The Fellowship of His Sufferings

When you first became a Christian, what did you expect your life would look like?

Did you think you’d always be happy and content, constantly singing God’s praises from a heart overflowing with joy? Were you surprised to find that all your problems had not vanished? Did you feel angry or confused that suffering was not excluded from your new life with Jesus?

Sometimes, life does not make sense to us. If we’re honest, we’d rather have ease, comfort, and a trouble-free life than the suffering that God allows us to experience. We don’t understand God’s purposes, and so we often complain or rebel.

One of the wisest Christians ever to live—the apostle Paul—knew this truth well. Paul was aware of our human tendency to be content with comfort when God wants to give us joy. He knew that God wants more for us.

That’s why Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (Philippians 3:10-11, NLT). To know Jesus fully, we need to know Christ in his suffering as well as in his death.

These were not empty words for Paul. The apostle was constantly mistreated, persecuted, and abused. It would have been easy for Paul to complain or protest. But instead of becoming bitter over his sufferings, he sought to use them for God’s glory.

We know that in his short life on earth, Jesus too was mistreated, persecuted, and abused. What was he like in his suffering? How did Christ react when things didn’t go his way? As Michael Cassidy puts it in Deep Waters of the Disciple, Jesus was “Patient, brave, forgiving, loving, considerate, prayerful, controlled, [and] compassionate.”

This was the God that Paul wanted to know more. Michael writes that “Instead of simply resolving to know [Jesus] and the power of his resurrection, Paul’s ambition therefore went further, as indeed must ours.” Paul wanted to know Jesus fully. He wanted to become like Christ, even if that meant suffering alongside Jesus.

For those of us who also wish to be like Christ, we must take a similar road. There are no shortcuts to spiritual growth. We too must join Jesus in the fellowship of his suffering.

Our hearts are still constantly drawn to the things of this earth. Even though we are saved, our hearts remain full of selfishness and sin. When suffering arrives, we have a unique opportunity for transformation. Michael lovingly points out that “God has taken us as we are, spoiled and tatty in a broken world. He is working us into another vessel, another kind of person, as it seems good to him. Our problems and trials thus become his ally in the process.”

The Apostle Peter puts it another way: “There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT).

If this is true, then Paul wasn’t so crazy by wanting to join Christ in the fellowship of his suffering.

Pain is unavoidable. In this broken world, we know that suffering will come our way. What will we do when it comes? Will we choose to receive it as an enemy to our comfort, to our ease, to the lives we want? Or will we choose to receive suffering like Paul? Will we join Jesus in the fellowship of his sufferings?

If we do, even the worst things that happen to us, even the most gut-wrenching pain we feel will be used by God to recreate us into men and women who truly reflect his image, shining God’s light throughout the world.

Are you a Christian who is content with comfort? Do you know that God wants more for you? He wants you to know Jesus Christ fully and to know Jesus fully, we need to know Christ in his suffering as well as in his death. Will you join Jesus in the fellowship of his sufferings?

This blog is based on the book Deep Waters of the Disciple by Michael Cassidy.

Get your copy of  Deep Waters of the Disciple on Amazon or from Oasis International Distribution partners in Africa.