2 Timothy 3:12 “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…”(NIV)

In my 60+ years of living, I have never been persecuted for wanting to live a godly life. This does not make me a failure as a Christian, and it does not make Paul incorrect in what he wrote.

The “everyone” he was writing about did not include everyone throughout history, and it did not include everyone everywhere. Paul was writing about everyone who wanted to live a godly life, and who were living at the same time as he was in the Roman Empire; the empire that was about to put him to death for being a Christian. Confined to that time and that place, Paul was completely and totally correct. The Roman Empire had declared war on Christians. Nobody who claimed Christ as Savior was safe anywhere in the Roman Empire. To claim the name of Christ was also at the same time laying your life on the line. In spite of the horrific opposition and persecution, the church continued to grow and people continued to respond when they heard the gospel for the first time.

It was in the midst of this first widespread persecution of the church that a truth was revealed. Killing Christians can not kill Christianity because Christians love their new life in Christ more than they loved their old life in the world. When offered a choice between forsaking Christ or being killed, they choose death. They choose death because death is but the steppingstone to eternal life with Christ.

There are places in the world today where Christians are still having to make that choice. Over and over again they are choosing to die with Christ rather than live in this world without him. With rare exceptions, we Christians who live in America do not face life or death persecution. There are times we face opposition, but it is a mockery to call that opposition persecution. The requirement to remain faithful is not limited to the persecuted. If we cannot stand faithful when facing opposition we will have no chance against persecution.