How Christians Should Respond to Opposition (And Why We Rarely Do it Right)

Have you every faced any kind of opposition to your faith as a follower of Jesus?

Now, let me be clear: I’m not talking about the off-handed joke, or just a general resistance to the Gospel. (Nor am I talking about being asked to wear a mask in church.) For those of us who call America home, I think we’re a bit too quick to label every small amount of resistance that we face as followers of Jesus as persecution. But if we follow Jesus, we will face opposition. It might be relational, such as derogatory comments from a relative at Thanksgiving dinner. It might have an affect on your job, and the opportunities you’re given. And increasingly in the West, it may be formalized opposition in the form of laws or government policy.

Let me just lay my cards on the table right off the bat. When Christians do face opposition in American culture, I think most of the time, we handle it very, very poorly. Usually we start from the platform of my rights or argue that our liberties are being threatened. (If anything, I think 2020 has shown us this is true.) But I don’t think that’s a Gospel-centered way to begin a defense against this kind of opposition. That doesn’t mean there’s never a place for it—Paul himself appealed to his rights as a Roman citizen when he was about to be interrogated through torture in Acts 22. But that wasn’t his go-to move whenever he was opposed.

Paul’s Approach

While we’re talking about Paul, I believe there is much we can learn from him when we face opposition for the sake of Jesus. Because while Paul was no wilting flower in the face of opposition, you also don’t see him red-faced with veins popping out of his forehead demanding his rights. What Paul does instead is remarkable, though we rarely notice it.

What we do usually notice about Paul’s response to opposition is his technique. And there’s nothing wrong with learning from Paul in this way. Paul is as sharp an apologist as they come, and he does not shy away from bold, truthful proclamations. When his character is maligned, he appeals directly to his character as a follower of Jesus rather than slinging mud, while also being forthright about how much Jesus had transformed him from his days as a murderous, religious legalist.

But it’s not Paul’s technique where his life offers the most valuable instruction. Instead, I believe there’s something deeper that we can learn when it comes to facing opposition for the face of Jesus.

In short, Paul’s go-to move when he encounters opposition is to give his life away.

Near the end of Paul’s ministry, God calls him to Jerusalem. What’s more, God reveals to him that what awaits him in Jerusalem isn’t good: imprisonment and suffering (Acts 20:22-24, 21:11-14). Paul, knowing that faithfully following God’s call in this instance will bring suffering, presses on toward Jerusalem. And when he arrives in Jerusalem, a riot ensues, and Paul is forcibly removed from he temple and beaten (Acts 2127-36). He is “saved” by a Roman officer, who then plans on beating Paul further to figure out why so many people are angry with him. And after Paul clarifies that he is a Hebrew, he gains permission to speak to his fellow Jews who had just beaten him black and blue.

And when Paul speaks, there is much to learn from his response. But remember, it is something deeper than mere technique that we can learn from Paul: Paul responds to this opposition by continuing to give his life away.

I say “continuing” because this is nothing new for Paul. From the day that Jesus met Paul—also known as Saul—on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, Paul has been giving his life away for the sake of the One who gave his life away for Paul. Paul gives up his influence among the Jewish religious elite to spend his life traveling from city to city telling people about Jesus and beginning and encouraging local churches. This new life is hard; while he was respected by many, he would face opposition, including opposition from those with whom he had labored side-by-side for the sake of the Gospel. He was often persecuted, beaten, and imprisoned, and he would eventually lose his life for the sake of the Jesus.

And as Paul stands before the crowd in Jerusalem, seeing the sweaty faces of those whose fists had just pummeled his face, he had to know that this would likely not end well for him. Certainly with God all things are possible, but barring a significant intervention from God, Paul likely anticipated that his response would further stoke the fury of the crowd—especially his claim that God had determined to save Jew and Gentile alike, a point of contention among Jewish religious leaders.

And yet Paul continues. Not unwisely, not haphazardly. But he continues simply because God had called him there, and there he went. Because Paul knew that to follow God where he leads is to give your life away for the sake of Jesus.

Where We Get it Wrong

And this is where we go so very wrong as followers of Jesus. When we—and by we, I have in mind primarily American Christians—face opposition, our first response is rarely to give our lives away. Instead, we protect our lives, we stand up for ourselves, and we appeal to what we believe are our God-given rights and liberties.

Perhaps the main reason we do this is because rarely do we every give our lives away, opposition or no. Our model of Christianity and ministry often centers around what I can get out of my faith, rather than what allegiance to Christ might cost me. And so it should be of no surprise that when we face opposition because we follow Jesus, our knee-jerk reaction is to claim that we ought to be able to follow Jesus at no cost to our personal rights and liberties.

And let me be clear: wherever and whenever injustice, oppression, and evil exist, we ought to say so, whether it exists against our own selves or against another human being. But when we demand our rights, we do not follow in the footsteps of Jesus. You see, the arc of Paul’s life was to day-by-day, step-by-step, give his life away. And the reason he did that is because his Savior came to Earth and step-by-step, day-by-day walked toward the cross where he would give his life for Paul, for you, and for me.

And in the face of opposition, it becomes crystal clear what arc our own lives follow. Do we live for the kingdom of “me,” or do we simply determine to give our lives away for the sake of the One who gave his life for us?