Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] Paul the apostle, on the other hand, once a persecutor who was the first to spill the church's blood, later exchanged sword for pen and turned his blade into a plowshare — a ravening wolf of Benjamin who thereafter, like Jacob, himself brings the food — how he commends martyrdoms as now desirable even for himself! [2] Exulting over the Thessalonians, he writes: "such that we ourselves boast of you among God's assemblies, for the patience and trust you show through every persecution and hardship you bear, evidence of God's just verdict, that you might be reckoned fit for his kingdom, on whose behalf you now suffer." [3] Likewise to the Romans: "nor is that all — we glory too in our hardships, aware that hardship works out patience, patience a tested character, and tested character, hope; and hope does not leave us disgraced." [4] And further: "and if we are children, we are heirs too — heirs of God indeed, sharing the inheritance with Christ, provided we suffer alongside him, so that we might likewise share his glory. As I weigh it, what we endure in this present season cannot measure against the glory soon to be disclosed in us." And later still: "Who, then, will pry us loose from Christ's love? Hardship, or anguish, or hunger, or destitution, or danger, or the blade? As Scripture has it: 'For your cause we face death the whole day through; we are treated like sheep marked for slaughter.' Yet through all this we come out more than victors, thanks to the one who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither powers nor heights nor depths, nor any other force whatever, has the strength to pry us loose from the love God has shown in Christ Jesus our Lord." [5] To the Corinthians too, listing his own sufferings, he plainly settled it that suffering is our lot: "in labors more abundant, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often; of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one; three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned" — and so on. [6] And if these seem to be mere hardships rather than martyrdoms, still, elsewhere again, he states: "so I find contentment in weaknesses, in slights, in privations, under persecution, amid hardship, all for Christ." [7] And earlier yet: "hemmed in on all sides, we are not crushed; unsure what to do, we are not despairing; hunted, we are not abandoned; struck down, we do not perish — bearing about in our body always the marks of Jesus' dying." And even should, as he puts it, "our outer self" — meaning the flesh, worn thin under the weight of persecution — "waste away, our inner self is refreshed day upon day" — meaning the soul, sustained by hope in what has been promised. [8] For "this slight, passing burden works for us a weight of glory beyond all reckoning and without end, since our gaze rests not on what can be seen but on what cannot." What can be seen, he means the hardships, passes with time; what cannot be seen, where he pledges the rewards, endures forever. [9] Writing to the Thessalonians about his chains, he plainly declared blessed those to whom it was granted not merely to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for him. "You witnessed," he says, "the very contest I wage, and hear now that it continues. For though I am already being poured out like a drink-offering upon the altar, I am glad, sharing that gladness with you all; so let it be with you, glad and sharing gladness with me." [10] Notice how he locates the joy of martyrdom, making of shared rejoicing its own celebration. And indeed, once he stood at last near the fulfillment of his own longing, how triumphantly he writes to Timothy, anticipating it: "for already I am being poured out as a drink-offering, and the moment of my leaving draws near; I have waged the noble contest, I have run out the course, I have kept faith intact; a crown now awaits, which the Lord will award me on that day" — the crown, namely, earned through suffering. [11] And still earlier he had already made his case: "Trustworthy is this word: if we perished with Christ, we shall likewise live with him; if we hold firm, we shall likewise rule with him; should we disown him, he too will disown us; if we prove faithless, he remains true, since he cannot disown his own nature. So then, feel no disgrace over the witness borne to our Lord, nor over me his captive" — for he had already foretold: "since God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but one of strength, of love, and of self-mastery." [12] Through strength we suffer, moved by love toward God; and with self-mastery, when what we suffer is for our own innocence. And wherever he urges endurance, on what does he set his sights more than on sufferings? Wherever he tears men away from idolatry, what does he hold before them more than martyrdoms?