For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps…. (I Peter 2:21)
If you like your religious faith shallow and thoroughly thought-out for you without you being required to use your brain for any aspect–that is, if you prefer a manmade and easy-to-digest religion–you’re not going to hang around in a real Christian church long.
The Christian faith is a lot of things, but shallow and neatly systematic it is not. Rather, it’s historical and complex and true. It is true-to-life. And it has been revealed to us in such a way that we are required to put our thinking caps on and engage the brain in order to appreciate what we have been given and how it all fits together.
If you say “Well, the Bible says what it means and means what it says” to explain difficulties, you and I have nothing to talk about, for you have chosen not to deal with the hard parts.
Take suffering, for example.
Adversaries and critics of the Christian faith–these Christopher Hitchens and Bishop James Pikes (google these if they are unfamiliar) have always been with us, so don’t let the latest “smarter than God” genius upset you–say the fatal flaw to our theology is suffering. We’re repeatedly told that the Bible does not adequately answer the question of suffering and pain in the world.
You read that and shake your head. Scores of books from Christian writers pour off the press every year dealing with just that subject, particularly after disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes and tsunamis.
What the critics actually mean, but would not admit in a hundred years, is that Scripture has no easy explanation of suffering. And they do want their religion to be easy to digest.
Even if we ignore the Christian books on the subject, we’re still left with the fact that Scripture deals with suffering from one end to the other. It’s almost correct to say that human suffering is “the” constant theme of the Bible, it’s so prevalent throughout.
The history of Jews is a story of suffering. The Book of Job is devoted entirely to this subject. The sermons of Jesus are saturated with examples and instructions concerning suffering. His very life and death illustrate the subject better than any textbook. That’s why, when comforting the Lord’s harassed people, Peter thought of just that.
The Apostle Peter writes to suffering believers,
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth, and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;
And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you have been healed; for you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. (I Peter 2:21-25)
If we had nothing else in the Bible on the subject of suffering than this single passage, we could conclude several things:
–suffering is the lot of God’s Best in this world
–there is a right way and a wrong way to bear up in suffering
–we are to emulate Jesus. One of the many reasons Jesus was allowed to suffer in this world was to provide us with a pattern, an example. Here’s how it’s done.
–God always has His purposes for the suffering of His beloved.
–Our task when suffering is to commit ourselves to Him, trusting that He will “judge righteously.”
C. S. Lewis called it “pain.” The Scripture generally calls it “suffering” or “tribulation.” We experience it as “conflict.” Suffering is God’s megaphone, we’re told.
When done right, our suffering/pain/conflict can produce marvelous results. “Fixing our eyes on Jesus….who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame….” (Hebrews 12:2) See that? There was joy on the other side of the cross. To get there, He “endured.”
What Scripture teaches believers to expect regarding pain and suffering and conflict in this life—
–1) It will come. “Through many tribulations we enter the kingdom,” the first generation of believers told the second (Acts 14:22).
Before Jesus walked out into the night to face the appointment with His executioners, the last words to His followers were these: “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).
–2) It will come when you least expect it.
–3) It will come in unexpected ways.
–4) It will come when you are tired and thus weak.
–5) Many of the faithful will not recognize the suffering for what it is.
–6) Some of the Lord’s best will even deny that it exists.
–7) Left untreated and unaddressed, this conflict/opposition/suffering will wound the congregation severely.
–8) Treated properly and promptly, the suffering will honor Christ, strengthen the faithful, stun the enemy, and impress the watching world.
–9) God will be there, present at all times.
–10) All the resources of Heaven are on call at this point.
As Stephen was being stoned to death, he “gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God…” (Acts 7:55). Heaven was intensely interested and deeply involved in what was happening at that moment.
–11) You may not “feel” the Lord’s presence. Or you may. Christians have to learn to operate either way. Feelings are a poor barometer of the Lord’s nearness.
–12) The world is watching. This could be your finest hour, your best witness ever. Notice Acts 16:25. At midnight, Paul and Silas–wounded, their backs a bloody pulp, locked into stocks in the Philippian jail–began singing and praying. “And the prisoners were listening to them.” They’re always watching and listening.
Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation (I Pet. 2:12).
Notice the reaction of the non-Christians to the conflict in the Jerusalem church once the congregation handled it well. (Acts 6:7) They were watching, taking note, greatly impressed, and wanted a part of what the believers were experiencing.
–13) The church’s mission is at risk.
When the Jerusalem congregation was threatened by conflict, the disciples said to the congregation, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables….” (Acts 6:2). They stayed the course.
–14) Scripture will show the believer how to get through it.
–15) The best peacemakers are believers who hate conflict with a passion and treasure unity. (See Ephesians 4:3)
–16) Suffering is in the DNA of believers. “You have been called for this purpose.” We do not want to suffer; we do not enjoy it; we will not volunteer for it. Yet, it’s the result of the nature of our task: to swim upstream in a down-stream world.
Those who never experience conflict or suffering for Christ in this life may find they have become too comfortable with the down-stream culture around them.
–17) The one thing God does not expect or appreciate is believers belly-aching about the suffering they are enduring. The one prayer we should not expect to be answered is “Why me, Lord?” Did we think we were special, better than all the preceding generations of believers?
–18) Suffering comes in all varieties. The single kind we are not allowed and can get no comfort from is the pain associated with our own wrong-doing.
For what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God (I Peter 2:19).
Too few of God’s wayward children get this. It is true, thankfully, that God forgives the repenting sinner and thereafter will go through the hardship with the believer. It is not true, however, that all suffering in this world is sanctified or redemptive. So much is needless and shameful and pointless.
–19) When suffering for Christ’s sake, there is a sense in which we share His suffering. This is when we may experience what Paul called “the fellowship of His suffering” (Philippians 3:10). We may count on His nearness, Heaven’s resources, God’s purposes, our vindication, and a redemptive outcome.
If we are faithful. Everything hinges on this.
–20) God will not waste our suffering. When we emerge on the other side of this storm, we have been changed and are stronger. We see more clearly now. “And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
Soon, we begin to see God is using us in ways that had not been the case. We’re able to help people who would not have turned to us before.
You and I are this way. When in trouble, we do not run to one who has never known sorrow. Instead, we seek out the one who has known failure and heartache and has gotten to his feet and is still on the job. This is the one who will understand and can counsel us.
I apologize.
I know so little about suffering for Jesus, I ought to be ashamed for writing anything on the subject.
On the pain of child-bearing, I was telling my 8-year-old granddaughter that it’s something women just get through and afterwards, with the beautiful child in their arms, they decide it was worth the trouble. She wasn’t buying that. With all the wisdom of her eight years, Abby said,”You’re a man; what do you know?”
I had to confess I did not know anything, that everything I “knew” on the subject was hearsay from my wife and mother and daughters.
Abby’s question pertains to most all of suffering in this life. What do I know? Not much.
I do know that our Lord Jesus laid down a pattern for us. We do well to study this passage from I Peter passage and make its insights a part of the fabric of our lives.
I do know that in the times of my greatest pain and struggles the Lord has been the nearest, His peace the sweetest, and my vision clearer than ever.
No one volunteers to hurt. But when it does come, my friend, offer it up to the Savior and stay close to Him. You have just been granted a special blessing of Heaven.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed (Romans 8:18).
So, they went on their way from the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name (Acts 5:41).
Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance… (James 1:2-3).
The world will always consider this the fatal flaw–the Achilles’ heel–of the Christian faith, but we must not let that unsettle us.
As with everything else about the Kingdom of God, they just don’t get it.