What is spiritual martyrdom? Would you really think of it as
important? Today we'll be looking at reasons why spiritual martyrdom is so important in the Christian life. Martyrdom, of this spiritual kind, is a sacrifice that is expected of all believers. It is not a literal death, but more of a dedication to God. It is a giving of ourselves. It is not giving up our life, but our livelihood. What we do with our life is part of it. So, first of all, what is spiritual martyrdom? Phil. 1:21 says, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." What is this verse saying? Well, to help clarify this, let's look at Romans 14:7. It says, "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." So, if we use a little deductive reasoning here, we can see several things from these two verses. The Bible says that to live is Christ..., but it also says that none of us can live to himself. Also, from earlier lessons, we already know that no man can serve two masters. It's not altogether impossible, but almost! There's the conflict of two allegiances and two instructions.

Christians must only live for Christ, and not this world. Now, when I say that, I mean that we shouldn't live only for material accumulation of wealth. From the last issue, we learned a lot about rewards in Heaven that came about by serving Him. A Christian's allegiance lies in Christ. But, the only way we can start is to give our life's purpose to Him for His edification.

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