let's keep going in this passage it says you became followers of us and of the
Lord having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost
now when the Bible says that they received the word in much affliction
he's talking about the fact that they had been persecuted for their faith they
didn't receive the word of God in a peaceful circumstance where they just
had the total freedom and liberty to believe on Jesus Christ without any kind
of repercussions no these people when they receive the word of the Lord they
received it in much affliction now think about this all throughout the world
there are places where if you receive the word of Jesus Christ it's going to
cost you something and there's going to be affliction think about if you were
living in the Islamic world today and you receive the word of God it would be
in much affliction why because if a Muslim converts under Christianity
they're going to be persecuted and many times they will even be killed and don't
let anyone fool you that Islam is a peaceful religion it's a lie all you
have to do is open the Quran itself and read about all the violent passages and
all you have to do is look at places where the Muslims are running things and
you will see that there are laws against converting people to Christianity and
there are laws against Muslims converting to Christianity oh if you're
a Christian they'll let you exist in their country but if you try to convert
others you could be hanged or if you are a Muslim who says hey I want to convert
to Christianity you can easily be killed