According to church tradition/history, the Apostle John had a disciple named Polycarp.

When Polycarp was seized by Roman officers and taken into the stadium to be martyred, he was given an opportunity to "revile Christ" (deny and curse Jesus). This is how Polycarp responded when his life was on the line:

"𝙁𝙤𝙧 86 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙃𝙞𝙢, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙞𝙣𝙟𝙪𝙧𝙮: 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙄 𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙮 𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧? 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙢𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙗𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨, 𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙖 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙣. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙘𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮, 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙖 𝙙𝙖𝙮, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢."

Upon his confession of Christ, they decided to burn Polycarp at the stake. When they tried to nail him to the stake, he assured them that there was no need, as he would not try to escape (he had a dream of being burned at the stake three days prior).

According to eye-witnesses, when the fire was lit, it surrounded Polycarp in an arc, but did not touch him. Instead of the smell of smoke, the place was filled with the smell of incense.

After a long time, the fire had still not consumed Polycarp, so they decided to stab him with a dagger. So much blood came out of him that it totally extinguished the fire. Polycarp eventually bled to death.

Ironically, the charge against Polycarp was that he was an atheist. The Greeks and Romans worshipped thousands of gods and Polycarp denied them all - affirming only one God, Jesus Christ.

People raised in an atmosphere of religious pluralism struggle to understand singular devotion to only one God. Polycarp was misunderstood, mischaracterized, and mistreated because of his singular devotion to Jesus.

The Roman government was willing to kill for their gods, but the church was willing to die for their God. As followers of Jesus, we must embrace the cost of following Him. We can't force the cost of our obedience onto others. We cannot insist that others suffer and sacrifice for our faith, we must be the ones that suffer and sacrifice. We cannot do violence in the name of Jesus, we must resist and at times suffer violence in the name of Jesus.