19. Pilgrimage to Paradise: The Discipline of Suffering

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The media seldom reports on the persecution of Christians around the world. If we search the internet for information on the subject we come up with a number of organizations that speak for those who, for the most part, are not able to speak for themselves. The Bible League Canada estimates that there are as many as 100 million Christians suffering persecution. Open Doors USA says that 1 in 9 believers experience some form of persecution. One site posts that every day some 300 people are killed for their faith in Jesus. Perhaps the best known agency, The Voice of the Martyrs, offers a variety of ways by which those of us who know little of being persecuted for our beliefs, can help those in places where being a Christian is a death sentence.

The pilgrims of Peter's day understood persecution in a way that few of us can. In 1 Peter 4:12 to 19, Peter encourages them to rejoice in their suffering. What an odd thing to say!

"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come upon you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ; you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with God's household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And 'If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?' So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good."

I was puzzled by the middle section of this passage and was interested to discover this explanation from the Zondervan Study Bible: "4:17 judgment. Here refers to the act of judging, not to condemnation. Suffering for Christ is a purifying judgment of God’s people because those who are truly believers will suffer for their faith rather than for their sin, and therefore they will be found to belong to God. Those unwilling to stand with Christ when tested by suffering belong to 'those who do not obey the gospel of God,' who will be both judged and condemned. God’s household. Greek 'house of God'; it referred to the temple in the OT, but now Christians collectively are his temple (2:4-5)." 

For those of us who live in the western world, whose experience with real persecution is minimal, we find it difficult to conceive of what it means to live as the followers of the way in Peter's day had to live. We can't imagine  others: "…tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawn in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and ill-treated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground." (Hebrews 11:35-38).

How did they do it? How did they not renounce their faith in the face of such difficulty? How could they take joy in their suffering? To be able to rejoice in such a terrible part of life's journey rests on one vital truth: "…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:1-3). 

Fix your eyes on Jesus.

The passage goes on to remind us that we are to endure discipline because it comes from God's hand for our good to produce righteousness and peace. The discipline, and our response to it, is evidence of our faith—or lack thereof. We hesitate to consider persecution as part of God's discipline but it cannot be denied. Nor can we imagine that we in the west will escape it. Hardship will be part of the process that will purify His church everywhere.

"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all." (Hebrews 12:7, 8)

How do those suffering persecution embrace joy in that part of the pilgrimage to Paradise? Jesus looked, not at the suffering itself, but toward the end of His journey and the glory that awaited Him. He could experience joy because of what was to come afterward. So those persecuted, these pilgrims of Peter's day were directed to do the same—look to Jesus, look as Jesus looked, look to the end of the journey, the affirmation of God's "well done" and the glory that awaited them in His presence.

Whatever form discipline may take in our pilgrimage through life, the advice is the same. Endure it, as evidence of the hand of a loving Father at work in our lives and of belonging to His family. Embrace it as being part of the privilege of being like Jesus and part of the process of becoming all that He intended us to be. Encapsulate it as being only a brief moment in time that will soon be dissolved by the glory of His presence in eternity.

But, above all, keep your eyes on Jesus.