God's Everlasting Love
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Rom 8:36
As it is... The first Old Testament prophecy fulfilled in Romans (Rom. 8:36; Psm. 44:22). Next, Rom. 9:7.
Since Jesus was crucified, there have been men and women who were willing to be martyred (killed), to bring the true message of God. Paul in writing this could be speaking of himself. He was stoned, ship-wrecked, beaten and left for dead, but he never gave up the cause of Jesus Christ. We are sheep, if we are followers of Jesus Christ (the great Shepherd). The sheep will follow the Shepherd even to death of his body.
Psalm 44:22 “Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”
These things — stated in increasing intensity — do not separate Christians from Christ; instead they are part of the “all things” (Rom. 8:28) God uses to bring them to conformity to His Son. Then Paul quoted Psm. 44:22 to remind his readers that in this life the people of God must face much affliction (cf. John 16:33) including even martyrdom for some. In the early days of the church one or more Christians were martyred every day, or faced the possibility of it. Their persecutors valued Christians’ lives as nothing more than animals to be butchered.
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