GLEANINGS — July 20, A.D. 2014                                                                                                              Every Disciple is a Martyr

That is, if the original use of the word is understood! It comes from the Greek language in which the New Testament was written. The word is used, for example, in Acts 1:8 where the risen Lord Jesus says, "...you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses [MARTYRS] to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
So if with the apostles we have a share in being witnesses to Jesus Christ unto the end of the earth, we are martyrs.
Almost all of the apostles and many who followed them in the early centuries sealed their witness for Christ with bodily suffering and death. The risen Christ wrote through John to the church at Pergamos (or Pergamum) in praise of "...Antipas...My faithful witness [martyr], who was killed among you, where Satan dwells" (Revelation 2:13).
Thus the word came to refer to any Christian whom providence appointed to this ultimate kind of witness. Eventually it came to have this very general meaning as found in dictionary dot com: 
"A person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause: a martyr to the cause of social justice." 
In a sense being a Christian witness in the original sense of the word, even if not unto literal bodily death in some horrific manner, will involve a kind of dying: dying to self. Consider our Lord's instructions at Luke 9:23, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." The cross was the very implement that brought death to Jesus, and He willingly bore it because He loved to do His Father's will more than anything, and He loved those for whom He was bearing that cross. 
Being His witnesses, His martyrs, means taking up our own smaller crosses. Just as His prayer to His Father was "If possible, let this cup pass from Me" (Matthew 26:39), so our crosses are  things we would prefer not to carry. They are death dealing burdens. But we take them up because we love Him, and we love our neighbors who have no hope apart from Him.
Hence if obeying God means bearing ridicule, abuse, or persecution even unto death, our witness is one of bearing that willingly. And even as Jesus, after enduring the cross and despising the shame sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2), so those who are martyrs - witnesses in life or death - will be rewarded:
"To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." (Revelation 3:21)