Paul: His Life and Teachings — The Cost of Godly Living
Related Scripture
2 Timothy 3:10–12
10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance,
11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me!
12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Romans 8:17–18
17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Romans 8:35–37
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 Just as it is written, ‘FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.’
37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
Dr. Jose Nacionales walks straight into what many believers try to avoid—the hardship catalogue of the Christian life. After speaking about the virtues list and the vice list, he turns the church’s attention to persecution, endurance, and the cost of following Christ without compromise. With urgency and pastoral honesty, he reminds believers that hardship is not proof that God has abandoned His people; many times, it is evidence that they are walking faithfully with Him. The message presses the listener to see suffering from God’s perspective and not merely from the enemy’s attack.