Remember My Chains
A Practical Exposition of Hebrews 13:3
What follows is the manuscript of a message I have given dozens of times in churches across America and around the world. Although some of the illustrations have changed over time, the primary points remain the same. Feel free to share, and of course, pray!
We have all heard heartbreaking stories of persecution. Among my own circle of friends on social media, multiple articles seem to surface every week reporting the "latest" attack on Christians in Nigeria or China or somewhere in the Middle East.
Call it persecution "click bait".
Although most of these stories are based on real events, some of them have been making the rounds for years. I've seen the same handful of stories about persecution in China on repeat more times than I can remember.
There is a risk of "crying wolf" when we share dramatic stories without any context. How many articles about beheadings in North Africa or demolished churches in China do we need to see before we don't even click on them anymore?
And even if we do open them up, are we really "serving the persecuted church" by simply skimming a viral post and clicking the "share" button, passing the same stories on to the same people over and over again?
Now, I am not trying to discourage you from learning about persecution and sharing the testimonies of suffering believers abroad. On the contrary, we are commanded to pray and intercede for the suffering parts of the body of Christ in a deeper way than most of us have ever attempted!
However, the truth is that our prayers will be much more effective if they are based on the reality of what our persecuted brothers and sisters are actually facing every day, rather than just the few sensational stories that happen to go viral on Facebook.
It is true that sometimes leaders from the persecuted church do become famous for the extreme torture they face, and their stories can go viral. There is nothing inherently wrong with this.
"Tortured for Christ" by Richard Wurmbrand was published in 1968, and became a phenomenon at the time. It told of the horrors he faced in Romania’s communist prisons back in the 1950s and 60s. I have been blessed tremendously, as have many others, by his faithful testimony and steadfast refusal (in the face of unspeakable torture) to turn over his fellow Gospel workers to the Communists.
But Christians are much less familiar with Richard’s son Michael, who also suffered persecution as a child and young student, mostly while his father was in prison. I saw tears well up in Michael’s eyes as we discussed his own suffering over lunch in 2023, many decades after the fact.
So it’s not only the famous pastors who suffer. How easily we forget about their wives and children, and the countless other unknown families around the world being targeted as faithful Christians.
The vast majority of those who are persecuted for Christ go through it alone, with no publicity or recognition. We never learn their names. We never hear of their pain or their deaths. We don't get to see their courageous stands for truth in the face of devilish hatred for God's Word. Yet they are out there right now. Millions of them.
They may be unknown to us, but not to the Father.
So it is not merely a few bold preachers who are persecuted for Christ’s sake, but Christian moms and dads, working class teachers, shop owners, Sunday School teachers and deacons, underground seminary students and home-schooled toddlers.
In China, for instance, the majority of those who are impacted by persecution are "normal" Christians like us. They are regularly kicked out of homes, fired from jobs, forced to relocate back to their hometowns in the countryside, locked up for weeks or months at a time, separated from children, husbands, wives, and fellow believers; all for simply continuing to "gather" as a church and faithfully proclaim the Gospel in their communities.
You may call this persecution “lite”, since nobody is being beaten to death or thrown into gulags. But it is happening on a scale that would fill countless volumes of books, and the effects on families can be earth-shattering. We will never know all of the testimonies. Most will never be told in this world.
“Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” (Hebrews 13:3)
"Remember those who are in prison"
This is such a well-known verse, especially as it relates to praying for the persecuted church. However, I think it is likely that you have never taken the verse literally enough. Let’s look at each phrase a little more closely.
The first part of the verse is simple to understand:
“Remember” is shorthand for “remember to pray for”.
“Those who are in prison” is not meant to limit us to only praying for Christian prisoners, but for all those who are persecuted or suffer for the sake of the Gospel.
"As bound with them”?
Now we’re getting to the part we most likely have never really attempted to obey. Seriously.
When was the last time you closed your eyes and forced yourself to imagine what it would be like to be chained to a prison wall, or beaten for your faithful testimony, or tortured for refusing to recant your love for Jesus?
This is a call to truly put yourself in their shoes. To place yourself by their side. To lock yourself in their prison cell. To bind yourself with their chains. And then, from that perspective, begin to intercede for your persecuted brethren
"And those who are mistreated”
This simple reminder shows us that the context is more than just prisoners, and in reality more than just those who are persecuted for the Gospel. We are to pray for all those who suffer ill treatment, especially those of the body of Christ.
“Since you also are in the body.”
If the previous phrases tell us how we ought to pray, and for whom, this final phrase gives us the reason why.
“Since”.
Because you are also in the body!
Which body is being referred to? I think there are two answers, both correct:
1) the Body of Christ
2) a physical body
First, we are to “remember” the body of Christ, because we are part of that body! Just as we don’t ignore pain in our hands or feet, so we shouldn’t ignore so-called less prominent parts of the body when they are hurting, when the nerve endings are screaming in pain.
