Suffering For The Lord - Or Not

Christians talk a lot about their trials, their sufferings, but rarely seem to examine the Scriptures regarding suffering. Like a lot of subjects, Christians often quote verses from the Bible regarding suffering thinking that all suffering is essentially the same. I have heard Christians say that when someone in their family got some chronic disease and made them a burden to care for that they were suffering for the Lord's sake. This is an error. Sickness and disease are in this world because of the Fall. To suffer sickness is not to suffer for the Lord's sake. 

It is important that we distinguish between different kinds of suffering and know what our attitude should be to them. The best way to do this is to study First Peter whose subject is suffering. We will add some other Scriptures as well.     

One of the first things we can note is that Peter says that there are "... those who suffer according to God's will ..." (1 Peter 4:19) This tells us two things. First, that there is suffering that is according to God's will. But it implies something else, too. There is suffering that is not according to His will. And if there is suffering that is not according to His will, we should seek to avoid it or get out of it. 

PERSECUTION:

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you ... if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. 1 Peter 4:12-16

Sometimes we do not acknowledge that "being reviled" is real persecution. After all, many believers around the world suffer far more for their faith than we do in America. Some are beaten, imprisoned or even killed for Christ. But in the NT, the term 'persecution is used very broadly. It refers to any suffering for simply being a Christian or acting and speaking as a Christian. Suffering persecution is to share in His sufferings.

We should also note that we should rejoice even when persecuted and that we are blessed because of it. This is one form of suffering that God honors the most. This does not mean that we should seek it, nor does it mean that we should not pray to be delivered from it. The church prayed for Peter when he was in prison and going to be executed, and God sent angels to deliver him.

SUFFERING FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS' SAKE

For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,  who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. 1 Peter 2:19-23

Sometimes suffering is caused by someone who does not allow us to follow our conscience. There is a lot of this happening today, but I do not want to rehash it all here. God honors the suffering we might experience because we are avoiding violating our own conscience.

Furthermore, Peter says that Christ was our example in this kind of suffering. He did nothing wrong yet He suffered. He did not retaliate against those who caused him to suffer. He entrusted Himself to God. 

Of course, suffering for righteousness' sake really includes, more broadly, persecution as we talked about above, but it is worth mentioning suffering simply for the sake of doing right and following one's conscience.

SUFFERING BECAUSE OF YOUR SINS

Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler. 1 Peter 4:15

This seems rather obvious, but Peter brings it up anyway. What he is really saying in the context of his writing is that we must distinguish between the kind of suffering that honors God and that which does not. One thing I find interesting in this verse is that Peter mentions murder as something that a Christian might commit. Many of us would deny that a true Christian could commit murder, yet Peter seems to think that they could. He also mentions those who suffer because they stick their nose in the business of others. Interesting.

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness 1 Peter 2:24a

Christ died for our sins so that we would not longer live in them. It was His suffering in substitution that frees us. God does not want us to suffer because of sins.

SUFFERING BECAUSE OF MINISTRY TO WHICH GOD HAS CALLED US

Sometimes we think that being called into ministry is a great blessing and privilege - and it is. But there is often suffering that goes along with the fulfillment of that calling. 

Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.  Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. 2 Corinthians 11:23-28

Paul, here, is explaining to the church at Corinth that there can be suffering that goes with the ministry. He had a great ministry, but he had great suffering as well. In fact, in the next chapter, he calls these things his "thorn in the flesh". 

God honors those who suffer because of the ministry to which He has called them. We often think that big ministries "have it made", but we have no idea how difficult it can be. Not all suffering is as public as Paul's was. Everybody could see and understand what happened to him. But there is a lot we do not know about.

SUFFERING SICKNESS, PAIN AND INFIRMITY

Now we are entering into controversial territory. People have very strong ideas about this subject especially if they, or a loved one, has suffered intensely or for a protracted period of time. There are times when we don't understand why things happen to us and we question why God does or allows such things to happen. We cannot answer all questions here, but we do need to examine the Scriptures to find some answers anyway.

Let's go back to where we started. Is experiencing sickness or pain suffering according to God's will or not? We must ask this simple question in search of a straightforward answer. Fortunately, the Bible does answer it.

