When Fighting Against Sin and Heresy, Don't Expect to Come Out Unscathed!
It is only natural for a Christian to want to fight against sin. Being redeemed means to have a changed life. Ephesians 2:10 says that Christians are ordained unto good works. The Christian loves God and hates sin. It's only natural for any new creature in Christ to hate sin and preach against it. There is really one warning that must be said, "If you are going to stand up for Christ, be sure you are ready to suffer for Him!" Jesus warned many times about persecution for His sake.
The Bible provides some illustrations to how standing up against sin is no walk in the park. Just think when Noah for those 120 years built the Ark, he was certainly a laughing stock. When Joseph resisted Mrs. Potiphar, she framed him and landed him to jail. When Moses stood up against the presumably younger Pharaoh of the Exodus, he was scorned as an old fool. When Joshua and Caleb stood up against the complaining crowd and assured them God was with them, they were in the risk of being stoned. The prophets were in no better shape either - Elijah wanted to die, Jeremiah even quit preaching for a season... and you can see how the true prophets of God were never popular to the crowd of sinners. In the New Testament, John the Baptist was beheaded at the order of Herod Antipas (thanks to Herodias and Salome), James the Lesser was later beheaded at the orders of Herod Agrippa I, the Book of Acts always has persecution of Christians as a major topic.
Jesus warned in John 3:19-20 that men love darkness. In John 16:1-4 we have Jesus warning about wrongful persecution. John 15:18-19, Jesus warned that the world hated Jesus before it hated the Christian, Christians are not of the world and they are enemies of the world. James 4:3-4 warns that friendship with the world means to be enemies of God... and Christians are definitely not friends of the world. These answered the question I first asked upon my conversion, "If I am preaching the truth of God's Word, why all the hatred against it?" and after I read the Bible, the more I grew to understand why the Gospel is hated. The problem is this, the world only wants to hear only pleasant truths, not the bitter truth that needs to be told.
What do I have to say about being persecuted? All I can say is, they are the waves that I must ignore. God sends them for a reason so His glory will be manifested. I would be foolish to expect myself not to get persecuted. I should be worried if I am not persecuted wrongly for the sake of Christ. The Bible says in Matthew 5:10-12 saying, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven: for so they persecuted the prophets which were before you."