Read: Philippians 3:1-11

I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. (Gal. 6:17)

A colleague in the Middle East sent me a picture of a young man who had been doing listener follow-up and evangelism. He had been arrested and interrogated by the secret police. The picture, taken several weeks after his release, showed his back crisscrossed with stripes from the beatings. As I looked at it I thought of Paul’s phrase, “the marks of Jesus.”

“From now on let no one cause me trouble,” he wrote the Galatians, “for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (6:17). That is to say, “I’ve paid the price for faithfulness in mission.”

One of the things I find difficult to fathom is the hostility and rage expressed toward believers simply for witnessing to Christ, or even just for publicly following him. But Jesus told us to expect it. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before . . . If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18, 20).

In our supposedly open and tolerant culture today the threat of being “marked” for your allegiance to Christ is intimidating. The fact that we might have to pay a price if we are open about our faith tempts us to stay private with it, which is exactly what the Adversary would like us to do. My friend in the picture later told me it was actually quite easy to be a Christian believer in his country.

“All you have to do is keep your mouth shut,” he said.

—David Bast

Prayer:

Help me not to keep my mouth shut.