Tertullian, Antidote for the Scorpion's Sting 13

Paul the Apostle—once a persecutor who spilled the Church's first blood—swapped sword for stylus, hammered his blade into a plowshare. The ravening wolf of Benjamin turned around and brought provisions, just as Jacob said. And this is how he commends martyrdoms, now desirable even to himself! Rejoicing over the Thessalonians, he says: we boast about you in God's churches because of your endurance and faith amid every persecution and pressure you bear—proof of God's just judgment, so that you may be counted worthy of his kingdom, for which you also suffer (2 Thess 1:4-5). He writes the same to the Romans: not only that, but we exult in pressures, knowing that pressure produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, proven character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint (Rom 5:3-5). And again: if we are children, then heirs—heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ—provided we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him (Rom 8:17). I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom 8:18). And so he adds: who will separate us from the love of Christ? Pressure, or distress, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or sword—as it is written: "For your sake we are killed all day long; we were accounted as sheep for slaughter." Yet in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through the one who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor power nor height nor depth nor any other condition will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:35-39).

To the Corinthians he catalogs his own sufferings, declaring that suffering is non-negotiable: in labors more abundantly, in imprisonments more excessively, in near-deaths often. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one; three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; and the rest (2 Cor 11:23-25). If these look more like hardships than martyrdoms, he insists again: therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake (2 Cor 12:10). Earlier he wrote: we are afflicted in every way but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed—always carrying in the body the death of Jesus (2 Cor 4:8-10). Even if, he says, our outer self is wasting away—our flesh, by the force of persecutions—our inner self is being renewed day by day, our soul by the hope of promises (2 Cor 4:16). For this slight momentary affliction prepares for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not at what is seen but at what is unseen. What is seen is temporary—he speaks of hardships; what is unseen is eternal—he promises rewards (2 Cor 4:17-18).

Writing to the Thessalonians about his chains, he pronounces blessed those to whom it has been granted not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for him: having the same conflict you saw in me and now hear about (Phil 1:29-30). Even if I am poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all; likewise you also rejoice and share your joy with me (Phil 2:17-18). You see how he defines the happiness of martyrdom, which gains its solemnity from mutual joy. So he draws near to his own desire: writing to Timothy, exulting in his prospect? "For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown, which the Lord will render to me on that day—the crown of suffering" (2 Tim 4:6-8). It is enough that he also said above: "The saying is trustworthy: if we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—he cannot deny himself" (2 Tim 2:11-13). So do not be ashamed of the martyrdom of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; for he foretold: "God gave us not a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control" (2 Tim 1:7-8). We suffer with power, from love for God, and with a sound mind, because we suffer for innocence's sake. But where he commands endurance—to whom does he point it more than to those who face martyrdom? Where he tears people away from idolatry—what does he tear them toward more than martyrdom?