Imitating Christ: 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10, especially vss 6, 7: "And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit; so that you became an example to all the believers...." St. Maximos the Confessor said that "he who loves Christ is bound to imitate Him to the best of his ability. Christ, for example, was always conferring blessings on people; He was long-suffering when they were ungrateful and blasphemed Him; and when they beat Him and put Him to death, He endured it, imputing no evil at all to anyone. These are the three acts which manifest love for one's neighbor. If he is incapable of them, the person who says that he loves Christ or has attained the kingdom deceives himself." Both the Apostle Paul and Saint Maximos followed Christ in all they said and did, and both challenge us to imitate our Lord. What happens when men and women imitate Christ? St. Paul points to three outcomes: affliction, joy, and influencing others.
Christians should not be surprised when affliction comes from imitating the Lord Jesus, His Apostles, and His Saints. The reason is simple. The condition of this world is darkness and blight, as St. John of Kronstadt has said. "The world is in a state of slumber, or sinful sleep. It sleeps," because "we sinful men...love space, freedom, vain carnal freshness [and] are slothful, negligent, and evil." Therefore, let us expect that the world will lash out at those who wake it from its sinful sleep, whether at those who rouse others or exemplify Christ's truth.
After all, the Lord Himself warns us: "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (Jn. 15:18,19). By the logic of spiritual truth, affliction follows the imitation of Christ, for He is the Source of all goodness, love, and truth which the world will, in every case, seek to evade or to silence, for the ruler of this age is not slow to strike out against Christ's own.
Why, then, do they have joy if affliction comes to those who "wake the world from its sinful sleep" and reap its hatred? Simply because their joy is not ordinary happiness or delight. The Apostle says of the Thessalonian Christians that they endured affliction "with joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thess. 1:6). The joy came into their hearts by the present activity of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit brings reassuring joy. As His imitators, Christians are to "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad...when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake" (Mt. 5:11,12). Why? Because you are "Blessed...for great is your reward in heaven" (Mt. 5:12). Spiritual logic thinks like the physician and martyr Orestes who, while enduring unspeakable tortures, prayed, "O Lord Jesus Christ...vouchsafe me to become a member of the choir of those who have suffered for Thee and who have inherited Thy kingdom." Afflicted Christians, in the same manner as the "Author and Finisher of our faith...for the joy that was set before [them, have] endured the cross, despising the shame," know that He Himself will receive them (Heb. 12:2) in His heavenly Kingdom.
The impact on the hearts and lives of non-believers is predictable when they encounter faithful Christians imitating the Lord and enduring affliction with joy. Either they will join the persecutors, fearing the truth of love when they see it being lived, or they will be moved by the witness of the Faithful, and turn "to God from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thess. 1:9). The power of pure, holy, Spirit-inspired imitation does not leave men indifferent.
O Lord, by the sufferings of Thy saints, which they endured for Thy sake, have compassion and heal all the sufferings of those who implore Thee, Who art the Lover of mankind.