part0116

According to Acts 7:54-60, Stephen was the first deacon to be martyred because of his profession for Christ, and according to Acts 12:1-2, the first apostle to be martyred for the Lord was the Apostle James. James was also the brother of the Apostle John, and in considering his death, two issues need to be addressed. First, why were Christians being killed because they professed a belief in Jesus, and second, why was James the first apostle to be martyred?

The reason that the Jews were killing Christians, as was the case with Stephen, was that they did not recognize Jesus as the Son of God. In their mind, worshipping Him as the second Person of the Trinity was the same as idolatry, and that broke the first two commandments of their Ten Commandments. The reason that the Romans were killing Christians, as was the case with James, was that Christianity, in their mind, was an illegal religion. They were very liberal and open in the forms of worship that they allowed, but Christianity did not fit into any of their definitions for a legal religion. They would allow worship of their mythological gods, such as Jupiter, Venus, Mars, or Pluto. They would allow worship of the Roman emperor, which was called emperor worship, and they would allow worship of a religion that could be associated with a particular nation. They allowed Judaism, for example, because it was the national religion of Israel. But Christianity could not be connected to any nation, so it was not allowed.

Concerning the second issue, no one can say exactly why James was the first apostle to be martyred, but one can look at his spiritual growth during his last days and see that he had matured in the Lord. In Matthew 20:20-28, he had once wanted to sit on either the right or left hand of the Lord in heaven so that he could feel important, but Jesus told him that selflessly serving others was the real way to be important. So, by associating himself with Christ and then being willing to die for Him, he showed in the end that he had learned to serve.