Imitating Jesus, Peter, and Paul in Dealing with Suffering
David W Palmer
(John 20:21 NKJV) So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
We are looking at Jesus’s last statement in this passage: “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” The ISV translates this as “Just as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” So our Lord is sending us just as—or in the same way as—his Father sent him. So (beginning yesterday) we’ve been asking ourselves, “How did Father send his Son Jesus? On what mission, and with what provision and empowering did he send him?” Continuing from yesterday’s list, we see:
4. SUFFERING
(Hebrews 5:8 NKJV) Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
This is a challenging topic for us to face and talk about, let alone grasp the way God wants us to see it. We certainly don’t need to be listening to our own ideas on this, or anyone else’s opinions; only God’s truth through his word has the answers.
Over the centuries, it seems that people’s beliefs about Christian suffering have been formed by experience rather than by simply looking at what God’s word says. So, let’s begin by first looking at what Jesus said about this:
(Matthew 20:22–23 NKJV) But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” {23} So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.”
To be sure we know what the “cup” that Jesus was “about to drink” is, we read his use of this phrase in its direct context: his arrest, trial, torture, and crucifixion:
(John 18:11 NKJV) So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”
Seeing Peter was an eyewitness to this and knew exactly what Jesus was talking about, let’s look also at what he said about us suffering:
(1 Peter 2:19–21 NLT) For God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and patiently endure unfair treatment. {20} Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. {21} For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.
From this passage of the apostle’s doctrine, we see two types of suffering: one is when we suffer as a consequence of doing wrong—like being fined for speeding. God is not calling us to this type of suffering. In truth, he has done what he can to enable us to avoid it; he has given us a new birth, his own Spirit of holiness, and is offering us his grace. His objective is to change and empower us so we don’t do wrong and suffer for it.
The other type of suffering mentioned in this passage is when a Christian is obeying God and walking in the Spirit, but this brings on vengeful suffering and rebuttal from the evil one—either directly as a spiritual attack, or through flesh and blood humans. What the apostle Peter said about this type of suffering is a crucial piece of doctrine; it reveals the truth about Christian suffering. Let’s look again at what Peter said—this time as translated from the Aramaic original:
(1 Peter 2:18–23 APE)
