A COMMENDABLE SUFFERING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.”

1 Peter 2:19-22

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

If I did a poll of 1,000 people, asking them to give me the top ten things they would like most at that moment, and I can almost guarantee you that there wouldn’t be one percent (or maybe even just one) who would say that they would like to suffer.

Am I right? What do you think?

To underscore my point, think about any of the number of stores a person might go to and purchase items. There really isn’t one that advertises suffering as their number one offering. Even personal fitness clubs, who can offer up some level of pain for those who decide to get their bodies in shape, don’t go out of their way to promote it in order for people to buy memberships.

Indeed, suffering isn’t something that the people of the world would look forward to or necessarily endorse as something positive but as we see in so many instances, the Word of God often takes a stance that the world would see as counterintuitive. This matter is no different as we turn to today’s scripture passage, verses 19 through 22, from Peter’s first letter to “God’s elect”, the “exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1):

For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.” 1 Peter 2:19-22

It’s important to remember that being a Christian in the first century A.D. wasn’t easy. For after the risen Jesus ascended to Heaven to sit at His Father God’s right hand and the Holy Spirit descended on his chosen disciples in Jerusalem, empowering them to go forth for the cause of the Gospel, persecution was a constant companion. This persecution brought great suffering to Christians who, like Jesus, had done no wrong. Some even paid the ultimate sacrifice, being martyred for their professed belief and allegiance to Christ.

It was this suffering that the Lord calls “commendable” in His word, a suffering that was produced by unjust treatment only because of the good a believer did out of their consciousness of God. Additionally, the suffering was to be seen as admirable and praiseworthy because the Christ follower was reciprocating what He had done for them.

In other words, Christ suffered unjustly for doing good to save every Christian and when they in turn suffer for His name and sake, then they are experiencing commendable suffering.

Today, believers around the world still face danger and the threat of dying in many places, not because of any wrong they have committed but solely because of their belief in Jesus. It’s a peril that shouldn’t surprise any Christian because the Bible lets us know to expect it, particularly in this seventeenth verse of Romans, chapter 8, where we are reminded:

Now if we are children (children of God through our belief in Jesus), then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. Romans 8:17

After His commendable suffering to bring us salvation, Jesus was brought into glory, into the presence of His Father and ours. This same progression comes to every single Jesus believer as well. For although this life will take us through the valley of suffering ourselves, we have the sure promise of victory over death and the grave because of the redeeming work that Jesus has done, a victory that one day will allow to share in His glory.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.