Affliction with Christ Over the Pleasure of Sin – Hebrews 11:24-26

The church, in all its distresses, is ten thousand times more honourable than any other society of men in the world;—they are “the people of God.” And we may observe, “That their being so, and withal professing and avowing themselves so to be, is that which provokes the world against them, and which is the cause of all their persecutions. The world cannot endure to hear a company of poor, despised persons, perhaps little better, at least in their sight, than these Egyptian brick makers, should take to themselves and own this glorious title of “the people of God.” Other things they pretend against them, as the Egyptians did against the Israelites; namely, that whereas they are a people who have a peculiar interest of their own, there is danger of sedition from them against the state, Exod. 1:9, 10. This is the usual pretence. The true cause of their rage is, their profession that they are the people of God, and have a right unto all the privileges accompanying that title. – John Owen