Suffering for Jesus

Suffering for the Lord Jesus

Suffering for Jesus is the lot of every true Christian. We are called to shine as the light of the world. If we conform to the world, we will not suffer persecution. But that is not an option for regenerate children of God. Paul says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord” (Eph. 5:8–10).

Peter touched on suffering earlier in this epistle (see 1 Pet. 1:6, 2:12, 15, 19). In this passage, he speaks in more detail about suffering for doing righteousness.

God’s people are eager to do good works, eager to obey Jesus Christ, because they are born again. They have been given new hearts and new spirits. God removed from them their old, rebellious hearts of stone and gave them hearts of flesh that are responsive to God. God also puts in them his Holy Spirit to enlighten and empower them so that they will obey the will of God with great joy.

Only the regenerate are able and zealous to do good works for God’s glory. Paul says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). Those who are unregenerate will not obey Jesus Christ. This is a simple way of finding out who we are. Paul writes, “[Christ] gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:14). Paul also says, “Every tongue [shall] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:11-13).

The visible church on earth consists of both regenerate and unregenerate people. Yet only regenerate people will be zealous to do good works and shine as stars in this dark world, holding forth the word of life, the gospel.

So Peter asks, “Who is going to harm you if you are zealous to do good works?” (v. 13).  Normally, people will not harm those who are morally good. In fact, most of us will honor such people. After all, who wants to be a neighbor to a thief or a drunkard or a criminal? Yet honoring them is not universally true, for we know that Jesus, who never sinned, was crucified, not honored. But, in general, what we read in Proverbs 16:7 is true of God’s people: “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.”

Peter then says, “But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed” (v. 14). The meaning from the Greek is that there is a remote possibility that God’s people may suffer for doing good, for doing the will of God, for doing righteousness. Though you do good, you may not be promoted. Instead, you may be demoted and even fired from your job.

Paul was eager to do good works, yet he suffered the most for the gospel (see his second letter to the Corinthians). Peter himself was crucified for doing good works. Yet God’s people will persist in doing good works. They are able to do so because they are regenerate, and they are eager to do so because they are thankful to their Savior, who chose them from eternity to be objects of his mercy, destined for eternal glory.

The power enabling us to do good works and to suffer for Jesus when persecuted is the power of the Holy Spirit. We read about it in the following verses:

• Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
• Ephesians 3:20: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
• Colossians 1:29: “To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”
• Philippians 2:12–13: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

Remember the words of Jesus: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24), even to death. We may be persecuted because we are disciples of Jesus. People speak evil of me for preaching the gospel. Every true minister of the gospel will be persecuted. If I do not want to be persecuted, I would stop preaching Bible and just say nice things about people. But that is not what God called me to do.

We may be persecuted because we are disciples of Jesus. We are as different from unbelievers as eternal life is different from eternal death, as light is different from darkness, and as heaven is different from hell.

If we are walking in obedience to God, we should not worry when the world persecutes us. We are persecuted because we are not conforming to the world. We follow Jesus and we conform to him. The prophets, the apostles, and all believers have suffered because of this. Only the degree of suffering has differed.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:10–12).

Jesus also warned us, “Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Matt. 10:17–20).

The Christian life cannot be lived except by the Holy Spirit. Paul writes about his experiences:

Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. (2 Cor. 11:23–26)

The Hebrews writer says of God’s people,

Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. (Heb. 11:35b–38)

Think seriously before you believe in Jesus. All these things happened and will happen again in history. In God’s will, we may suffer for doing what is right. Peter says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials” (1 Pet. 1:6).

So Peter writes, “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil” (v. 17). He later wrote, “I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me” (2 Pet. 1:13–14). He knew he was going to be crucified in his old age, as Jesus had made clear to him: “[Jesus said,] ‘I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, ‘Follow me!’” (John 21:18–19).

Comfort in Suffering for the Lord

Peter does not leave us in our suffering. He also speaks of the comfort that believers have when they suffer for the Lord.

The Presence of Christ

The first comfort we have is knowing that Christ is with us as he was with Joseph. When Joseph was thrown into the pit, when he was a slave in Potiphar’s house, and when he was thrown into prison, he was not alone: the Lord was with him (Genesis 39). Jesus himself tells us, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). The presence of Christ with us gives us great comfort.

The Hebrews writer says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” (Heb. 13:5–6). Peter says, “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Pet. 4:14).

Persecution proves the Holy Spirit is resting upon us, enabling us to experience God’s help. Jesus himself said, “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12:11–12). This is why I am a firm believer in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is with us always. He guides us, empowers us, enlightens us, and defends us.

We Are Blessed

The second comfort we have when we are persecuted is the knowledge that we are blessed: “But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. ‘Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened’” (v. 14). Elsewhere, he says, “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Pet. 4:14).

What does it mean to be blessed? It does not mean mere material blessing, as Solomon had. He was blessed with tons of gold and silver, chariots and horses, and one thousand women (seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines). What did Solomon do with these blessings? He threw away the Bible and worshiped foreign gods. That is not the blessing Peter is speaking about. He is speaking about the blessing of eternal life that we have in Christ Jesus.

I do not have any grand illusion, as foolish preachers preach, saying, “If you want health and wealth and power, receive Jesus. He will give you these things.” They are fake ministers, damned liars and cheats.  Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:28–29). Praise God, we are eternally secure. We are foreloved, predestinated, regenerated, converted, justified, adopted, and sanctified. Being objects of mercy, we are destined for glory.

