Unusual companions
By Roger Carswell
I love a good biography, but especially enjoy autobiography. I am aware though, that they have a danger of containing self-justifications, egotism and lies. Not so with the autobiographical snippets the Apostle Paul gives us. He always has doctrine as the backdrop of information about himself.
The Book of Colossians was written to encourage the Christians in Colosse to remain faithful to the gospel in the face of false teaching. In his letter, first Paul emphasised the supremacy of Christ, then authenticated his authority as an apostle and evangelist by telling of his own suffering. He describes his sufferings in an unpredictable way: “I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body that is the Church.” (Colossians 1 v. 24)
I am not sure that I would dare say anything was lacking in Christ’s afflictions. After all, it is the suffering of Jesus that has brought to believers redemption, justification, and reconciliation. All that we have in Christ is because of Christ and Him crucified, so what could possibly be lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Certainly, there is no deficiency in the finished work of Christ. So Paul cannot be speaking of redemptive suffering, and there is no way that he is referring to Roman Catholic notions of purgatory or the need to purchase indulgences.
Paul’s sufferings and afflictions are distinguished from, yet identifiable with Christ’s sufferings. Paul’s sufferings are exemplary, but they, like the afflictions of every believer and every martyr, supplement the sufferings of Jesus Himself. All the afflictions and persecutions that are experienced for the testimony of the gospel, are a remnant of the sufferings of Christ.
Lessons from history
Christian history is the story of cycles of immense suffering, and what to us appear inexplicable traumas for the people of God. Thousands of the most devoted Christians laid down their lives after years of faithful service, during the Boxer Rebellion in China. In the “troubles” in Northern Ireland, a disproportionately high number of Christians were murdered. Many Christian children died in the massacre in Beslan. There are brothers and sisters of ours imprisoned in containers on a boat off the coast of Eritrea today – suffering only for their faith in Christ. There are in situations where Christians live in poverty, or with unsatisfactory jobs, or singly, or serving in areas where they are unappreciated, misunderstood and under pressure. Why does God allow this? What is His purpose when His children suffer?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood the inevitability of suffering. Antagonistic to the Nazi regime, he was imprisoned, threatened with torture, and danger to his family. In April 1945 he was executed by direct command of Heinrich Himmler in the Flossenburg concentration camp. He wrote, “Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master. Following Christ means passio passiva, i.e. suffering because we have to suffer …Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer.” Dominic Smart says in his new book, ‘Kingdom Builders’: ”It would be an unusual plan for church growth that would read: ‘Disrupt your children’s education, lose your job, kiss goodbye to your pension; then have neighbours turn against you and let the authorities evict you unlawfully. Get flung into prison. Have a few of your fellowship murdered. Then tell everyone how much God loves you.'’ But the story of the spread of the church in so many parts of the world involves some of all of these things. God's ways are not ours, neither are His thoughts ours."
I was recently talking with Frank Brearley, the British director of the New Tribes Mission. He told me that in opening works in unreached ethnic groups, NTM missionaries go through personal suffering. It is usually physical, some of it demonic opposition, but in many cases it creates a wondering among the people as to why missionaries are they, and why they stay.
So the afflictions of Christ are to be filled up by the reality of those who suffer, and are taking up their cross and dying to self. This is us as Christians incarnating to today’s world the suffering of Christ. Martin Luther reckoned suffering among the marks of the true Church. John Calvin went further explaining that “God does not call the people to triumph before He has exercised them in the warfare of suffering.”
“In every pang that rends the heart
The Man of Sorrows bears a part.”
Peter, in his epistle, marries together suffering and glory (in that order), as being characteristics of the Christian life. “Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4 v. 13) Warren Wiersbe says, ‘ Calvary is God’s great proof that suffering in the will of God always leads to glory.’ It did for Jesus, and it will for all who follow Him.
The Bible teaches that as Christians we have been entrusted with suffering, making the implication that suffering is a privilege if it is borne for the glory of Christ. That must be true if our afflictions are filling up what is lacking in Christ’s sufferings. Dr. Helen Roseveare whilst being brutalised in the Belgium Congo after years of faithful missionary service thought that Christ too, was ‘led as a lamb to the slaughter’. The Lord spoke to her heart, “They’re not fighting you: these blows, all this wickedness is against Me. All I ask of you is the loan of your body. Will you share with Me one hour in My sufferings for these who need My love through you?”
So when suffering comes, we are to:
> Be strong in the Lord, but remember the value of vulnerability.
Every Christian battles against human frailty, and experiences the sufferings that are the marks of the submission to the will of God. We know what it is to be opposed, hurt, misunderstood, misrepresented, not thanked, used and abused, overlooked and discarded. Many of our brothers and sisters are desperately poor, unemployed, hungry, imprisoned, threatened, maltreated and isolated. The holy, humble suffering of one Christian, simply for righteousness’ sake, is more powerful in declaring gospel truth than many a sermon or argument for the gospel. And as we ‘play the man’ God may use us to ‘light a flame which will never be put out’.
> Rejoice in the Lord, but remember sensitivity to suffering.
God withholds nothing good for those who walk uprightly. And in that we can rejoice. God is always a good God. He gives and gives, and gives again. Grace upon grace is multiplied to us. He has given us innumerable exceedingly great and precious promises for this life and the next. But at the same time, virtually everyone is suffering in one way or the other. How much we know of the suffering of our fellow human beings is a measure of how much we love them. As Bonhoeffer said, ‘A Christian is someone who shares the sufferings of God in the world.’ We are to learn to suffer on behalf of the whole body of God’s people.
> Worship the Lord, but remember our witness to the world.
We cannot separate the greatness of God, and the willingness, even desire, to suffer for His sake. Could it be that our spiritual ineffectiveness in the West is largely due to the fact that it is so long since we had our martyrs, that we knew times of real persecution? This has led us to indolence, worldliness and prayerlessness. It is through the suffering of Jesus that we enter into the kingdom of God, and our suffering will translate that to our generation.
The Apostle Paul was a chosen instrument to carry Christ’s name to the Gentiles, but God would show him ‘how much he must suffer for Jesus’ sake’. In Acts 14 v. 22 we read of Paul ‘strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.’ Later Paul sent Timothy to the Thessalonians ‘to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.’ (1 Thess. 3 v. 2 – 4)
So the filling up of Christ’s sufferings is done on the long path from Calvary, to the empty tomb, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. We need not fear suffering for it are helping to progress the cause of Christ, His church and His purposes. Our sufferings do not save us, for only Jesus can do that. But they supplement what Jesus has accomplished. Sacrificial disciples declare the sacrificial work of our Lord, and in this way we fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of our Lord.