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Sanctification - Suffering
Godly sufferings that God allows
Was all of Paul's sufferings due to preaching the Mystery? No!
Are the sufferings you endure from other Christians, etc. comparable to what Paul endured? Yes!
Are the sufferings you endure from sharing the Grace of God comparable to what Paul endured? Yes!
Why do they seem different? Because Paul's job was to go out to preach a new message of Grace during a time when Satan could supernaturally attack him. God magnified Paul's office which brought increased scrutiny and persecution. When grace believer's today get really bold and press the issue of God's Grace inside of Satan's world, just like our Apostle Paul so did, then we too would receive increased sufferings just like Paul did. Since Paul's ministry and testimony for Christ was so great, so was his sufferings. The more we evangelize or preach or teach the sound doctrines of God's Grace, so too will be our sufferings.
In Acts 9:16, the Lord made it clear that our Apostle would suffer greatly for Him: "For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake."
In addition to sufferings for Christ, Paul also informs us that some of those sufferings were to keep him humble, for he had heard unspeakable words inside the third heaven [2 Corinthians 12:1-4]
The abundant sufferings Paul experienced were for Christ's sake, this was specifically because of his unique and special apostleship, which Jesus gave him on the Damascus road in Acts 9. We learn from Paul that sufferings come in 3 ways:
Living in a fallen creation
Carefully note that Paul says that not only the outside world suffers because of the curse brought on by Adam's sin, but also we believers who are in Christ suffer from this same curse! For the scope of this fallen creation suffering, Paul includes himself, Timothy, and other faithful men of God who get sick and die just like anyone today will do. This fallen creation curse as a result of Adam's sin results in sickness and death over all mankind and it will continue until the physical Kingdom of God and Heaven are set up on earth (which expand into the heavenlies).
Failure to apply sound Pauline grace doctrine into the details of life
Paul says in Galatians 5: to "Walk in the Spirit".
If we continue to walk in the flesh, then there is death. So we must decide whether nor not we wish to walk in the flesh of carnal lasciviousness or the flesh of religious legalism. These will lead to trouble in our life, particularly with God, specifically with the Angels which observe us, and may ruin our witness and reward in heaven! We don't lose salvation from waling in the flesh, but we certainly may lose reward!
God's spiritual law of sowing and reaping is in effect on whatever we sow, for we shall reap the same and more later if our efforts are done in walking in the flesh!
When we sow to the Spirit, e.g., Pauline grace, we then reap that blessed grace and abundant life that God provides to us. However, once we sow to the flesh, then we shall reap corruption, destruction, death.
Paul made decisions in his life that were not the wisest to do, like insisting to go back to Jerusalem in the book of Acts when God told him to go far hence to the gentile lands to preach. And because of his willfulness to go back there, he suffered for it, as is recorded in Acts 20:22-23:
In like manner we too shall recognize that those particular afflictions would not have happened to Paul if he would have decided to go far hence to the gentiles like the Lord Jesus commanded him. But Paul in his sanctification had a free will to choose how and when things he would do; yet God worked together with Paul, since Paul loved God, therefore all things still worked our for God's glory. In like manner, we too should recognize that we also have sanctification decisions to make in our actions, yet if we too love God, then just like in Paul's case, all things will work out for God's glory. Therefore, we should follow that pattern of Paul.
A special note on relationships which some of us we may have experienced. Many relationships that we were involved in our lives in the past were ungodly and unequally yoked relationships, and we shall suffer as a result of these. But that suffering is the "fruit" of our unwise decisions. This theme can be applied to our Christian walk in the Spirit, if we choose to walk in the flesh, or make decisions that do not pattern after the sound grace doctrines which our Lord Jesus spoke to Paul to follow, then we shall suffer the fruit of our unwise decisions. But don't worry to greatly, for some of our unwise decisions God may be able to work them for good if we choose to start listening to his words to us which He spoke to our apostle Paul! God had Paul write in Romans 5:3-4, which demonstrate that we progress from tribulations to patience to experience to hope.
And in 2 Corinthians 4:17, God had Paul write that these light afflictions work for our far more eternal weight of glory:
However Paul still suffered some unnecessary sufferings because of unwise decisions. This also will happen to us when we make unwise decisions. However, failure to of apply Pauline sound doctrine of grace will also affects both lost and saved among us in the same manner that the cursed creation affects all living in a fallen world.
