Why Christians Suffer: PART 2

(Beginning of Series)

What would drive a Christian to continue even if it involved hardship and suffering?

We will later say still more about this but, for reasons just explained, we will touch on it now.

It is heart-breaking that many of us are left floundering in bewilderment at scriptures suggesting that aspects of the Christian life might be a hard slog. The sad reality is that self-sacrifice seems incomprehensible to the myriads of brain-washed victims of the era prophesied by 2 Timothy 3:2, 4, when people “will be lovers of self, . . . lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Such spiritually emaciated people have no idea that a world even exists beyond self-infatuation. Even among today’s churched, tragically many of us find ourselves so hopelessly self-obsessed that we can conceive of little reason for living other than feeding our addiction to self.

Using a range of different expressions – denying one’s self, crucifying the flesh, dying to self, and so on – the Bible repeatedly emphasizes that we cannot enter spiritual life without ending our selfish ways.

Matthew 10:39 He who seeks his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 16:25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.

Luke 9:23 He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. . . .”

Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple.

John 12:25 He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

Romans 6:4,6 We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life . . . knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

Romans 8:13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

1 Corinthians 15:31 . . . I die daily.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 . . . because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 . . . You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. . . .

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. . . .

Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

Galatians 6:14 But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Ephesians 4:22 That you put away , as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit

Philippians 3:13 . . . Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before

Colossians 2:11 in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ

Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry

Colossians 3:8-10 But now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth. Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator.

(Emphasis mine.)

It is even at the heart of baptism and repentance. Only by dumping the dead-weight of self can our spirits soar with God. Where selfishness ends godliness begins.

Jesus told of a man who sold everything just to buy a piece of land (Matthew 13:44). If puzzled observers thought he was crazy, it was only because they did not know his secret: the land had buried treasure on it, making it worth far more than everything he had sacrificed for it. So it is for those who pay what others mistakenly think is an exorbitant price to follow Jesus. It is actually the smartest investment anyone could ever make. In words made famous by missionary martyr, Jim Elliot, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Framing it this way appeals even to those riddled with self. Nevertheless, the “treasure” Jesus spoke of might not be obvious in the here and now.

The apostle Paul frankly admitted that unless the Bible’s promises about the nature of life after death are entirely accurate, he and those like him “are of all men most pitiable” (1 Corinthians 15:19). We don’t like that. Who wants whatever makes sacrifices worthwhile to be delayed for an entire lifetime? Who wants to live knowing that for all that time we could have been less “pitiable” had we chosen an easier life and that for all those years, the multitudes who goof off are happier than us? Moreover, it necessitates immense faith to risk absolutely everything not just on the Bible’s promise of an amazing afterlife but on Jesus’ claim that only those who take the narrow road enjoy all the benefits. We’d rather pander to our less spiritual side. We’d prefer to hedge our bets by having an enjoyable here and now so that it would not be such an enormous loss if the Bible turned out to have it slightly wrong. Jesus, however, thought very differently. For him, what is catastrophic about hypocrisy is that hypocrites receive their full reward down here (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16).

Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it is impossible to please God. It then provides as examples of this faith:

Hebrews 11:35-38 . . . Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance . . . Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated . . . wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.

Then, to inspire us to act this way, it urges us to keep “. . . looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame . . .” (Hebrews 12:2).

What was this future reward – the joy “set before him” – that motivated our Lord? Was it roughly equivalent to fame and fortune? Was it remotely like a drug-induced high? No. To the disappointment of the self-obsessed, it was the joy of pleasing the Father – the Love of his life; the One he lived for – and the joy of saving you and me from eternal damnation and filling us with endless joy, and of him being able to delight in our companionship for all eternity. In short: it was love.

So the greatest, most fulfilling motivator is what fired Christ to endure the cross: beautiful, glorious, exquisite love. Love for the wondrously perfect One, the most astonishing, fascinating and adorable Person, who loves us infinitely more than we love ourselves, and has done infinitely more for us than we could ever do. And love for those who mean everything to him – humanity. In the words of the great Apostle:

2 Corinthians 5:13-14 If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us . . . And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves . . . (NIV)

Or, as the New Living Translation puts the middle verse, “Either way, Christ’s love controls us . . .” It was this same apostle who famously wrote, love “bears all things . . . endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Real love is not about having goosebumps and gooey feelings. It’s about passionately caring about others more than one’s own comfort.

Ephesians 5:2 Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God . . .

1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

In a universe where even mountains don’t last, and the entire planet is wearing out, “these three remain: faith, hope [the certainty of future reward] and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13, NIV). For further encouragement about love, I invite you to ponder these Scriptures below:

1 Corinthians 8:1 . . . Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.

Philippians 1:9 This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more . . .

Colossians 3:14 Above all these things, walk in love . . .

1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:16 . . . God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

Realizing just how invaluable love is intensifies the question: how do we find this love and grow in it? We have already mentioned a critical factor: we must avoid confusing love with feelings. If you are starving, what you want is food, not for someone to feel sorry for you. Neither do you want someone to wait until he feels moved. As I have explained elsewhere, many human conditions and attacks from our spiritual enemy (the deceiver) play havoc with our feelings, but just as temptation need not stop us from loving, neither need feelings.

There are two more factors in fostering love that I should share.

The vast number of Scriptures telling us to love God and humanity keep screaming that love is something we must choose to do. God’s Word actually calls love the greatest commandment. If so, idly waiting around, hoping God will zap us with love would be futile. In fact, it would be offensive to the Lord of all. If the King of heaven and earth commands us to do something, dare we reply, “No. You do it”?

Here’s a divine principle that extends far beyond finances: “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. . . .” (Luke 6:38). Expressed another way: he who is faithful in little will be given much.

When we do everything we can to give love, God will do everything we can’t. As we keep on investing every speck of love we can scrounge, more will be divinely deposited in our hearts. The Almighty has set everything in place. The next move is up to us.

The final insight I wish to share is encapsulated in this verse: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19, many versions – in the King James, “him” is rightly in italics, which is the convention it uses to indicate when it has added a word not found in the original Greek or Hebrew). Our love for God grows as we grow in our awareness of how much he loves us. Likewise, our love for those he loves (everyone) is proportional to our understanding of his love for us.

There is no one as lovable as God. Truly, to know him is to love him. So the way to grow in love is to give top priority to knowing him better and better. The more we spend time with him and the more we learn about him by reading his Word, the more our love will grow.

The Story So Far

To what extent does God protect Christians who do everything right? “Totally.” someone might answer. “Not at all,” someone else might reply. And here’s a question for those who think good Christians could suffer: How much and how soon does God compensate those who suffer? We will explore these matters in depth but irrespective of one’s answer to these critical questions, this fact remains: Jesus is worthy. No matter what the cost, the one who suffered stupendously for us deserves our utter devotion. Regardless of whether life is easy or hard, there should be a mental toughness in every Christian; a steely resolve to serve our Lord, no matter what.

Continued: Part 3