Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. (2 Tim 3:12)
Well, there is your promise! To be a Christian is to swim up stream. To swim upstream like a salmon means that you will be buffeted by fast flowing water, falling rocks, bears, and other predators. There will be difficult jumps to make that result in bruises, scratches and pain. There will be exhaustion, and hunger. All of these things you don’t have to face if you stay in the ocean – if you just “go with the flow.” But the godly life is a swim upstream. We swim “farther up and farther in” because we are convinced of a greater joy that awaits us if we press on. People will resent the fact that we see something that they don’t. All people, I believe, instinctively know somewhere deep in their heart that there is something eternal to be gained by swimming against the current towards God. They deny what their hearts know, and that makes them a little bit grouchy towards us who refuse to live in that denial.