Be a faithful Pauline grace believer
The third way that suffering arrives at our doorstep, and a particular suffering that will only affect faithful Pauline grace believers, is found in 2 Timothy 3:10-12:
2 Timothy 3:10-12 is talking about the sufferings that made up most of Paul's ministry. Paul was suffering due to the doctrine which God spoke to him through Jesus Christ in revelations. This suffering caused all manner of sufferings for Paul to suffer, including longsuffering, love, patience, persecutions, afflictions, sicknesses. However, his longsuffering was a direct result of him being faithful as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the same suffering that we all should ready and willing to partake of for Christ as we too are ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the most paramount things we need to learn and have a proper attitude for in order to experience such sufferings of doctrines is be not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ and God's Grace nor ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. We not only believe on Christ, but we also suffer for Christ's sake and with Christ in grace and sound doctrines of grace. These are outlined and recorded for our learning on 2 Timothy 1:8 and Philemon 1:29-30.
These are the sufferings that we should be experiencing as godly grace believers. When we are also faithful as Paul and other apostles after him, then we shall partake in the same heavenly reward that Paul will partake of in Christ the crown of Righteousness and anything else the Lord shall give us in our inheritance with Him.
2 Corinthians - Suffering, Tributation, God's Comfort
When we contemplate attentively to Paul's voice and his intense suffering as an apostle for all believers' sake, we can feel his deep pastoral concern as a founding father to believers to whom he wrote to. His urgent appeal is grounded in Scripture, his earnest invitations to believers to participate in the story of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A survey of 2 Corinthians regarding Paul's sufferings and tribulations and God's comfort is most manifest in the opening thanksgiving introduction which Paul writes to these believers. The theme of suffering and comfort will never be far from Paul's concerns for his local Corinthian believers, but also due to his prominent apostolic calling from the resurrected Lord. It should come to no surprise that this thanksgiving benediction and the main thrust of the letters depiction of sufferings and tribulations and God's comfort for Paul's followers is also directly to all believers throughout all ages, for the Lord knows them whom He has called into the Body of Christ. This introducing theme of sufferings and tribulations and God's comfort sets the tone for the remainder of the entire epistle. Its strategic location at the beginning strongly heeds the importance and dominance of this theme, but also sets the tone for Paul's argument throughout this epistle. The content of this thanksgiving theme parallels Jewish Hebrew covenant traditions of thanksgiving to God in the Old Testament. This thanksgiving theme is not merely an act of remembrance of past events, but also a call to present our bodies as a living sacrifice at this present time. This letter exhorts us to act today in edification and life long sanctification, it provides a hope for the future anticipation of the fulfillment of God's promises and His inheritance in the saints
Key theme of 2 Corinthians 1
The key theme of the first chapter of 2 Corinthians is 1) suffering, 2) comfort, 3) life and death, 4) deliverance, 5) the interwoven accord between Paul and Christ, between Paul and believers and Christ. This interwoven accord can be seen in God who comforts Paul through Christ which builds up Paul then to be equipped in order to comfort the believers, and for those believers to partnership with him by interceding and praying for him.
The sufferings of the Lord Jesus in Paul's sufferings
Paul's thanksgiving theme and prayers concerning his sufferings are established in and directed by the gospel of Christ which the Lord revealed to Paul. Paul affirms that he experiences the reality of sufferings and comfort in abundance from God. Paul proves that his sufferings are not meaningless for they are a direct confirmation of his apostolic Jew and Gentile mission in proclaiming the gospel of God's grace. Paul is called by Christ to suffer many things - Acts 9:16: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. The story of the suffering Messiah unites Paul with Christ and Paul with his followers and believers and Christ with all believers. Paul's suffering, comfort, and deliverance is that which certifies his apostolic calling and ministry.
The theme of suffering which are introduced in 2 Corinthians within this thanksgiving benediction is further expounded and expanded in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, 4:7-12, 6:1-11, 11:23-12:10, and finalized in 13:4: For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. The suffering themes of 2 Corinthians is too strong to be ignored as it forms the unity between the sufferings of the Lord Jesus in Paul's sufferings and the ultimate sufferings of all grace believers who pattern themselves after the Lord's chosen apostle.
More about Godly Bible suffering and persecution and rewards for suffering at AbbaFather under 'Sanctification' Abba Father - Thy Will Be Done
Godly sufferings that God allows
Was all of Paul's sufferings due to preaching the Mystery? No!
