Terry & Barbi Franklin - USGN

The Joy of Dishonor!

USGN article
by Terry Franklin
February 1998

Guess how many English Bible translations there are? Believe it or not, there are over 450! One of the newest is a paraphrase of the New Testament by Eugene Peterson called "The Message." I am really enjoying it because it reads more like a narrative. I don't think I would use it for a Bible study, but it's great for giving you the "big picture."

This morning I was reading in Acts 5 where Peter and John were brought in before the Chief Priest and the high council of the Pharisees for preaching the gospel. After receiving a rebuke they were whipped and beaten and warned not to speak in Jesus' name again. The Message Bible says, "The apostles went out of the high council overjoyed because they had been given the honor of being dishonored on account of the Name." For some reason, the word dishonored really struck me. Overjoyed because they had been dishonored?

How differently we look at things . . . we get overjoyed when we're honored, when we're recognized by others, when our songs are doing well on the charts, when we receive Dove award nominations, when people ask us for our autographs, when we minister to large audiences, etc., etc. But these men (who are meant to be living examples to us) were overjoyed at suffering for the Name of Christ. They have learned what the apostle Paul meant when he said, "I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives within me . . ." (Galatians 2:20); and what James meant when he said, "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials . . ." (James 1:2).

The apostles had learned to die to themselves. In fact, the men that Peter and John were standing before in Acts 4 were the same crowd that actually crucified Jesus! Surely they wondered if their stand would end in death. In fact, it did. Later, both of them died as martyrs. But that question had already been settled in their minds. They were happy to suffer shame, pain, and dishonor for the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, the next time you are rejected, slandered by others behind your back, denied a deserved position of honor, taken advantage of by those more powerful than you, just remember that if you are a child of the King you suffer for the Name that is above all names, the Name of Jesus Christ.

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