Second, we are all human beings made with a physical, earthly body. There are no super-human Christians. We all bleed. We all break. We all feel pain.
According to the author of Hebrews, we are all qualified to be intercessors for one another because we are all “in the body”!
Have you ever been mistreated?
Have you ever suffered severe physical pain?
Have you ever lost a loved one?
If you answered yes to these questions, then you (like me!) are qualified to intercede for those who are suffering through these types of circumstances.
“Since you also are in the body.”
To help illustrate the point, I want to share a portion of a letter from our good friend and co-worker, Eva, from near the front lines early in the Russia-Ukraine war:
One night I put my head on the pillow and closed my eyes. A missile was flying. I felt the air pressurize and heard the whistling as it fell...Boom!
I sat up with a start. It was just a dream. I am ok. It wasn't real. . .
As I try to process what I just dreamt I have a horrible feeling as if it is a warning that those I love and care about will be injured and I will have to witness it. Slightly shaken, I cry out to God and lay this new fear at his feet. He gently calms my heart and peaceful sleep overtakes me.
The next day Tatiana and her family come over for dinner. I shared [previously] her account of escaping Mariupol (the large Ukrainian city that finally fell to the Russians). As we catch up, she describes her difficulty sleeping:
"I wake up and have to tell myself that I am in Odessa now. That was just a dream that no bombs are falling right now."
Suddenly I thank God that I know what she is talking about. . .dreams that feel and sound like reality. The rush of adrenalin as you try to rest. The fear of closing your eyes because you might see what you don't want to.
Even as you read the previous paragraphs, I am willing to bet that you started to tense up as you thought about what Tatiana was experiencing.
Imagination and Intercession
Hebrews 13:3 is not complicated. God made us in such a way that we naturally feel each other’s pain and fear when we hear or read about it. That’s why we will often turn our faces away from a gory scene on TV (or in real life), or skim over the gruesome details of someone’s death or murder.
So as you spend time interceding for the worldwide body of Christ (of which you are an integral part), allow yourself to feel their pain and see the world through their eyes. Transport yourself to a Chinese prison cell, a refugee camp far from home, or maybe a bomb shelter in a war-torn country.
Pray for our suffering brethren in those places as if you were there with them and could feel all the emotions that they feel, see all the difficult things that they see, walk the streets and alleys that they walk!
Paul’s Handwritten Plea
The Apostle Paul concludes his epistle to the Colossians with a simple, earnest plea written with his own hands:
“Remember my chains.” (Colossians 4:18)
Remember. My. Chains.
Paul’s plea was possibly written in this cryptic shorthand as to avoid offending the authorities should a prison guard have somehow intercepted his smuggled letter.
Maybe he was being mistreated, deprived of food or clothing, or tortured in some other malicious way. We don’t know because he didn’t say.
But if Paul could have expounded more on his situation, it might have sounded something like the following:
“Please pray for me every day! Intercede for me in my imprisonment, suffering, loneliness, and severe pain.”
The fact that Paul does not give them any clear details is proof that he intended (hoped!) that his simple, impassioned plea would be amplified by the Colossians into full fledged intercessions.
They were going to have to think, to use their imaginations, to go and “sit with him” in that prison cell, if they were going to really pray for Paul.
Wrestling in Prayer
Colossians 4:12 is another verse (from the same chapter) that gives us a clue as to the kind of prayers Paul has in mind:
“Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God."
Struggling. Wrestling. Jacob and the Angel.
This is no mere prayer checklist.
My Attempt at a Prayer List
So the author of Hebrews and the Apostle Paul both talk about the need (duty!) to pray for the suffering and the persecuted, but they don't give the church an actual prayer list.
In reality each of us should come up with our own list of strategic prayer requests as we take the time to do what Hebrews teaches us and imagine ourselves “bound with” the persecuted and suffering.
In short, we should seek to pray for them the kinds of prayers that we would want others to pray for us if we were in the same situation.
So here are three prayer requests that I (quickly) came up with by imagining myself “in the shoes” (and prison cells) of my imprisoned brothers in China…
First, pray that they would rejoice in Christ!
Matthew 5:10-12:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven”
In Luke, Jesus even says to: “LEAP FOR JOY, for your reward is great in heaven.”
And as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 4:17:
“this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison”.
According to Jesus and Paul, suffering for Christ is a reason to rejoice! And that is why we ought to pray for them in this way.
Listen to these joy-filled words by a young Chinese pastor in a prison letter to his parents:
“He who has faith can lose nothing.
He can turn hell into heaven; he can sleep peacefully in the midst of the storm; he can sing with thanksgiving from a prison cell; he can dance in his chains.”
