I read a lot about dead guys. Christians that have come and gone before me. I enjoy reading and learning how great a faith these men and women had compared to our weak faith today. Many of us say we love Jesus, but how many of us would die for Jesus? Many of us say we are Christians but how many of us live as Christians?  Christ called us ALL to be disciples and teach others to do the same but how many of us follow that command?

¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:19-20, New King James Version)

How did early Christians live their faith? What did they believe? How does our faith, belief and action compare with theirs’? Below are a few quotes I have come across in my studies. Take a look and ponder them for just a minute. Let’s all compare ourselves and see where we stand.

50-100 AD Ignatius
“It is necessary, therefore, to not only be called by the name ‘Christian’ but to actually be a Christian…. If we are not ready to die in the same manner of His suffering, His life is not in us” (John 12:25). (Ignatius, , Letter to the Magnesians chap. 5)

50-100 AD Ignatius
“Bring on the fire and the cross. Bring on the packs of wild beasts. Let there be the breaking and dislocating of my bones and the severing of my limbs. Bring on the mutilation of my whole body. In fact, bring on all the diabolical tortures of Satan. Only let me attain to Jesus Christ! … I would rather die for Jesus Christ than to reign over the ends of the entire earth.” (Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, Letter to the Romans chap. 5 )

Shortly after penning those words, Ignatius was brought before a screaming mob in the Colosseum of Rome, where he was torn to pieces by wild animals.

140-230 AD Tertullian
Tertullian encouraged a group of local Christians who were languishing in a Roman dungeon with these words, “Blessed ones, count whatever is hard in this lot of yours as a discipline of your powers of mind and body. You are about to pass through a noble struggle, in which the living God is your manager and the Holy Spirit is your trainer. The prize is an eternal crown of angelic essence-citizenship in the heavens, glory everlasting.” He also told them, “The prison does the same service for the Christian that the desert did for the prophet. Our Lord himself spent much time in seclusion so  he would have greater freedom to pray and so he would be away from the world…. The leg does not feel the chains when the mind is in heaven.” (Tertullian To the Martyrs chaps. 2, 3)

140-230 AD Tertullian
“The more you cut us down, the more in number we grow. The blood of Christians is seed…. For after thinking about it, who among  you is not eager to find out what is really at the bottom of it all? And after inquiring, who does not end up embracing our teachings? And when he has embraced them, who does not also willingly suffer so that he may partake fully of God’s grace?” (Tertullian, First Apology chap. 50)

260-330 AD Lactantius
“He who chooses to live well for eternity, will live in discomfort for the present. He will be subjected to all types of troubles and burdens as long as he is on earth, so that in the end he will have divine and heavenly consolation. On the other hand, he who chooses to live well for the present will fare badly in eternity.” (Lactantius Institutes bk. 7, chap. 5)

260-330 AD Lactantius
“When people see that men are lacerated by various kinds of tortures yet remain unsubdued even when their very torturers are worn out, they come to believe that the agreement of so many and the unyielding faith of the dying is not without meaning. [They realize] that human perseverance alone could not endure such tortures without the aid of God. Even robbers and men of robust frame are unable to endure tortures of this kind…. But among us, boys and delicate women-not to speak of men-silently overcome their torturers. Even the fire is unable to extort a groan from them….  These persons-the young and the weaker sex-do not endure mutilation and burning of their whole bodies because they have no other choice. They could easily avoid this punishment if they wished to [by denying Christ]. But they endure it willingly because they put their trust in God.” (Lactantius Institutes bk. 5. chara. 13)

200 AD Minucius Felix
It’s a beautiful thing to God when a Christian does battle with pain. When he faces threats, punishments, and tortures by mocking death and treading underfoot the horror of the executioner; when he raises up his freedom in Christ as a standard before kings and princes; when he yields to God alone and, triumphant and victorious, he tramples upon the very man who has pronounced sentence upon him.  God finds all these things beautiful.

There are many, many other quotes that can be found if you do a little searching. The point is, where do we stand in our faith? How strong are we? Are we willing to die ANY kind of death and not renounce the name of Jesus Christ? I hope that is true of us all.

Father, in a world where many people are persecuted for a variety of things we live in a country that has made us soft in our beliefs and our faith. I ask you Lord, to give us a fire that burns  Viagra buy hot for You and drives us to seek you out and live our lives for you each and every day. I ask that if you call us to die in a way that requires our faith to be tested that we would pass that test, for what can man kill but our body? You will resurrect our body and make it perfect in your presence. I thank you for the faith, the strength and the ability to read of the great men and women before us who stand as examples to living a real life in Your name. Amen.