Are the sufferings you endure from other Christians, etc. comparable to what Paul endured? Yes!
Are the sufferings you endure from sharing the Grace of God comparable to what Paul endured? Yes!
Why do they seem different? Because Paul's job was to go out to preach a new message of Grace during a time when Satan could supernaturally attack him. God magnified Paul's office which brought increased scrutiny and persecution. When grace believer's today get really bold and press the issue of God's Grace inside of Satan's world, just like our Apostle Paul so did, then we too would receive increased sufferings just like Paul did. Since Paul's ministry and testimony for Christ was so great, so was his sufferings. The more we evangelize or preach or teach the sound doctrines of God's Grace, so too will be our sufferings.
In Acts 9:16, the Lord made it clear that our Apostle would suffer greatly for Him: "For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake."
In addition to sufferings for Christ, Paul also informs us that some of those sufferings were to keep him humble, for he had heard unspeakable words inside the third heaven [2 Corinthians 12:1-4]
II Corinthians 12:2: I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knowethsuch an one caught up to the third heaven.
II Corinthians 12:3: And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth
The abundant sufferings Paul experienced were for Christ's sake, this was specifically because of his unique and special apostleship, which Jesus gave him on the Damascus road in Acts 9. We learn from Paul that sufferings come in 3 ways:
Living in a fallen creation
Carefully note that Paul says that not only the outside world suffers because of the curse brought on by Adam's sin, but also we believers who are in Christ suffer from this same curse! For the scope of this fallen creation suffering, Paul includes himself, Timothy, and other faithful men of God who get sick and die just like anyone today will do. This fallen creation curse as a result of Adam's sin results in sickness and death over all mankind and it will continue until the physical Kingdom of God and Heaven are set up on earth (which expand into the heavenlies).
Failure to apply sound Pauline grace doctrine into the details of life
Paul says in Galatians 5: to "Walk in the Spirit".
If we continue to walk in the flesh, then there is death. So we must decide whether nor not we wish to walk in the flesh of carnal lasciviousness or the flesh of religious legalism. These will lead to trouble in our life, particularly with God, specifically with the Angels which observe us, and may ruin our witness and reward in heaven! We don't lose salvation from waling in the flesh, but we certainly may lose reward!
God's spiritual law of sowing and reaping is in effect on whatever we sow, for we shall reap the same and more later if our efforts are done in walking in the flesh!
When we sow to the Spirit, e.g., Pauline grace, we then reap that blessed grace and abundant life that God provides to us. However, once we sow to the flesh, then we shall reap corruption, destruction, death.
Paul made decisions in his life that were not the wisest to do, like insisting to go back to Jerusalem in the book of Acts when God told him to go far hence to the gentile lands to preach. And because of his willfulness to go back there, he suffered for it, as is recorded in Acts 20:22-23:
In like manner we too shall recognize that those particular afflictions would not have happened to Paul if he would have decided to go far hence to the gentiles like the Lord Jesus commanded him. But Paul in his sanctification had a free will to choose how and when things he would do; yet God worked together with Paul, since Paul loved God, therefore all things still worked our for God's glory. In like manner, we too should recognize that we also have sanctification decisions to make in our actions, yet if we too love God, then just like in Paul's case, all things will work out for God's glory. Therefore, we should follow that pattern of Paul.
A special note on relationships which some of us we may have experienced. Many relationships that we were involved in our lives in the past were ungodly and unequally yoked relationships, and we shall suffer as a result of these. But that suffering is the "fruit" of our unwise decisions. This theme can be applied to our Christian walk in the Spirit, if we choose to walk in the flesh, or make decisions that do not pattern after the sound grace doctrines which our Lord Jesus spoke to Paul to follow, then we shall suffer the fruit of our unwise decisions. But don't worry to greatly, for some of our unwise decisions God may be able to work them for good if we choose to start listening to his words to us which He spoke to our apostle Paul! God had Paul write in Romans 5:3-4, which demonstrate that we progress from tribulations to patience to experience to hope.
And in 2 Corinthians 4:17, God had Paul write that these light afflictions work for our far more eternal weight of glory:
However Paul still suffered some unnecessary sufferings because of unwise decisions. This also will happen to us when we make unwise decisions. However, failure to of apply Pauline sound doctrine of grace will also affects both lost and saved among us in the same manner that the cursed creation affects all living in a fallen world.
