When we lived in Cardiff, I worked with a guy claiming to be a Christian. Weâ€ll call him Bob.
Bob was a nice guy, but he talked a lot. He talked a lot about himself and some of the strange situations he had faced. He talked about God protecting him through angels, throwing others away, or restraining them from hurting him. Maybe it was true, maybe it was just his imagination at work. I don’t know.I suppose it was his way to glorify God. But the problem with Bob is that he was arrogant. He was also a bit lazy. After a while, people started avoiding him. He ran into troubles with our supervisor because he was always talking, and hardly working. I think he honestly thought he was being persecuted because of his faith. But really, he was paying for his own foolishness and lack of wisdom. He talked so much about himself that he never spoke about the gospel. Others had to do his work because he was talking instead of working. In the end, he was disciplined for his behavior and sacked. I was sad for him.
Over the last few weeks, I have read through 1 Peter several times. Peter talks a lot about suffering. The people he was writing to were going through serious trials. Peter writes to them insisting that their lives should be without reproach in the eyes of the world. They must be exemplary citizens, wives, husbands, workers. They must make sure that if they are persecuted, it is not because of their foolish behaviour, but because of their faith. I am certain that one of the reasons why Peter thought it was necessary to write to them was that a few christians were persecuted for the wrong reasons.
There is no doubt that many believers today suffer for their faith in Christ. But I wonder how many professing christians in the West are suffering for the wrong reasons. How many times have we brought troubles upon ourselves not because of our faith, but because we have been foolish? I wonder…