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Suffering

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No one likes to talk about suffering, and this probably wasn't the first message you clicked. But it is important for you to know what the Bible says about suffering as a Christian. There is so much foolish talk out there that Christian suffering includes sickness. I won't leave you hanging until the end -- suffering as a Christian has nothing to do with being sick. Yes, sickness is suffering, but you don't have to be a Christian to suffer that way. Plenty of sinners suffer sickness and receive no spiritual benefit from it. Being persecuted for your faith is the suffering referred to in the New Testament. You are redeemed from suffering from sickness, but you are not redeemed from suffering persecution.

Suffering for the sake of the gospel is a good thing, not a bad thing. Paul's desire was, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death" (Philippians 3:10). He warned Timothy, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12). These verses are probably not on your refrigerator, but they are just as true as the ones we all like.



1 Peter 2:19-20:

For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
For what glory is it, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, that is acceptable with God.

There are many verses in the Bible about suffering, but not a single one of them says that you have to suffer sickness, or even implies it. There are sufferings in this world because Satan rules over unsaved men. They act like Satan, who is out to get you. Read Paul's lists of sufferings and you'll see that sickness is notably absent. (See the answer to the objection on Paul's thorn in the flesh if you think his thorn was an illness.)

Here are Paul's "sufferings":

Stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchings, fastings -- 2 Cor 6:5
In abundant labors, in stripes above measure, in prisons more often, in deaths often, beaten 39 times on five different occasions, beaten with rods three times, stoned once, shipwrecked three times, spending a day and a night in the water, on frequent trips, in danger from waters, robbers, his own countrymen, the heathen, in perils in the city and the wilderness, in the ocean and among bogus brethren, in weariness and painfulness, watching often, hungering, thirsting, fasting, being in cold and nakedness. -- 2 Cor 11:23-27


You won't find illnesses on this list, although you'll find just about everything else. (If you think painfulness is where you'll find illness, you haven't checked the word in a concordance. You may discover this word's meaning in the reply to the Paul's Thorn objection mentioned above.)

Yes, you will suffer in this world. Jesus even asked how long he had to suffer his own disciples! Jesus suffered many persecutions, and the servant is not above his master. However, like Paul in one of the verses quoted above, you are to share in Christ's sufferings, not in sufferings that Christ did not suffer. Jesus never suffered sickness until his atonement, when he suffered our sicknesses. You could not possibly share in Christ's atoning sufferings for mankind. The only one of Christ's sufferings that you could suffer is persecution.


See also:

Objection: All Christians are clearly told that they will suffer in this life
Objection: God sometimes heals you only after he has let you suffer a while (1 Peter 5:10)
Objection: We need to fulfill what is left of Christ's sufferings in the earth (Col 1:24)

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