Be a faithful Pauline grace believer
The third way that suffering arrives at our doorstep, and a particular suffering that will only affect faithful Pauline grace believers, is found in 2 Timothy 3:10-12:
2 Timothy 3:10-12 is talking about the sufferings that made up most of Paul's ministry. Paul was suffering due to the doctrine which God spoke to him through Jesus Christ in revelations. This suffering caused all manner of sufferings for Paul to suffer, including longsuffering, love, patience, persecutions, afflictions, sicknesses. However, his longsuffering was a direct result of him being faithful as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the same suffering that we all should ready and willing to partake of for Christ as we too are ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the most paramount things we need to learn and have a proper attitude for in order to experience such sufferings of doctrines is be not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ and God's Grace nor ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. We not only believe on Christ, but we also suffer for Christ's sake and with Christ in grace and sound doctrines of grace. These are outlined and recorded for our learning on 2 Timothy 1:8 and Philemon 1:29-30.
These are the sufferings that we should be experiencing as godly grace believers. When we are also faithful as Paul and other apostles after him, then we shall partake in the same heavenly reward that Paul will partake of in Christ the crown of Righteousness and anything else the Lord shall give us in our inheritance with Him.
2 Corinthians - Suffering, Tributation, God's Comfort
When we contemplate attentively to Paul's voice and his intense suffering as an apostle for all believers' sake, we can feel his deep pastoral concern as a founding father to believers to whom he wrote to. His urgent appeal is grounded in Scripture, his earnest invitations to believers to participate in the story of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A survey of 2 Corinthians regarding Paul's sufferings and tribulations and God's comfort is most manifest in the opening thanksgiving introduction which Paul writes to these believers. The theme of suffering and comfort will never be far from Paul's concerns for his local Corinthian believers, but also due to his prominent apostolic calling from the resurrected Lord. It should come to no surprise that this thanksgiving benediction and the main thrust of the letters depiction of sufferings and tribulations and God's comfort for Paul's followers is also directly to all believers throughout all ages, for the Lord knows them whom He has called into the Body of Christ. This introducing theme of sufferings and tribulations and God's comfort sets the tone for the remainder of the entire epistle. Its strategic location at the beginning strongly heeds the importance and dominance of this theme, but also sets the tone for Paul's argument throughout this epistle. The content of this thanksgiving theme parallels Jewish Hebrew covenant traditions of thanksgiving to God in the Old Testament. This thanksgiving theme is not merely an act of remembrance of past events, but also a call to present our bodies as a living sacrifice at this present time. This letter exhorts us to act today in edification and life long sanctification, it provides a hope for the future anticipation of the fulfillment of God's promises and His inheritance in the saints
Key theme of 2 Corinthians 1
The key theme of the first chapter of 2 Corinthians is 1) suffering, 2) comfort, 3) life and death, 4) deliverance, 5) the interwoven accord between Paul and Christ, between Paul and believers and Christ. This interwoven accord can be seen in God who comforts Paul through Christ which builds up Paul then to be equipped in order to comfort the believers, and for those believers to partnership with him by interceding and praying for him.
The sufferings of the Lord Jesus in Paul's sufferings
Paul's thanksgiving theme and prayers concerning his sufferings are established in and directed by the gospel of Christ which the Lord revealed to Paul. Paul affirms that he experiences the reality of sufferings and comfort in abundance from God. Paul proves that his sufferings are not meaningless for they are a direct confirmation of his apostolic Jew and Gentile mission in proclaiming the gospel of God's grace. Paul is called by Christ to suffer many things - Acts 9:16: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. The story of the suffering Messiah unites Paul with Christ and Paul with his followers and believers and Christ with all believers. Paul's suffering, comfort, and deliverance is that which certifies his apostolic calling and ministry.
The theme of suffering which are introduced in 2 Corinthians within this thanksgiving benediction is further expounded and expanded in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, 4:7-12, 6:1-11, 11:23-12:10, and finalized in 13:4: For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. The suffering themes of 2 Corinthians is too strong to be ignored as it forms the unity between the sufferings of the Lord Jesus in Paul's sufferings and the ultimate sufferings of all grace believers who pattern themselves after the Lord's chosen apostle.
More about Godly Bible suffering and persecution and rewards for suffering at AbbaFather under 'Sanctification' Abba Father - Thy Will Be Done
