We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

suffering

The Call to Suffer

Paul tells us that in all our relations, we are to “have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had” (Phil 2:5). Though he was “in very nature God,” he didn’t cling to this status. Rather, for our sake he set aside his divine prerogatives, took on the nature of a servant and “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6-8).

Along similar lines, Peter encourages us to be willing to suffer injustice out of “reverent fear of God,” for “it is commendable if you bear up under the pain of unjust suffering because you are conscious of God (1 Pet 2:18-19). He then adds, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (vs. 21). When people “hurled their insults at him,” Peter continues, “he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.” Instead, Peter says, “he entrusted himself to him who judges justly (vs. 23).

This is the example, Peter says, we are to follow, and it precludes picking up the sword even though one might be justified, by normal worldly standards, for doing so.

Paul teaches the same thing when he tells Christians to never “repay anyone evil for evil” (Rom 12:17) and to never “take revenge … but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” Rom 12:18). Knowing that God alone has the right to pass judgment on people, and remaining confident that God will do this in his own time and by his own means, kingdom people are commanded and empowered to refrain from ever executing judgment on their own.

This doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for kingdom people to enjoy ruminating about the future judgment of their enemies. Such an attitude reflects hostility in the heart that has no place in the life of a kingdom person. Our attitude toward our enemies is rather to be that of Jesus who with his last dying breath prayed that his Father would forgive his persecutors (Lk 23:34).

Paul and Peter are simply pointing out that kingdom people are to be confident that, if an enemy needs to be punished, God will do it in due time. We are to relinquish all judgment to God and self-sacrificially love those who treat our loved ones or us unjustly.

Peter returns to the example of Christ in the next chapter of his epistle when he encourages people who are facing persecution to “revere Christ as Lord” in “their hearts” by responding to their persecutors with “gentleness and respect.” Following the example of Christ who “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring [them] to God (1 Pet 3:15), followers of Jesus are to maintain a gentle, loving attitude so that “those who speak maliciously against [their] good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (vs 16).

If ever one would be justified in using violence to protect oneself, it’s when they’re being persecuted for doing good. Yet followers of Jesus are to do what Jesus did in these circumstances. We’re to choose to suffer on behalf of the persecutor instead of retaliating.

The example of Jesus’ willingness to suffer rather than violently resist enemies is not just relevant to people facing possible martyrdom. Instead, it is to characterize our entire life. “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did (1 Jn 2:6). As “Jesus laid down his life for us,” John wrote, “we ought to lay down our lives for one another (1 Jn 3:16). There may be times when we are called to do this literally, but this loving, sacrificial attitude is supposed to permeate every aspect of our life.

Hence, as stated in the video yesterday, the justice of the kingdom is manifest when we reflect this sacrificial character of God.

Photo credit: ashley rose, via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-ND

Related Reading

Responding in Love

The world is full of conflict where evil begets more evil. Violence produces more violence. Arguments produce more arguments. It’s a tit-for-tat world. What is God’s strategy for stopping this conflict? How does God respond to evil, and how does God call us to respond? This strategy might even come in handy during heated conversations…

The Kingdom of God (Part 2)

The Church is called to be nothing less than “the body of Christ,” a sort of corporate extension of Jesus’ incarnate body. We are called to replicate who Jesus was by manifesting who Jesus is. And this is how we expand the dome in which God is king—the Kingdom of God. By definition, therefore, the…

Living With a Kingdom Consciousness

What Is the Kingdom of God? I want to begin by asking, “What is the kingdom of God?” This may seem like a rather obvious question. We all know what the Kingdom of God is, right? But see, this is precisely the problem. It’s why (I shall argue) the Kingdom of God is largely absent…

Doing the Kingdom, Not Voting It In

Our central job is not to solve the world’s problems. Our job is to draw our entire life from Christ and manifest that life to others. Nothing could be simpler—and nothing could be more challenging. Perhaps this partly explains why we have allowed ourselves to be so thoroughly co-opted by the world. It’s hard to…

Sermon Clip: How Christians Should Respond to Ferguson

In this clip from this weeks sermon, Greg Boyd comments on how Christians should respond to the events in Ferguson St. Louis and how that response should always be in love and to help heal both sides. The full sermon is here: http://whchurch.org/sermons-media/sermon/heart-smart-qa

Following Jesus as You

Rachel Held Evans posted an insightful blog today (it was actually a repost from 2011) engaging the problem of discouragement as we encounter various ideals of what it means to be a Christian versus the reality and limitations of our particular lives. I think we all struggle with this at one time or another. Rather…