All believers have an eternal inheritance in Christ that will not fade.
No Communist police, Talibani terrorist, or Enemy missile can take it away.
Second, pray that they would experience the presence of Christ!
1 Peter 4:12-14:
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”
I am reminded of perseverance of pioneer missionary John Paton, the “apostle to the cannibals”, and his suffering as he mourned the loss of wife and child to disease, and fled from his fledgling mission base into the jungle, as civil war raged among the island tribes.
Paton wrote in his autobiography (JohnGPaton.com):
“I climbed into the tree and was left there alone in the bush. The hours I spent there live before me as if it were but yesterday. I heard the frequent [firing] of muskets and the yells of the savages. Yet I sat there among the branches, safe in the arms of Jesus.
Never, in all my sorrows, did our Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among these chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus.
Alone, yet not alone! If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, to feel again my Savior’s spiritual presence, to enjoy his consoling fellowship.”
Someone was praying for John Paton, and the Holy Spirit was with him in a tangible way in that tree.
Sometimes, the greatest miracle is not that we avoid the storms of life altogether, but that the Spirit of Christ carries us safely through the eye of the storm.
Third, pray that they would grow in Christ-likeness!
If we get angry and bitter when things don’t go our way, or we are going through trials and persecution, then we are wasting an opportunity the Lord is giving us to grow in sanctification.
James 1:2-4: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
One Caution: The Pain is Real
Let's not forget that the same Paul who wrote “rejoice with those that rejoice” also wrote “weep with those who weep”.
We ought to pray for those who suffer as the Bible teaches us, but we should never minimize or ignore the real physical and emotional pain people experience. Never forget: our redemption as Christians is based upon the reality that God became a man in Jesus Christ and suffered such a gruesome and painful death...for us!
We would never dream of minimizing Christ’s pain because He was the Son of God. Neither should we minimize the actual pain and suffering of His Body, as we pray for their joy and sanctification and comfort in the Holy Spirit.
Wurmbrand's Secret Weapon
Remember Richard Wurmbrand?
In the longer account of his prison experiences (In God’s Underground) he shares a moving testimony from a nasty underground prison cell that helps to illustrate the New Testament teachings on interceding for the persecuted.
The story picks up the morning after Wurmbrand was transferred to a hot, smelly, overcrowded, underground prison cell, as he began conversing with an old acquaintance while waiting for their “breakfast”:
“Our friendship began while I was trying to eat my first meal at Craiova (prison).
The vile, greasy smell of the soup preceded its arrival in the cell. Shreds of rotten cabbage and unwashed [intestines] floated in a scum.
But to eat was a duty and I emptied my dish.
“How can you?” asked [my friend], whose stomach had revolted.
“It was a Christian secret,” I said. “I think of St. Paul’s words ‘Rejoice with those that rejoice.’ Then I remember friends in America who are now eating grilled chicken, and I thank God with them as I take the first mouthful of soup. Next, I rejoice with friends in England who may be eating roast beef. And I get down another mouthful. So, by way of many friendly countries, I rejoice with those that rejoice—and stay alive.”
[My friend] and I had to share a bunk through the hot, stuffy nights. I was [blessed] not to be on the floor.
“You lie very still,” he said as others coughed and fidgeted around us.
“What are you thinking? Does St. Paul help you now, too?
I replied, “Yes, for now I rejoice with those in the West by thinking of their comfortable homes, and the books they have, the holidays they can plan, the music they hear, the love they have for their wives and children. And I remember the second part of the verse, from the epistle to the Romans, ‘And weep with those that weep.’
I am sure that in the West many thousands [are thinking] of us and [trying] to help us with their prayers.”
What Did He Say?
Right at the end of the testimony, Wurmbrand boldly states:
“I am sure that in the West many thousands think of us and try to help us with their prayers.”
He seemed convinced that many were praying for him, but I have my doubts. How easy it is to forget or ignore those who are outside our little bubble.
I know that I would have been too busy, too distracted, too focused on my own life and problems to intercede for our unseen brothers and sisters.
On Facebook, for example, just a flick of the thumb will immediately “change the subject” and keep you scrolling. Surely many of the Christians in Wurmbrand’s generation were not as in tune with the Spirit as he had hoped.
It’s Our Time Now
Well, Wurmbrand’s generation has already come and gone, receiving their reward (or not).
But it's our story, and the testimonies of the persecuted and suffering around the world in our day, from the underground churches of China and North Korea, to the villages of India and Indonesia, and the caves and bomb shelters of Afghanistan and Ukraine, that are still being written, literally every hour, every day!
Are we interceding for our suffering brothers and sisters in the way that the New Testament writers both show us and teach us to do?