#14 Suffering: the Ugly Side of Faith (2 of 3)

Suffering by Association
2) help others do the works of faith

photo credit: Dean Williams 2012

Christians of faith undergo suffering (pathēma, hardship, pain) because we share a connection to three Persons.

The first is to the Holy Spirit, who operates within the churches [See blog #14 Suffering: the Ugly Side of Faith (1 of 3)].

The second is due to our relationship with Christ. We are meant to share in his sufferings now that we might rejoice in his glory later:

·        “…rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:13). 

·        …rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s pathēma hardship or pain, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 

This type of suffering relates to the fiery trials visited upon the soul. We are reproached, criticized, blamed, rebuked, and censured in Christ’s name. We undergo and endure mental/emotional suffering that must come because we are Christ’s own (1 Peter 4:12-17). 

As the soul is baptized by fire, the ego is confronted with a choice—much like the choice Adam and Eve were confronted with in the Garden—to choose either 1) God’s way, or 2) the self’s. 

If the distressed soul commits itself to God, then it enters into a shared victory with Christ in a different Garden, “…yet not my will, but yours be done” (1 Peter 4:19; Luke 22:42 NIV). 

These sufferings help us to lose our soul-life in order to save it (Mark 8:35).

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Scripture quotations from New International Version (NIV); otherwise, Scriptures from the King James Version of the bible. Greek definitions from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible and Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words.