The Conflict of Suffering

As I draw nearer to God I start viewing the Bible from a renewed and different set of eyes.  As a matter of fact, even my approach to life has shifted.  My perspective on various issues and topics have also changed as God deepens my understanding.  Things that I once purposefully avoided I am now beginning to see from a different angle.  This is especially true of suffering.

The topic of suffering has been a cause for much debate and questioning throughout the ages.  Your typical argument will go something like this, “If God is love, then why does He allow His people to suffer and endure horrific pain and some even killed for their faith in Jesus?”  Sadly, this is often asked by those within the Church!  Our “name-it-and-claim-it” mentality is in great conflict with this.

In this perverted era of prosperity preaching and the “name-it-and-claim-it” crowd polluting the ears of ignorant believers, we are seeing a rapid hatred for suffering of any kind.  We avoid it at all costs and actually believe the lie that if we suffer then that means that God is angry at us and is paying us back for our sin.  Hang on…didn’t Jesus take care of that on the cross?

Anyway, what this has done is create a weak, shallow and pansy Church that is powerless to stand against any attack or coming persecution.  Instead, today’s Church chases prosperity, blessings, favour and happiness because, after-all, Jesus died to make me rich, influential and comfortable right?  What a load of garbage!

Since when did Jesus say that His brutal torture, His horrifc wounds and His violent death was given to us so that we can have wealth, health and happiness?  As a matter of fact Jesus says in John 15:20 (ESV),

“Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”

How can we justify living in prosperity and over-flowing greeds when we worship a homeless, humble Servant?  What makes us think that we will avoid ridicule, persecution, opposition and suffering if Jesus Himself was bombarded with it?  Has His confronting Gospel message changed that we are shocked when we are judged and treated disrespectfully because we follow Jesus?

At this point I think it is wise to clarify what type of suffering Jesus prepares us for.  This came to my attention this past Sunday as a guy from Church (Paul) approached me seeking to clarify what I meant by suffering for Jesus.  Here is his e-mail in relation to our conversation..

We should be willing to suffer for the name of Jesus.  This does not mean we should just suffer in everything we do – that is not a martyr mindset that is a defeated mindset.  We need to be wise in discerning what it is to suffer for Christ.  There are too many that suffer for the sake of suffering and claim that God’s hand is in their suffering.

Some have a hard week and struggle to get through and say they are suffering for Christ yet none of this brings any glory to Christ.  To suffer with Christ is to find yourself in conflict or opposition because of your belief or your stance in Christ .  The enemy delights in fooling the church into believing that all suffering and turmoil in their life is a test from God, they are suffering for God so that means they should just put up with it.

Nothing could be further from the truth and the enemy uses this to rob the church of it’s effectiveness and take the attention off himself so that Christians the world over will just accept the things he throws at them because they are deceived into thinking this is how it is supposed to be.

I think that is a great insight.  In other words, suffering for Jesus is in direct relation to any opposition, persecution and threats as a result of your faith and position in Christ.  Simply suffering because your husband doesn’t understand you, or your sins have given you consequences that you don’t want, or even you are dealing with lung cancer because of years of smoking, this does not mean that you are carrying your cross and enduring hardship because you’re a Christian.  No!  The suffering that God honours and gives supernatural strength to endure is the suffering that comes with your undying and solid stand for Jesus.

These “suffering Christians” are the best of the best.  They live sold-out to Jesus and know what it means to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus.  Suffering is simply what can happen to them as they live surrendered to God.  It is not pursued or even desired, but if it comes, so be it and they will suffer well and still glorify God because of who they are in Jesus.

The persecuted Christians around the world understand this so well.  They are threatened with death daily for simply gathering to worship Jesus.  They are imprisoned, tortured, and killed, not because they are bad people, but because their government bans any Christian expression.  These are the suffering servants that glorify God in their sacrifice.

That’s why the Apostle Paul, who was well acquainted with suffering, urged the young Pastor Timothy, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2:3 ESV)  Paul didn’t say to avoid it, dispise it or reject it…no, share in it.  In other words, don’t be ashamed to suffer for Jesus’ sake because you represent Him.  Therefore as soldiers for Christ Jesus we are to be prepared to suffer if it should come and that’s why Rob Cartledge urges us to take on a martyrdom-attitude in his great book Taking Up Your Cross (read it for an in-depth insight into this topic).  Prepared, no matter what comes, I will never deny my Jesus!

The Apostle Peter takes it a step further.  In 1 Peter 4:13 (ESV) he writes, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” What the?  Rejoice?  Is he for real?  You see, Peter understood that to deny yourself even to the point of seeing suffering as a means to share in what Jesus endured, is an expression of love and devotion unlike anything this world could ever give.

It looks beyond the moment of pain and waits for the moment of glory with Jesus.  Countless martyrs were quoted as saying that they truly experienced God in the midst of suffering and persecution for Jesus.  Their joy was revealed and their God was close.  As Pastor Sze, a house-church pastor in China who was imprisoned for his faith once said, “Before prison we heard about God.  But in prison we experienced God.”

The reason I have blogged about this is because I want to prepare the Church to suffer well.  Not suffer for the sake of suffering or think that we are heroes if we walk around with a long face so others can marvel at how humble we appear.  But should it ever come to the Church and we are being persecuted and our faith being held in question, then we will be prepared, willing and strong to not denounce Jesus but rather stand firm knowing that to suffer for His sake is a powerful expression of worship to the King.

Paul ends it best, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18 ESV)  Should you ever suffer for being a follower of Jesus, hold on, stand firm and stay true because the glory of God is being revealed.