This essay is dedicated to Adam who always asks challenging questions and makes me search Scripture to find the answers.
I was asked a question Friday night about suffering that made me stop and rethink a lot of what I had come to understanding about the necessary, yet unpleasant, aspect of the Christian life. How are we really suffering if we are rejoicing? Doesn’t joy overcome suffering and replace it?
Fortunately for Adam, he asked a guy who has been pouring over Philippians for the better part of three months and has been thinking a lot about what it looks like to suffer for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Fortunately for me, Adam’s question brought me to a deeper understanding of what suffering should look like in the Christian life and what it shouldn’t look like as well.
I’d like to consider the suffering of Christ, our call to suffer, and our attitude in suffering.
For it was fitting that He [God the Father], for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Hebrews 2:10
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.
Hebrews 5:8
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
Jesus Christ suffered in ways that we aren’t even able to imagine. He was forsaken by the Godhead when He took on the world’s sin. He suffered by us and for us.
It is important to understand that His joy and endurance are inseparable from the suffering that He experienced. All throughout Scripture, suffering is said to produce endurance or steadfastness and patience. Christ rejoiced in His suffering because of the knowledge of what the suffering would accomplish. We must continue to renew our minds with this truth!
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the One who enlisted him.
2 Timothy 2:3, 4
Paul is saying that if you care about the One who enlisted you, you will share in His suffering. As a soldier of the Lord, your one aim should be to please Him and to follow His orders. He has called us all to suffer.
How do we suffer?
In Romans 7, Paul is suffering in battling his body of death. He’s struggling with the wretchedness of sin and the reality of its presence in his body. Do we hate sin? We should if we have a clear and mature understanding of the severity. One transgression, just one, was enough to send Jesus to the Cross. We’re all law breakers. We’ve all sinned against God.
In a similar way, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 about groaning in this earthly tent. As citizens of Heaven, we need to acknowledge that this body is just a temporary dwelling. We are sojourners. If we are comfortable here, we are wrong! We should be groaning with anticipation of Christ’s return or our death, whichever comes first.
We should also be suffering when considering those who are walking as enemies of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Do you hurt for the lives of those around you who are on the broad path to destruction? You should. I should. That is suffering and it should compel us to speak the truth in love to those who need the saving grace of a compassionate Savior.
Are you ever tempted to sin?
For because He Himself suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 2:18
We suffer when we are tempted. Temptation is a part of life as a Christian. Resisting requires self control and involves suffering.
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.
1 Peter 2:19-21
A gracious thing? Jesus suffered as an example to us? We have to follow in His steps? Yes. Yes. And Yes! When we suffer, God is graciously giving us an opportunity to grow in fellowship with Him. He is giving an opportunity to endure and prove faithful to Christ. He is giving us invaluable training that makes us look more like Jesus.
Jesus Himself said that a servant is not greater than his Master. He told His disciples that the world hated Him before it hated them and to not be afraid. In Luke 21:19, it says “By your endurance you will gain your lives.” We must endure because Christ endured. It is the only way make our calling and election sure.
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
1 Peter 4:1
Arm yourselves with the same thinking! Strap on the holster! Grab your sword! This is war! Christ suffered. We will suffer. That’s why Jesus tells us to count the cost! Is this temporary suffering worth it to you? Do you have a vision for the glory to come? That’s the only way that suffering today makes any sense. Christ is risen and He is coming again for His Church.
Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:2-5
What an amazing truth! We rejoice in hope, but more than that we rejoice in suffering! Why? Because suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope! Endurance and character produce the same hope that we should be rejoicing in in the first place!
This is so important to understand. This truth has changed my life. This truth has set me on the path that leads to knowing Jesus Christ intimately and passionately. This is a fundamental truth of the Christian walk that is overlooked or simply ignored.
Suffering is going to come. When it comes, we should embrace it because Christ has embraced us. We should seek Him through the storms because He faced much worse for our sake. We should rejoice because we see the reality that we are being made into the likeness of the spotless Lamb! We should hold fast to the hope, the eager anticipation of the coming reign of God and defeat of death forever!
Don’t make an excuse just because this is hard. Seek it because it is true. Ask God for it because He will grant it to you. Embrace the suffering.
Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
Philippians 3:15
Think maturely. Rejoice in suffering. Without rejoicing, suffering loses its meaning. It is dead because it fails to accomplish its intended purpose. Just like James says that faith without works is dead, suffering without joy and endurance is dead. It lacks its true meaning and we prove to lack understanding.
I pray that Jesus Christ would encourage those of you who are embracing suffering to endure. I pray that the Spirit of Truth would reveal the truth of suffering to those who have yet to see it clearly.
