Emphasis Preaching Journal

Paul reminds us that suffering is to be expected as a part of following Jesus. The problem with understanding a statement like that is that in nations like the United States, there is relatively little religious persecution today. But in other nations, dying for the sake of the Christian faith is a regular occurrence. For example, in 1994, there were about 156,000 Christians who were martyred throughout the world. And approximately one out of every 200 Christians can be expected to be martyred during his or her lifetime.