“For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession.”
—Hebrews 10:34
We are so vocal about our rights. I can’t imagine many Christians joyfully accepting the seizure of our property . . . or accepting the seizure of our property at all. We would be railing against it, trying to find justice, and many would gladly do violence to prevent or oppose it.
But if our hope is not in this world—in what we own and see and touch—if we truly know we have a better and a lasting possession coming, the loss of these things will not derail us.
The loss might be hurtful, frustrating, disappointing, and sad, but can we joyfully accept it nonetheless?
Can we show others that our satisfaction is not in our possessions?
Can we, in the midst of the plundering of our property, be so unconcerned with it that we continue to support other struggling believers and still do the good works to which Christ has called us?
Can we love our enemies while they’re still doing us evil (Matthew 5:43–48)?
Can we give those doing us harm not only what we’re compelled to give by force but more (Luke 6:29)?
Can we respond with the same spirit Jesus exhibited when he healed Malchus after Peter cut off his ear (John 18:10–11) in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:51)?
Can we show the world that we don’t care about our rights as much as we care about their souls?
Will we be ready and able to represent Christ in the middle of the seizure of our property if it ever comes to that?
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