The Token of Your Testimony

Philippians 1:28— And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.

    Any Christian who lives for God will encounter “adversaries” (1 Thess. 3:3-4; 2 Tim. 3:12). Satan is called our “adversary” (1 Pet. 5:8).  

    Paul exhorts the Philippian believers not to be intimidated by the adversaries who persecuted them. The fact they were being persecuted by adversaries was evidence that their antagonists were heading to perdition, and gave the Philippians assurance that they were saved by God. 

   When you know God has saved you and He is watching over you, you can face anything without fear. I recently read about Armando Valladares, who was a prisoner of Castro for twenty-two years.  While he was in captivity he was impacted by the courage of his fellow Christian prisoners as they were were being lead to the firing squad. These men would shout “Viva Cristo Rey” (“Long live Christ the King!”).  Valladares recounts “that by 1963, the men condemned to death were gagged before being carried down to be shot. The jailers feared those shouts!” 

   What kind of message do you send to the unsaved when you are “under fire” by Satan’s emissaries?  Do your actions and words confirm you are saved by God?