Is It God's Will That We Suffer?

Jon: This is Philippians 1:29: “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.” It would be very clear and biblical to say that while we live on this earth, in these bodies, it is God's will that we suffer because we are going to be administering the gospel. Justin: Yeah. And, you know, I'm thinking of first Peter, there will be times when we suffer. I don't think he means for being Christians necessarily. I think he's just talking about our circumstances in life where we're going to suffer unjustly. And then there are other passages in scripture that make it very plain that we're going to suffer for the sake of Christ's name like you're alluding to. Either way, we look to Christ, who is the greatest example in the history of the world of bearing up under unjust suffering. You know, because a lot of times we struggle with that. Our justice meters start going off, and we struggle to forgive people who've wronged us - there's any number of things that we can talk about. So we're going to suffer in those ways. These are a few thoughts related to this - If somebody in my congregation comes to me and wants counsel on a particular decision or wants counsel on, you know, a general wisdom call in their life, I always say several things. I'll say all right, look, what we're dealing with is an issue of wisdom, because if what's in front of you, you know, is not inherently sinful or not, we're dealing with prudence, we're dealing with wisdom. So be comforted by that. Secondly, I am going to take great pains as your pastor never to bind your conscience where the Bible doesn't bind your conscience. So, if you're coming to me to ask me to tell you what to do, unless the scriptures are clear that you must do this, or you must not do that, you're not going to get that from me. So I'm happy to reason with you. I'm happy to talk with you about things I would be thinking through. Happy to talk about high-level biblical categories that you can weigh. But I'm not going to tell you what you should do or what you should not do. We're just not going to talk in those terms. And then often I'll tell people if you want my particular take on something, I'll talk with you happily as your friend and your brother in Christ, but this is not pastor to congregate. We're just going to reason together, and we can have a conversation, you know, over this cup of coffee, about A, B, or C. But this is not “Thus saith the Lord,” and this is not gospel. This is not me authoritatively speaking into your life. This is just us processing together as citizens of the common kingdom and also as citizens of the redemptive kingdom who have been rescued by the son of God. And so I think we do ourselves a favor, Jon, when we talk in these terms because we try to avoid some of that over-spiritualization. We try to avoid some of that paralysis and the foolishness of trying to discern the secret hidden will of God. Everyday Grace 016