Our suffering affects other Christians. Paul touches on this notion when he says, “Most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.”

What he’s saying is that there is a relationship between Christians trusting in the Lord in light of Paul’s imprisonment. In a very real sense, Paul was suffering, but he acknowledges that in some way his situation encouraged believers to speak the Word of God without fear.

It seems that Paul is making reference to his Christian experience. Some today shy away from any reference to experience in light of a movement that has made experience the dominant factor in the Christian life.

Allow me to explain what I mean. In some Christian circles today, it is in vogue to decry doctrine and to lean solely on one’s experiences. As often as not, people will say things like, “I just feel like God is speaking to me,” or “My girlfriend and I were feeling bad about living together, but they we prayed about it and God gave us a feeling of great peace.” Both of those are bunk. The misuse of experience does not, however, shut out the proper use of experience in the Christian life.

The reformer, John Calvin said this: “Here, indeed, is the chief hinge on which faith turns: that we do not regard the promises of mercy that God offers as true only outside ourselves, but not at all in us; rather that we make them ours by inwardly embracing them” (Institutes, 3.2.16).

When we inwardly embrace God’s trustworthy and faithful promises, we experience faith. Our faith, however, rests on the knowledge found in Scripture and not upon modern pious ignorance. The Bible points us not merely to God and his nature, but to his divine will for our lives as well.

Calvin gives us this helpful definition of true, saving faith: “Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we see it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Institutes, 3.2.7). Notice how he couches faith in both head and heart!

In 2 Corinthians 13-7 Paul elaborates and comments on the place of suffering in the life of Christians. He reminds us of the practical, spiritual truth that when God comforts us in our sufferings, we are then to pass that comfort along to others in similar circumstances.

Let me explain. My wife and I were entrusted with an infant son that we named Paul for only four months. At the end of the four months, our Lord took him back.

During the time of his illness and eventual death, God comforted us with many texts from his Word. At the time of Paul’s death and at his funeral, the Word of God comforted us again and again. Did we suffer? Yes, we did. But God remained faithful to his Word and spoke to us repeatedly through it.

Now when we encounter people who have lost a child or who are in the process of living through a serious illness of a child we can say to them, “We know how you feel and what you are going through.”

But that’s not the end. Our purpose is more than mere commiseration. We have the privilege to point them to what the Word of God says about life and death and to share with them the texts that meant so much to us. We have the opportunity of speaking to them about God’s goodness and greatness and how important our covenant family in our church was to us during that time.
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TE Ron Gleason is pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Yorba Linda, Calif.Ron Gleason

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