Fear Not Enemies

Third, Peter quotes Isaiah 8, saying, “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened” (v. 14). We need not fear enemies who would flog us and kill us. Throughout the Bible, God tells us not to fear. He appeared to Abraham, saying, “After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward’” (Gen. 15:1). And Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:28–31). Elsewhere God says, “And I myself will be a wall of fire around it . . . and I will be its glory within” (Zech. 2:5). He is speaking about the people of God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was murdered in the German concentration camp. Before his death, he said, “Those who are afraid of men have no fear of God, and those who fear God have no more fear of men.”[1]

Trust the Lord Jesus Christ

In Isaiah 7 and 8, we read about King Ahaz, who feared the king of Aram and Pekah, king of Israel. Isaiah the prophet counseled Ahaz to not fear these kings but to trust the Lord for victory. The Lord said, “Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah’” (Isa. 7:4). And consider Isaiah 8:12–13, which Peter quotes in our text: “Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.” So Peter says, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts” (v. 15). But Ahaz refused to trust the Lord and, eventually, he was destroyed.

Later, Sennacherib king of Assyria threatened King Hezekiah of Judah. Consider to his threatening words: “Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, ‘Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, “The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria”’” (Isa. 36:13–15).

The devil says, “Do not trust the Lord.” Nevertheless, Hezekiah trusted the Lord and the Lord delivered Hezekiah and Judah with a mighty deliverance by the Lord. (PGM) In one day, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were killed by one angel. Sennacherib himself was defeated, so he went home to Assyria, where his two sons killed him.

The Lord is with us when we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. We must fix our eyes on him and trust in him to help us in our trouble. He is a wall of fire around us. So we read, “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us” (Isa. 33:22).

Peter writes, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” In her hymn, Caroline M. Noel wrote,

In your hearts enthrone him; there let him subdue

all that is not holy, all that is not true.

Crown him as your Captain in temptation’s hour:

let his will enfold you in its light and pow’r.

We must fix our eyes on the Lord, the author and finisher of our faith, and obey him. He is with us. He is in front of us and behind us. He is a wall of fire around us. He is in us, and we are in him. He is with us in our sufferings as he was with Joseph in the pit and in the prison. He is with us in the fire as he was with the three confessing Hebrew children in the fire. If Jesus Christ is for us, who can be against us?

Remember Isaiah’s prophecy:

But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Isa. 43:1–3a)

Neither death nor life nor anything else in all creation is able to separate us, to cut us off, from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (see Rom. 8:38–39).

Let us, therefore, use our sufferings for Christ to bear witness for Jesus as the Holy Spirit speaks through us. Let us witness to our oppressors in meekness, respect, and love, and in good conscience and in good conduct, about the undying hope we possess in our hearts—the hope of glory. Let us share about the hope of our inheritance of the fullness of our salvation kept by God in heaven and for which we are kept here in total assurance of our final and full salvation.

Know the Purpose of Our Sufferings

Knowing the purpose God has for us in suffering also gives us comfort. Paul writes, “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Rom. 5:3–5). The first purpose is that through suffering God is making us holy, that we may be more and more like Jesus Christ.

James says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (Jas. 1:2–4). How wicked and false are those preachers who say, “Receive Jesus and you will get more money.” Paul writes, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). Everything, especially suffering, brings us more into conformity with Christ.

God’s second purpose in our suffering is to refine our faith. Peter writes, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Pet. 1:6–7).

Third, God’s purpose is to increase our faith. Paul says, “Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9). We must fix our eyes on Jesus as we go through fiery trials. Only then can we rejoice greatly.

Finally, God’s purpose in our suffering is to give us an opportunity to witness to Jesus Christ in our suffering. He told us, “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them” (Mark 13:9). Throughout the book of Acts we see believers bearing witness to Jesus. For example, we read, “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed’” (Acts 4:8–10).

Peter was not cursing God; he was bearing witness to Jesus Christ. And he concluded, saying, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). All other ways of salvation are false and demonic.

Paul also bore witness to Christ. He told King Agrippa and those with him, “But I have had God’s help to this very day, and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles’” (Acts 26:22–23). Now, notice the altar call: “Then Agrippa said to Paul, ‘Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?’” And listen to what the man in chains, the most brilliant apostle, a rich man suffering for Jesus, said: “Paul replied, ‘Short time or long—I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains’” (Acts 26:28–29). I say the same thing to everyone: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

In Our Sufferings, We Are Not Shaken

The sixth comfort we have in our sufferings is that we do not need to be shaken. Jesus himself said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. . . . Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:1, 27). He also said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

We must fix our eyes on Jesus and sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. We can trust him, for he will never abandon us. Paul writes, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6–7). In the fire, we are unshakable. Our hearts are not troubled because God is with us. Paul writes, “[The God of all comfort] comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

Sufferings Prove We Are Saved Forever

Finally, sufferings prove that we are saved forever because his saved people enjoy fellowship with Jesus in his sufferings. We suffer first and experience glory later.

Consider the following:

• Romans 8:17: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
• 2 Corinthians 1:5: “For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”
• 2 Corinthians 4:10: “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
• Galatians 6:17: “Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.”
• Philippians 3:10–11: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
• 1 Peter 4:13: “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ,” that overflow into us. What did I say? Sufferings prove that we are saved, that we are God’s people.

Friends, take heart! If you are saved, the Lord will not abandon you. In your suffering, know that the Lord is with you. May all of us be enabled to say this: I can do all things, including suffering for the Lord, who suffered and died for my eternal happiness.

[1] Daniel M. Doriani, 1 Peter, Reformed Expository commentary series (Phillipsburg, NJ: P& R, 2014), 139.