Persecution or Seduction?

Charles Spurgeon, writing 150 years ago, speaks poignantly to the problem in the church today: "I believe," he asserted, "that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church."

Do Christians face persecution here in America? Most people would say no, but I disagree. C.J. Mahaney believes that Christians aren't persecuted merely in a physical manner:

Today, the greatest challenge facing American evangelicals is not persecution from the world, but seduction by the world. Unlike so many of our Christian brothers and sisters who live in countries with oppressive regimes—where the church is flourishing, by the way—we in America don’t face imminent threat to our families, livelihoods, and well-being for professing faith in Christ. Our peril is far more obscure and far more insidious. We aren’t under attack from without; we’re decaying from within. Our success as ambassadors for Christ, as witnesses of the life-changing power of the gospel, hangs in the balance.

Our persecution is in the form of seduction from worldly lifestyles. As soldiers of Christ, let us stand up against the worldliness we face daily here in America. Let us neither be conformed to the world nor contaminated by it.

Inspired by the book Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World, Edited by C.J. Mahaney.