The world needs Christians bold enough to follow the truth wherever it may take them.
Weirdo fundamentalist John the Baptist was imprisoned. We know that the Romans did not have a reputation for putting up with large Jewish followings for very long. It’s possible that John’s leadership was so attractive, his baptism ministry and his prophetic truth so popular among the spiritually hungry, that the regional magistrates thought of him as a threat. Whenever any Jew seemed to get too big for their britches, the Romans would hang them on a cross.
But in this particular case, Matthew 14 says that John was put in prison because he criticized Herod for having his brother’s wife. He had the audacity to not just preach against sin, but to say to a sinner in need of repentance, “You’re a sinner in need of repentance.” John was not interested in following a theoretical God and engaging in academic spirituality. He followed the personal God whose word of truth matters.
Joshua Mack 