The church has gone through multiple scenes of persecution in which many have cost their lives not to deny their faith, and the Bible encourages us on this subject, that we should not fear those who persecute us because of the gospel, well, if God is with us, who is against us? And this is a fact, Christ told us that we would go through persecutions and we should be prepared for it and never retreat.
Before Christ being crucified and departing to the kingdom of heaven, He left a series of recommendations for His disciples, and specifically in the book of Matthew chapter ten. He gave recommendations to His disciples and at the same time He predicted what would happen to them because of their faith in Him. Jesus told them that they would pass various trials, that they would be persecuted and hated by all, that they would be brought before governors for the sake of Christ, in short, to bear the name of Christ would have a high cost.
But in the midst of such tribulations we have a living hope, and is that that we serve the living God. Christ said to His disciples:
27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.
28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:27-28
We have been called to proclaim a message, and that message entrusted to us is the message of the Gospel, that Christ lived among us as a man, suffered death on the cross, rose on the third day and comes for His church. And we must preach this out there, where they do not know Christ, regardless of the dangers we might run, this is the price of the gospel, suffering for Him as He suffered for us.
Verse 28 is a verse that should cause us great encouragement today, since Christ tells us that those who persecute us can only kill the body, but they can not touch our soul, which is what has most value in reality. And later He commands us to fear the only one who can destroy the soul and body in hell. Our fear of God is not negotiable, we must always maintain that loyalty and that fear of our great Creator.
Let us continue running this race and have faith because our reward is great in the kingdom of heaven, and no one can take it from us.
