Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (II Tim 3:12)
Jesus, thank you that you have gone through suffering we will never understand and promise to be with us always in the midst of ours. Hallelujah!
Leanne and I had dinner with another couple a few days ago, and we got to talking about the church in America. The wife of the other couple made the observation that the American church is full of Christians who have stagnated in their spiritual growth. They go to church. They read their Bible. They may serve in some capacity or even give. But they will go only so far.
Her observation is spot on, and there is a reason why. Christianity is about more than just doing nice practices and being respectable. Jesus told his followers to take up their cross. And that’s hard. The cross involves self-denial and suffering, and people aren’t willing to go that far. But in the kingdom of God, no other way exists except the way of the Cross. The disciples give us many examples of it.
The Philippians threw Paul and Silas in prison. Herod slew James. Rome exiled John and crucified Peter. The Jews stoned Stephen. Read the New Testament and you quickly encounter persecution and opposition to the gospel everywhere you turn. In the New Testament, God’s people suffer.
Paul tells us that suffering for Jesus has been granted us (Ph 1:29) and that we should rejoice in our sufferings (Rm 5:3ff). Peter says that we are not to be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes, as though something strange were happening (I Pet 4:12). The writer to the Hebrews describes the people of faith being mocked, flogged, imprisoned, stoned, sawn in two, killed with the sword and more (Heb 11:36-8). John relates the trials of the people of God as a central component of his visions in The Revelation. Jesus says that this world will hate you on account of Him (Jn 15:18-19) and that you are blessed when the world insults, persecutes, and slanders you because of Him (Mt 5:10-12).
It is fair to say that the New Testament considers the suffering of God’s people to be normal. We are to expect hardship for Jesus’ sake, and when it comes we are to embrace it and rejoice in it.
If you listen to many Christians talk, however, this concept is as foreign as Andromeda. They think that if God blesses us, we won’t have to deal with pain or hardship. They consider the fiery trial to be evidence of God’s absence.
How did we get this way? I mean, you have to twist Scripture pretty badly to think that God somehow owes you a nice, comfortable existence. The truth that God’s people suffer kicks you in the teeth. And many still miss it.
We miss it because we don’t like it. We miss it because this truth comes in a package with lots of other truths. We open the package, and we see that God loves us. We ooh and ahh over that truth because we like it. We see that God has come and died for sin, that we are forgiven, that we are His adopted children, and that we inherit all the spiritual blessings of Christ, and we set these truths on the mantel above the fireplace for all to see. They are wondrous and beautiful and precious. But when we pull out of the box that bit about suffering, we set that truth behind the water heater in the garage where we quickly forget it. It doesn’t seem so lovely as those mantelpiece truths.
The truth about suffering and trials, however, comes in a Biblical package for a reason. The truths of God were never meant to be separated. Suffering belongs on the mantelpiece right with the love of God. When you see them together, you see the depths of the love of God and the blessings of Christ even more. When you see them together, you see that the love of God and the mercies of Christ are not merely the shallow comforts of earth but are deeper than the deepest pain you will ever face. The sufferings of the saints make those mantelpiece truths shine more gloriously. You don’t understand the love of God until you have suffered.
And suffering likewise needs those other truths. When you put them together, you show the hope that you have in the face of pain, but when you relegate suffering to the garage, you separate it from the very truths that will help you through it when it comes.
And here’s the thing.
Suffering will come. That’s a promise. From God Himself.
But He also promises to be with you in the midst of the fiery furnace. He says He loves you and forgives you and has died for you and has made your soul insanely rich in Christ. And He says all these promises are true even while you suffer. Your sufferings do not negate those other truths. They all go together.
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