This week on September 30, 2025, the leader of the Conservative Party in Canada stood before a crowd and stated that the burning of churches in Canada has to stop. Between 2021 to 2023, 33 churches in Canada were burnt down in acts of violence. Then he said what he admits was not “politically correct” to say: That Christians may be the Number 1 group who experienced such hate-based violence in Canada. He was immediately (and mistakenly) interpreted as saying that Christians reported the most incidents of hate crimes. In fact, it’s certainly verifiable that Christians seldom report hate crimes.
In Canada, hate crime reports are led by Jews and Muslims. Even in the face of global increases of violence against religious groups (the Catholic elementary school shooting in Minnesota; the Mormon church shooting and burning in Michigan; the synagogue attack in Manchester, UK), Christians have by and large remained the silent majority who experience persecution by governments, other religious groups, family members and social structures at every level. Christians in 102 countries have faced property-damage related attacks; passive persecution such as the inability to find work or being dragged before court with trumped up charges are mixed in with active persecution where blood is shed and lengthy prison sentences are handed out.
Christians are acknowledged by organizations across the globe as the most persecuted group of people in the world, and it’s increasingly obvious that such persecution isn’t abating. In fact, it’s on the rise.
How do believers live in the face of such animosity against the witness of Christ? There are three instructions that come from the pages of Scripture. The first is never to fear. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11, 12). The fear that persecution engenders is very real. This week, I heard of a family in Mississauga where people broke into the home when no one was in, ransacked it thoroughly, and injured the family dog. The family said to reporters, “Now we are afraid to come home.” Fear spreads like gangrene in a festering wound. In the same way, persecution doesn’t just target the faith of one person; its design is to make all who believe in Jesus afraid to declare His Name. Notice the focus that Jesus calls us to? It’s not what people do; it’s what God does. It’s on His account; it is the reward in heaven on which we keep our sights.
The second instruction is never to retaliate. An Indian refugee who escaped persecution in his country’s effort to establish a Hindu state in northern India was asked why the Indian government has targeted Christians (who form a superminority in northern India) rather than other religious groups. “It’s obvious,” he said, “Christians don’t fight back.” That is Christ’s instruction: to give a cloak when sued for a shirt, to turn the other cheek when one smites you, and to walk the second mile when compelled to walk one (Matthew 5:38-42). Why? The following verses underscore the reason: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Retaliation mutliples the hate of the persecuter. Violence that answers violence only creates a cacophony of violence.
What Jesus says we should do leads to the third instruction: Love instead. Jesus continues His thought in the next verse: “In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:45). You see, true children of the Father in heaven live lives unafraid of evil, resilient to the call for retaliation and loving in the face of enemies. The world around us will hate more and more. Learn to love as Christ loves. And let them see Jesus loving through you.
Just Church
At Just Church, we are called to live by the love of Christ in a lost and sinful world. “The vision of Just Church is to establish a church in just the way Christ called the church to be – true to His Word, loving Him, loving one another, and loving the lost.”
