“you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2Tim. 3:10-12 LSB) https://accordance.bible/link/read/LSB#2Tim._3:10

All of us, but especially us who claim to be Christian, believe we are living good lives, that we are good people, doing good things. Are we? A simple test is given to us today for determining if we are truly living good lives in the eyes of God or whether we simply deceive ourselves. What is that test? Are men persecuting us for living godly lives? Persecution comes in many forms. The least of which is ridicule and rejection from people around us, sometimes even family, who find our values offensive or at least constraining for having us around to enjoy the pleasures of this world with them. Is this happening to us? Do people reject us because we are Christian? Do people malign us because we have biblical values and speak of them like being pro-life, pro-marriage between a male and female, and pro-sobriety? Do people not include us in their parties because they know we would not enjoy them? Are we finding people uninterested in the ways of God and the word of God because we try to share Him with them only to find them intolerant of our message? Are we really living godly lives? The test should be easy to take today as our culture moves further and further away from the ways of God recorded in the word of God. And why this drift? Perhaps because there really are very few Christians living truly good lives as God defines good as He is good.