15 New Testament Words of Life by Nijay K. Gupta

Author:Nijay K. Gupta [Gupta, Nijay K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Published: 2022-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

Sharing in the Sufferings of Christ

Paul was rotting in prison, so to speak, while he was trying to console and cheer up the Philippians in the midst of their discouragement. But he had learned a secret. Suffering does not necessarily mean God has abandoned you. In fact, it can play a role in drawing the believer closer to God. To know the God of all power, the one who conquered death, is to know Christ by sharing in his sufferings and by becoming like him in his death (Phil 3:10). Paul learned that Christ didn’t suffer so we wouldn’t have to suffer; no, suffering will continue to be a reality in a broken world waiting for full redemption. But suffering can be relocated, as it were, into the safe and secure life of Christ. If we choose to combine our affliction-filled lives with the One who was afflicted for us, we can share his resurrection resources as well.

This becomes not a mystical paradigm of religious spirituality, but a whole way of life; a manner of sharing in the troubled lives of others to share their troubles. In fact, Paul tells the Philippians precisely this when he thanks them for sending him gifts in his imprisonment: “It was kind of you to share my distress” (4:14). We know the Philippian church had recently gone through a time of poverty, so when Paul says they shared his needs and troubles, this means they gave up resources at a personal cost.

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