What can you learn from those who paid the ultimate price for their faith? How could you use more of the faith that they demonstrated in their deaths?
It has been said that an individual is not truly ready to live for the Lord until he is willing and ready to die for Him. As a believer, one should not fear death.
A martyr is one who is killed for his faith. Only two individuals are specifically named as martyrs in scripture: Stephen and Antipas.
No matter where we look we see order and authority. Even God's acts of creation reveal this order. The Bible says that the sun was given to rule the day and the moon to rule the night (Genesis 1:16). The Lord gave priests and prophets to the children of Israel in the Old Testament to lead them and show them His truths. Faithful to His nature, God has also given a level of authority within the church. According to our passage, we are to “obey them that have the rule” over us. On a couple of different occasions, the word rule is used in the job description of a pastor or elder (1 Timothy 3:5; 1 Timothy 5:17). Today's passage also reveals that the man of God watches for the souls of the people and must give an account to God for his watch care. No true God-called leader takes his position lightly.
