1 Peter 4:14

1 Peter 4:14 (KJV)

If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

I would like to say that when I became a Christian at eight, that God gave me the wisdom to deal with people who were persecuted for being a believer.  As a know it all teenager, I encountered a Jehovah Witness, who at that time in my life knew more about the Word than I did.  She tried to talk to me, and in my arrogance, I bashed her beliefs, and threw her out of my house.  She left with tears in her eyes at how unkind I had been.  While there were some obvious doctrinal differences, I want to point out that God, not us, is the One Who saves, delivers, and gives a right interpretation of scripture.  Even if someone is clearly wrong, we are called to love them, and leave them to God for Him to correct them.  Anyway, years later, I ran into this same woman, and the Lord brought back to my remembrance the way I treated her all those years ago.  I went up to her, told her who I was, and proceeded to ask for her forgiveness for the foolish actions of a child.  She did, and gave me a hug.  God led me to share this true story with you for two reasons: 1) to show you what happens when you are the persecutor of a child of God.  The fact that I was a Christian doesn’t matter.  When we don’t show love one to another, even when they are clearly wrong, we misrepresent Christ and 2) to show how we must act when we are the one being persecuted.  We are not called to debate the Gospel.  God doesn’t need us to defend Him.  He stands alone in righteousness and truth.  We have to pray for ourselves and others to achieve the holiness He requires.  It’s much better for us to shut up and pray rather than misrepresent the Lord by our actions, on either side.