Jesus, in His ministry, was the will of God revealed to us. "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) Many times in the gospels it is said, "He healed them all", "all" being those who came to Him for healing. Jesus' ministry shows us God's attitude towards sickness and infirmity.

You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Acts 10:38

This clearly says that everyone who He healed was "oppressed by the devil" and since He "healed all" then we know that all who are sick are oppressed by Satan.

In the OT, all sickness and infirmity was under the "curse of the [broken] Law". (Deuteronomy 28:61) "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law" (Galatians 3:13) That means we are redeemed from sickness just like we are redeemed from sin.

Peter confirms this twofold redemption. "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; by Whose wounds you were healed." (1 Peter 2:24) Healing for our sickness and diseases is in the Atonement. 

So, it is evident from both the New and Old Testaments that sickness is not God's will since it was part of the punishment for breaking the Law of Moses, and since Jesus healed all who came to Him. Sickness is part of our fallen world because there is a devil loose in it and he wants to put everyone in bondage. 

Sickness is not suffering "according to the will of God", it is of the devil. We should do everything in our power to resist it. This is especially important to know in a time of a pandemic. This pandemic is not the will of God. Satan concocted it to "steal, kill and destroy" us. Jesus came to "give us life and give it abundantly." (John10:10)

OTHER KINDS OF SUFFERING

We have not exhausted the subject of suffering in the Bible. But I hope that we have established the fact that there is suffering according to the will of God and there is suffering that is outside of His will and, therefore, should not be accepted as being from Him - it should be resisted. 

We live in a world with a lot of suffering, and we know that the devil is behind it all - from persecution and harm caused by human sin and sickness and death. 

God is good - all the time.

[The comments section does not seem to be working. If you have a question or comment, please email me at brian.scarborough@aol.com]

Old Testament Types and Shadows

I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us. (1 Corinthians 10:1-11)

I have quoted here from a New Testament (NT) passage where Paul uses the Old Testament (OT) to teach about Christ. The OT passages being referred do not predict the coming of the messiah or the kingdom of God. In fact, these are narratives regarding the exodus and the wandering through the wilderness by the Israelites. During that time, manna came from heaven to feed the people and water came from a rock. Nevertheless, Paul says that the rock that gave them water and actually followed them through the wilderness was Christ, or we might say, the pre-incarnate Second Person of the Trinity. 

Then Paul notes that many in the wilderness committed idolatry and fornication and were subsequently judged. He uses this example to warn the Corinthian church about going to the temples of idols or committing fornication. We all understand that. The judgments of the OT teach us what we need to beware of doing. 

But there is more here. Paul sees the deliverance from Egypt and the wilderness wanderings as foreshadowing things in the NT church. He says the Israelites were all "baptized in the cloud and in the sea." So, he is relating our baptism into Christ to what happened to the Israelites when they passed through the Red Sea. And, again, he is relating the food and drink given supernaturally to the Israelites during their wanderings to the spiritual nourishment we receive in Christ as we walk with Him in this world. Therefore, the events of the parting of the Red Sea and wilderness wandering are a foreshadowing of the experience of Christians today. We were joined with Christ through baptism and we are fed spiritually by Him. (Baptism here refers not to water baptism, but to baptism into Christ when we were born again - see Romans 6:3-4) 

Paul is telling the Corinthians that despite the fact that they have been joined with Christ and partake of His spiritual blessings while we walk with Him, they can still be judged for committing sins like fornication and idolatry when there is no repentance. And he uses the experiences of the ancient Israelites as proof of this.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this, however, is that Paul says the "rock was Christ". Did the pre-incarnate Christ actually become a rock and follow the Israelites through the wilderness? Should we take that literally, or is Paul simply saying that the rock symbolized Christ? I will make no argument one way or the other. I will leave it up to you. The point I wish to make is that the rock was a "type" of Christ, symbolic of Him. So, then, what is a "type"? 

