James 5:10

‘Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patient endurance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.'

That the church at this time were going through heavy trials is clear. While there was not necessarily persecution by the state, for that was fairly limited, there was certainly fairly regular local persecution (see Acts 8:1; Acts 9:1; Acts 13:50; Acts 14:2; Acts 14:5; Acts 14:19; Acts 14:22; Acts 16:19; Acts 18:12; Acts 19:23 and compare Matthew 10:17; Matthew 10:21; Matthew 10:35; John 15:18; John 16:2; 2 Corinthians 11:23; 1 Peter 4:12). And James himself was aware of the undercurrents of the time and would indeed in the end be martyred in such an outbreak. The church were ever warned not to expect an easy time. They were to expect tribulations (Acts 14:22). James therefore exhorts them to consider the sufferings of the true prophets who ‘spoke in the Name of the Lord'. They suffered and endured, and the early church is to do the same in His Name.

The one whose sufferings we know most about was Jeremiah. He was beaten, put in the stocks, imprisoned in a dank dungeon, tossed into a cystern, and then looked back on by the people as an encouragement in the face of their own suffering. For in their hearts they knew that what he said was true.