We go to great lengths to avoid suffering, but our Lord has a place for it in our lives.
PCANews - Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear (Philippians 1:12-14).
What place—if any—does suffering have in the life of a Christian? There is a segment in society that preaches the lie of “the gospel of health and wealth.” What this aberration teaches is that God doesn’t want Christians ever to be ill. Really? What about the apostle Paul? He must have done something really to upset God, because he was given a thorn in the flesh that just would not go away. In fact, God told Paul to stop even praying that it would be taken away. The Lord’s answer was that his grace was sufficient for the apostle (2 Cor. 12:7-9).
When Paul penned his letter to the young church at Philippi under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he had no assurance that he would ever be a free man again. He was in prison not awaiting a conviction for a crime, but the verdict of his conviction. What resulted in his imprisonment had been what you and I would call a very “unfair” process. The unfolding of the events that led up to Paul’s imprisonment begins in Acts 21:17. When he stepped foot in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit warned him that imprisonment awaited him (Acts 21:28). His own people almost lynched him before he was put in Roman prison!
Paul was the subject of unjust and unprovoked insults and shame (23:2), malicious misrepresentation (24:5), and a deadly plot against his life (23:12ff.; 25:1ff.). He was kept imprisoned due to silly politicians craving popularity (24:27) or seeking a bribe to let him out (24:26). Some things never change! How would you react to such treatment?
Here’s Paul’s response. Still wrongly imprisoned, still chained to a Roman guard, still unheard in his own defense, and still uncertain of what the “outcome” of all this will be, he still says that his circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.
I want you to reflect on what your attitude is about suffering. In Philippians 1:29 Paul told the Church of Jesus Christ that we are not only granted the privilege of believing on Christ but also suffering for him. In 1 Peter 4:12 the Church is reminded that she should not be surprised as if suffering as a Christian is something strange and alien to the faith.
We go to great lengths to avoid suffering, but our Lord has a place for it in our lives. At another time we’ll examine the relationship between faith and suffering.
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TE Ron Gleason is pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Yorba Linda, Calif.
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