothers and sisters around the world face so that we can pray for them and show our support by joining spiritually in their suffering. As we do so, we are enriched by the gift our brothers and sisters offer us through modeling their faithfulness, even in the face of persecution.

I often think about our heritage here at Open Doors, as we carry on the work started by Brother Andrew back in 1955. In Psalm 61:5, the psalmist recognizes that God had given him the heritage of those who fear His name. 

The same is true of us. 

We have received a heritage from those who have gone before us, and we can’t forget that without the heritage of suffering and martyrdom of the original disciples and early church leaders, the Christian faith wouldn’t have spread much past Jerusalem. It is because of their faithfulness and commitment to share their faith no matter the cost that we enjoy salvation today. Walking spiritually alongside believers living faithfully amidst similar persecution today reminds us of that heritage and calls us to live up to it as well.

Photo Credit: © Getty Images/gorodenkoff 

Ryan Brown is the President and CEO of Open Doors US, one of 25 national Open Doors International (ODI) bases located around the world. Open Doors is known for its annual World Watch List report of the top 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution. The 2024 report has just released and is available at https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/persecution/countries/ . With the aid of the international community, Open Doors has continued to serve persecuted Christians in more than 70 countries, and.  Learn more at: opendoorsus.org