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Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps. 1 Peter 2:21
I recently felt an urge to unpack what is really behind this word suffering after a recent discussion with my sister about this. It is one of those words with very negative emotions attached to it that I naturally have avoided. Maybe my maturity level is approaching the place where I can examine it with a more open mind and heart.
When I was young I grew up with the assumption about suffering that it was sort of something that would get you into better favor with God. Having people make fun of you for being religious was somehow something to be proud of and would maybe make you more holy. I remember a discussion I had with a stranger when I was very young who asked me what our church believed. I did not have a very clear idea of the doctrines and I was frightened by his question but at the same time felt obligated to “witness” to him. I mentioned one or two doctrines that I could remember and told him that we believed that a person should suffer for Jesus. To this day I do not know why I said that or what I was thinking but I still remember the incident and the heavy sense of duty that I felt at the time associated with my response. I wonder how much of that is still lurking within me yet today?
As with many things that have gotten turned on their head after close examination of the Word, this idea of suffering needs serious revision in my thinking. These are some questions that I need to explore:
What was involved in the sufferings of Christ?
How was it different from most of our sufferings?
Here are a few thoughts that come to my mind.
He agonized with God over His disciples as well as all the people He sought to minister to. That surely created some kind of stress, pain or suffering within Him in some way.
He never suffered anything for His own mistakes or sins. That is very different from much of our suffering.
He brought about healing by taking onto Himself our sufferings. Maybe this is getting much closer to describing the “example” that He set for us to follow. This is one of the processes that we can often use to help each other heal; we enter into another's emotions with them so that we then can show them how to return to joy. To do this effectively we need to develop and increase our own capacity as well as tap into God's capacity to partially take upon ourself the suffering, the problems, the hangups, the 6 big negative emotions that people get stuck in, and in the Spirit and power of God we come alongside them in their feelings to show them how to rise up, to help them return to the surface from their drowning emotions. We become an example for them to imitate by entering into other's suffering with open hearts just like Jesus did, not for our own sins but for the sins of those we are sent to help rescue. We become co-laborers with Christ in His sufferings which is the very process of implementing into our lives the reality of Redemption.
“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.” (1 Peter 4:1 NIV) Sin in its essence is a state of being desynchronized from God the Source of life. When we learn to suffer the same way Jesus did we become synchronized with the mind of God which puts us into an attitude like Jesus.
There is much more to explore about this but I will visit it at a later time. Your thoughts?
