2 Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Barnes …
Let those who have never been persecuted in any way, inquire whether it is not an evidence that they have no religion.
If they had been more faithful, and more like their Master, would they have always escaped?
And may not their freedom from it prove that they have surrendered the principles of their religion, where they should have stood firm, though the world were arrayed against them?
It is easy for a professed Christian to avoid persecution, if he yields every point in which religion is opposed to the world. But let not a man who will do this, suppose that he has any claim to be numbered among the martyrs, or even entitled to the Christian name.
Wesley …
All that are resolved to live godly –
Therefore count the cost.
Art thou resolved?
In Christ … shall suffer persecution – More or less.
There is no exception.
Either the truth of scripture fails, or those that think they are religious, and are not persecuted, in some shape or other, on that very account, deceive themselves.
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
