THE PRIVILEGE OF SUFFERING
For you have been granted the privilege not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for him. Phil. 1:29, N.E.B.
Though she had the money to purchase good-quality clothes, she wore tattered, thrift shop garments. Her house was sparsely furnished and her table set with only the plainest of provisions, all unseasoned and meager. She smiled only faintly and spoke in the hushed tones of someone in the terminal ward of a hospital. More often than not, when you called on her, you would find her seated at her table reading her Bible.
Most of us are a little taken aback by people who impose suffering upon themselves as a means of attaining piety. We are repelled at the thought that that's what it takes to be "godly." About the only thing that's worse is to believe that God Himself sometimes imposes this kind of suffering upon people in order to "build their characters."
What was Paul talking about in today's scripture when he said that it is our privilege to suffer for Christ? Is he talking about just bodily distress? In his Second Letter to the Corinthians he states, "Indeed, experience shows that the more we share in Christ's immeasurable suffering the more we are able to give of his encouragement" (chap. 1:5, Phillips). Perhaps the answer can be known only if we stop to consider what made Christ suffer. We most naturally think of Calvary as the place of His agony, but does His physical ordeal at Golgotha really epitomize the suffering He endured as the "Man of Sorrows"?
See His tears at the tomb of Lazarus as Martha expresses her sorrow that He could have saved her brother from death. Hear the pain in His voice as He addresses Peter, dripping wet from being pulled from the sea upon which he had walked: "Why did you doubt [Me]?" (Matt. 14:31, N.I.V.). Be shocked at the intensity of His grief as He weeps over Jerusalem, where His rejection as the Son of God will be fully revealed. And remember: in each of these incidents, He sorrowed not for Himself, but for His earthly children who sustained needless woe because they did not understand who He was, or the Father who sent Him.
It is our privilege not only to believe in Christ, but to be so healed by our friendship with Him that we share the great passion of His heart: to reveal the Father to hurting mankind.
For you have been granted the privilege not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for him. Phil. 1:29, N.E.B.
Though she had the money to purchase good-quality clothes, she wore tattered, thrift shop garments. Her house was sparsely furnished and her table set with only the plainest of provisions, all unseasoned and meager. She smiled only faintly and spoke in the hushed tones of someone in the terminal ward of a hospital. More often than not, when you called on her, you would find her seated at her table reading her Bible.
Most of us are a little taken aback by people who impose suffering upon themselves as a means of attaining piety. We are repelled at the thought that that's what it takes to be "godly." About the only thing that's worse is to believe that God Himself sometimes imposes this kind of suffering upon people in order to "build their characters."
What was Paul talking about in today's scripture when he said that it is our privilege to suffer for Christ? Is he talking about just bodily distress? In his Second Letter to the Corinthians he states, "Indeed, experience shows that the more we share in Christ's immeasurable suffering the more we are able to give of his encouragement" (chap. 1:5, Phillips). Perhaps the answer can be known only if we stop to consider what made Christ suffer. We most naturally think of Calvary as the place of His agony, but does His physical ordeal at Golgotha really epitomize the suffering He endured as the "Man of Sorrows"?
See His tears at the tomb of Lazarus as Martha expresses her sorrow that He could have saved her brother from death. Hear the pain in His voice as He addresses Peter, dripping wet from being pulled from the sea upon which he had walked: "Why did you doubt [Me]?" (Matt. 14:31, N.I.V.). Be shocked at the intensity of His grief as He weeps over Jerusalem, where His rejection as the Son of God will be fully revealed. And remember: in each of these incidents, He sorrowed not for Himself, but for His earthly children who sustained needless woe because they did not understand who He was, or the Father who sent Him.
It is our privilege not only to believe in Christ, but to be so healed by our friendship with Him that we share the great passion of His heart: to reveal the Father to hurting mankind.
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