Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Christ in the Crucible”. We spend our lives avoiding suffering. We spend our lives trying to create a “heaven on earth”… a heaven of our own definition anyway. Yet our Lord assures us that if we follow Him, we will suffer just as He suffered. “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it’” (Luke 9: 22-24). Telling us that we, too, go to the cross… daily… if we follow Him. Is this self-imposed suffering? Suffering because others do something to you? Suffering because you have turned your back on all the “good” things this sinful world has to offer? Is this what caused Jesus’ suffering?
This “suffering” sentiment is echoed by the apostles, as well:
Paul--- “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8: 16-18).
Peter--- “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2; 21-24).
James--- “My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience” (James 5:10).
Paul tells us to what benefit this suffering is; “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation” (2 Corinthians 1: 3-7).
And He tell us why the suffering, too: “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward” (Hebrews 11: 24-25). We suffer because we have chosen to live a different life. Not living by the world and its standards but living a different life. A life that esteems the reproach of Christ. What is the “reproach of Christ? “As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6: 114). The reproach of Christ is the way of the cross. The path we Christians have chosen is the way of the cross. The way of the cross is “love for others” to the extent of giving all of yourself.
True Christians do not suffer because of what others do to you. True Christians do not suffer because they are missing-out on all the “goodies” of this world. “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:8). The loss of prestige, the loss of fame, the loss of possessions, the loss of anything in this world is but dung or manure. These things gained or lost is not the cause of the true Christian’s suffering. We suffer because of the path we have chosen. We have chosen the way of the cross. Which is the way of self-sacrificing love. The cross shows us the true nature of love. Love that will not seek its own. Love that will sacrifice all for the “other”. And hence, we suffer. We suffer because we love. We suffer in our hearts that are moved with compassion for those who are in the world. Those we seek to save and love; for they do not understand. The cross crucifies us to the ways of the world, not to the people of the world. In fact, our hearts go out more to the people of the world because of their misguided ways. Devastating ways which destroy them. Ways which make our brothers and sisters into Satan’s food. And as we love them, we suffer… and suffer. “Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Psalms 44:2). Our hearts are always in a state of bleeding. Always in a state of reaching-out. And because we love them truly, we suffer. Such was Christ’s suffering, Paul’s suffering, the Apostle’s suffering, and our suffering, too. On Calvary, the physical pain was hardly felt by Christ. It was heart-pain that killed Him. And so for us, too. Heart-pain, heart-suffering. It is the cost of love.
Will you shy away from loving like this? Is the cost of love too dear? Will you isolate yourself in the coffin of your own self-protection where you are safe from all harm, safe from all suffering, safe from life, safe from the heart-pain of true love? But a coffin is for the dead… and so we are, if we refuse to love truly. A suffering life full of true love… or a self-centered life full of slow death. Each must decide for themselves.
With brotherly love,
Jim