I was asked a question Friday night about suffering that made me stop and rethink a lot of what I had come to understanding about the necessary, yet unpleasant, aspect of the Christian life. How are we really suffering if we are rejoicing? Doesn’t joy overcome suffering and replace it?
Fortunately for Adam, he asked a guy who has been pouring over Philippians for the better part of three months and has been thinking a lot about what it looks like to suffer for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Fortunately for me, Adam’s question brought me to a deeper understanding of what suffering should look like in the Christian life and what it shouldn’t look like as well.
I’d like to consider the suffering of Christ, our call to suffer, and our attitude in suffering.
For it was fitting that He [God the Father], for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Hebrews 2:10
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.
Hebrews 5:8
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
Jesus Christ suffered in ways that we aren’t even able to imagine. He was forsaken by the Godhead when He took on the world’s sin. He suffered by us and for us.
It is important to understand that His joy and endurance are inseparable from the suffering that He experienced. All throughout Scripture, suffering is said to produce endurance or steadfastness and patience. Christ rejoiced in His suffering because of the knowledge of what the suffering would accomplish. We must continue to renew our minds with this truth!
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the One who enlisted him.
2 Timothy 2:3, 4
Paul is saying that if you care about the One who enlisted you, you will share in His suffering. As a soldier of the Lord, your one aim should be to please Him and to follow His orders. He has called us all to suffer.
How do we suffer?
In Romans 7, Paul is suffering in battling his body of death. He’s struggling with the wretchedness of sin and the reality of its presence in his body. Do we hate sin? We should if we have a clear and mature understanding of the severity. One transgression, just one, was enough to send Jesus to the Cross. We’re all law breakers. We’ve all sinned against God.
In a similar way, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 about groaning in this earthly tent. As citizens of Heaven, we need to acknowledge that this body is just a temporary dwelling. We are sojourners. If we are comfortable here, we are wrong! We should be groaning with anticipation of Christ’s return or our death, whichever comes first.
We should also be suffering when considering those who are walking as enemies of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Do you hurt for the lives of those around you who are on the broad path to destruction? You should. I should. That is suffering and it should compel us to speak the truth in love to those who need the saving grace of a compassionate Savior.
Are you ever tempted to sin?
For because He Himself suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 2:18
We suffer when we are tempted. Temptation is a part of life as a Christian. Resisting requires self control and involves suffering.
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.
1 Peter 2:19-21
A gracious thing? Jesus suffered as an example to us? We have to follow in His steps? Yes. Yes. And Yes! When we suffer, God is graciously giving us an opportunity to grow in fellowship with Him. He is giving an opportunity to endure and prove faithful to Christ. He is giving us invaluable training that makes us look more like Jesus.
Jesus Himself said that a servant is not greater than his Master. He told His disciples that the world hated Him before it hated them and to not be afraid. In Luke 21:19, it says “By your endurance you will gain your lives.” We must endure because Christ endured. It is the only way make our calling and election sure.
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
1 Peter 4:1
Arm yourselves with the same thinking! Strap on the holster! Grab your sword! This is war! Christ suffered. We will suffer. That’s why Jesus tells us to count the cost! Is this temporary suffering worth it to you? Do you have a vision for the glory to come? That’s the only way that suffering today makes any sense. Christ is risen and He is coming again for His Church.
Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:2-5
What an amazing truth! We rejoice in hope, but more than that we rejoice in suffering! Why? Because suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope! Endurance and character produce the same hope that we should be rejoicing in in the first place!
This is so important to understand. This truth has changed my life. This truth has set me on the path that leads to knowing Jesus Christ intimately and passionately. This is a fundamental truth of the Christian walk that is overlooked or simply ignored.
Suffering is going to come. When it comes, we should embrace it because Christ has embraced us. We should seek Him through the storms because He faced much worse for our sake. We should rejoice because we see the reality that we are being made into the likeness of the spotless Lamb! We should hold fast to the hope, the eager anticipation of the coming reign of God and defeat of death forever!
Don’t make an excuse just because this is hard. Seek it because it is true. Ask God for it because He will grant it to you. Embrace the suffering.
Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
Philippians 3:15
Think maturely. Rejoice in suffering. Without rejoicing, suffering loses its meaning. It is dead because it fails to accomplish its intended purpose. Just like James says that faith without works is dead, suffering without joy and endurance is dead. It lacks its true meaning and we prove to lack understanding.
I pray that Jesus Christ would encourage those of you who are embracing suffering to endure. I pray that the Spirit of Truth would reveal the truth of suffering to those who have yet to see it clearly.
Great stuff. I really like all of the different scripture references in different examples.
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