Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]

by J.C. Ryle

Let us turn to the pages of early church history. Let us see how the early Christians firmly held to their Christian beliefs even unto death, and were not shaken by the fiercest persecutions of heathen emperors. For centuries, men like Polycarp and Ignatius were not lacking, who were ready to die rather than deny Christ. Fines, prisons, torture, fire, and sword were unable to crush the spirit of the noble army of martyrs. The whole power of imperial Rome, the mistress of the world, proved unable to stamp out the religion that began with a few fishermen and tax collectors in Israel! Let us remember that believing in an unseen Jesus was the church’s strength.