Believing & Suffering

"For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me." Philippians 1:29-30 NASB

You will remember that earlier I wrote that this chapter gives us three areas of conflict in the heart and life of Paul. As he begins to thank these loved ones for their love and participation in his ministry, he unfolds his heart to them in a rare way. It is a very open and honest "heart" look into Paul. He gives them his heart and his way of thinking.

The first conflict was with people in the church who thought that by rivalry in preaching they would cause him to be harmed and alarmed. Instead, he only praised God that the gospel was being preached, whatever the motive. Then we saw that he had an inward battle about his own life here - whether to remain for the sake of the gospel, or to go home with the Lord. Now the third conflict of understanding -  it is a privilege to believe and to suffer in Christ without fear.

We dealt with the fear part in the previous post, so now I want to work with the realities of the Christian life. These two realities are belief (faith, trust in God) and suffering. We would like to be able to eliminate suffering with our faith. These two seem at odds, yet, the Holy Spirit let's us know that to have one is also to have the other. We are given the privilege of believing or having faith and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ in all areas of our being, and in that faith we find we do suffer. The types of suffering in Christ are broad, but we all experience them.

This is not the suffering we do because of our own foolishness or sin. But suffering because we have named the name of Jesus and have chosen the way of faith and the walk of faith in life. That means we do not live our lives like the world. We do not trust the world and we do not consider our circumstances as the world does. Our politics are not American ones, but Kingdom centered. We think differently, act differently, talk differently and respond differently. The world around us does not like this response to life and will eventually let us know that in ways of suffering.

These two things - belief and suffering - are matters of conflict. So we see that Paul also experienced both and as such was inwardly conflicted about them. Yet - it was to be considered a gift, an automatic blessing as the result of relationship with such a Savior. So we need not be confused when suffering occurs as a direct response to our faith. It is not a surprise - it is a privilege.