“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-11 ESV)
We live in a fallen world and in flesh bodies, so, no matter who we are, we are going to go through some type of suffering in our lives. Some people will have great suffering while others will have much less, but we will all suffer in one way or another as long as we live on this earth and in these bodies. And then if we are followers of Jesus Christ who are doing his will and purpose for our lives, and so we are sharing the truth of the gospel with the people of this world, we will also face persecution and rejection, and not just from the ungodly world, but from worldly professers of faith in Jesus Christ, too.
Now the persecution we face may be physical for some people, including having our property confiscated, or being arrested, imprisoned, and/or beaten severely, and/or being put to death by our enemies. While others of us, at least for today, mainly are facing verbal and emotional and spiritual persecution in the way of words spoken to us or about us, and in the way of being forsaken, forgotten, cast aside, abandoned, rejected, falsely accused of wrongdoing, and treated as though we are dirt underneath other people’s feet for them to trample on. Or some people may be facing both.
Paul and Timothy, in this context, were being persecuted severely. I don’t know about Timothy, but I know that Paul suffered much persecution after he accepted the Lord’s call upon his life, and mostly it came from the same people who mistreated and put Jesus to death, so mainly the Jews who rejected Jesus as the Christ, their Messiah. He was hounded continually, and falsely accused of wrongdoing, and falsely imprisoned and beaten and left for dead, so he suffered much for his testimony for Jesus Christ and for the spreading of the true message of the gospel of our salvation.
And there are Christians throughout the world today who are suffering in many of the same ways as did Paul and the other apostles. And I am certain that many people today who are following Jesus throughout the world are being afflicted so severely that they are despairing of life, too, and they are feeling that they have received the sentence of death. And many Christians in the world are being put to death because of their testimonies for Jesus Christ and because of their witness for his gospel. In America we have not yet faced that severe of persecution, but it is most certainly coming.
But what did Paul say here? He said that all that they suffered for the sake of the name of Jesus, and for the sake of his gospel message, was to make them rely not on themselves, but on God who raises the dead. Amen! And that is one of the purposes of our suffering, so that we turn to the Lord and we do rely on him and not on ourselves, but also so we grow to maturity in Christ and we humble ourselves and we submit to Christ’s Lordship over our lives, and so we learn obedience, and we develop perseverance in our walks of faith and in obedience to our Lord and to his commandments.
And the deliverance from suffering that our Lord provides is not always physical deliverance from our circumstances, but it is deliverance from the impact of our suffering on our lives which might lead us to turn against the Lord and to reject him and his ways because of what we are suffering. So, it is him carrying us through our difficulties, and him providing us with the strength and endurance that we need to keep going even when we don’t feel up to keep going, and even when we feel like retreating, instead. He will be our strength and our help in the tough times if we will lean on his strength.
And this is one of the reasons why we need to be able to share our burdens with other Christians, and not just bottle them up inside of us, because we need encouragement, and we need people to be praying for us so that we do not fail, and so that we do not give up the fight, and so that we do not let our enemy defeat us in the battle. We need the body of Christ praying for us so that we have wisdom to respond to our circumstances and to our persecutors in the right way, and not the wrong way. And we need others to pray for us to have the right words to say when confronted by our enemies.
[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:16-25,34-39; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
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