I can’t help but wonder how Saul/Paul felt after he regained his sight
and Ananias told him about his new job description. “…This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles
and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much
he must suffer for my name.” (Acts
19:15-16 NIV) I’m not sure I’d like the advanced warning on the suffering part.
However, there is one consolation. At least I’d be able to differentiate
between the suffering I brought upon myself by making poor choices and the
suffering that I did for the cause of Christ.
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Some say all suffering is brought on ourselves. Paul tells us to count it all joy when we suffer. So suffering is up to us, as they think. As I understand them, if we feel joy instead of pain when we suffer, then we really are not suffering. If we don’t feel joy then the cause of suffering is our own. That restricts suffering to an emotional perception. And in that regard alone, I can see the truth in their idea.
-----But reality is an untamed beast. It doesn’t tolerate the cages we fashion for it. If my body requires the nutrition of the boiled egg I gave my neighbor, it suffers without regard to the fact I am supremely joyful for my nourished neighbor. Maybe the suffering would be infinitesimal, but if observed on that molecular level, you’d certainly see it. If I continue in that supreme joy of nourishing my neighbors with all my food, eventually the suffering of my body will rise to the higher level of a lingering death by starvation. And the fact that I may have passed in a joyful state does not negate the fact that my body indeed suffered death.
-----Then when I greet the smiling faces in heaven, if there I will have even a momentary ability to remember in any aspect the condition of my matters on earth before I left, differentiation will be enormous. Perfection reaches atomically into every most minute detail, bar not one. Perfection sweeps over the expanse of all, fitting everything into the statement of one word: Prefect. Perfection percolates throughout the between. Imperfection was that on earth. Just being there was suffering; we will know this when we get home.
-----So, in effect, for those who desire Christ and all the glory that is perfection in Him in His place He makes there for us, we suffer for Him in all aspects of our just being here instead. Whether caused by us or someone else or nature or demons, suffering just is. And if by us whether from our doing wrong to or doing right for Him, it all is just suffering. And it all is endured for the hope we have in Him.
-----The difference is in what suffering makes. In God’s perfection He makes good effects even from wrong doings, not so that wrong can be done, but that good will prevail. So, though Peter says, “For what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it you take it patiently...” (I Peter 2:20a) he is not rhetorically saying there is no effect in suffering for doing wrong, nor any joy there; he is rhetorically saying it has no credit. The difference is that effect produces growth; credit rewards it.
-----Acknowledgement through credit is not a superfluous thing. Taken appropriately in the Lord, it causes growth as well. In this there is purpose for differentiating between suffering caused myself and suffering as a result of serving Him. Beyond it, advantage from suffering comes through joyful response regardless of distinction.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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