Let's keep going in this passage that 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 received 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 received 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 received the word of God,
it would be in much affliction.
Why?
Because if a Muslim converts unto 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.