Suffering For A Good Reason
As Christians, we need to be ready to suffer for the sake of Jesus. Sometimes unbelievers become bitter when they see someone turning to Christ. They may be jealous of the happiness that believers feel. They may feel threatened because they realise that they need to be forgiven, too, but don’t know how to as for help.
Suffering is joyful if we are suffering because of our faith. A pure Christian life of love and kindness produces a clear conscience that can help us bear much trouble.
Suffering as a Christian
1 Peter 4: 12-19
Beloved, do not be surprised by the fiery trial among you, taking place to test you, as though some strange thing was happening to you; but since you partake in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, so that also at the unveiling of His glory, you may rejoice with great happiness.
If you are reviled in the name of Christ, blessed are you, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On the one hand, He is blasphemed, but on the other, He is glorified.
For let not any one of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as a meddler in other people’s affairs; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be put to shame, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who are disobedient to the gospel of God?
And “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the godless and the sinner appear?”
Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.