A biblical "type" is a subtle form of OT prophecy that shows what the coming Christ will be. I call it a subtle because no prophet is directly predicting the coming messiah. Instead, events in history are seen to foreshadow things about Christ or the Christian era. In this instance, the "rock" which gave natural water to the Israelites is like Christ is to the Christian believer, the source of spiritual blessing and nourishment. The rock is the "type"; Christ would be the "antitype" or fulfillment of that "type". The "type" predicts what will happen and Christ (or the church) fulfills that type. (This is called 'typology'.) Let's look at a bigger example. 

Joseph was the second youngest son of Jacob and the favorite. Jacob's other sons were jealous of Joseph and  sold him into slavery. While a slave, Joseph was falsely accused and sent to prison. Eventually, he was released from prison and immediately exalted to second-in-command in Egypt. Pharaoh gave Joseph complete rule over everything in Egypt except Pharaoh himself. 

Think about the many parallels there are between Joseph and Christ. The Jewish leaders were jealous of Jesus and sought to get rid of Him. They falsely accused Him and turned Him over to Gentiles to crucify Him. After Jesus died on the cross, He descended into Hades, which was like Joseph in prison. [See Acts 2:27 - some translations have "realm of the dead" or something similar, but the word is literally "Hades" in the Greek.] Then Jesus was resurrected and was taken up into heaven and seated at the right hand of God the Father. Being seated at the right hand of a king meant to share the authority of his throne. Jesus now rules the universe as Joseph ruled Egypt. 

We could even take this a step further to the time when Joseph brought his family out of Canaan into Egypt. We might say that this is like the rapture of the Church when Jesus takes us into heaven from whence He rules. Now some might that this is taking it too far but I will not debate it. And I will admit that we can take these things too far. After all, Joseph married a foreign woman and had two sons by her. Is there any significance to that? Not that I can see. Not everything in Joseph's life is like Christ's. This is the limitation of biblical types. 

You might be asking at this point, "How many types of Christ can be found in the OT?". Probably thousands. I don't know if anyone has tried to count them but despite any criteria that they might use, you certainly could find even more. It is an endless study. That is because we can never plumb the depths of who Christ is even in the Old Testament. So, let's read the OT and look for these types, shadows and parallels that tell us about Jesus Christ and His church.

Are the promises in the Old Testament valid for us today?

We are discussing the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In this post, we are talking about the promises in the Old Testament and how they might apply to us today. It is clear that the OT promises are for the Jewish people, but what about the Christian church? In what way might these promises be applied to us.

First, we must look at what the New Testament, which was written to the church, says about the Old, which was written to the Jewish people. 


For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

There is a wonderful statement! All the promises of God, in both the Old and New Testaments, are ours! That is good news.

Of course, now we have to look at some promises and see how they might fit us. After all, many promises were made to the NATION of Israel and not individuals within it. There are good examples of this in the writings of the prophets. They prophesied about the future restoration of the nation of Israel, which will culminate when the messiah comes to establish His kingdom in its fullness. (We know that this occurs at the Second Coming of Christ.) How can we apply something like that to ourselves? Let's look at one passage from Isaiah. 

O you afflicted one,
Tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems,
And lay your foundations with sapphires.
¹² I will make your pinnacles of rubies,
Your gates of crystal,
And all your walls of precious stones.
¹³ All your children shall be taught by the Lord,
And great shall be the peace of your children.
¹⁴ In righteousness you shall be established;
You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
And from terror, for it shall not come near you.
Isaiah 54:11-14 

I have quoted here just a portion of a prophecy and promise that Isaiah gave to the Jewish people regarding the coming restoration of the nation of Israel. In fact, this passage is really about the Millennial Reign of Christ when there will be perfect peace - no terror, etc. We can see that quite clearly. But equally clear are some promises that could as easily apply to Christian believers. For instance, there is a verse in the middle of it that says, "All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children." That is a promise that is as much for us today as it will be for Israel during the Millennium. I personally have prayed this verse over my own children many times. 

[I think it is a good practice to pray the promises of God. The promises of God are the will and plan of God. Therefore, they are the proper basis for the prayer of faith.]

So, a promise that applies to Israel in one way can apply to the church in another. Sometimes we have to "spiritualize" a promise to make it apply to Christian believers today. For examply, there are many passages in the OT where God promises Israel victory over its enemies. 

The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.   
Deuteronomy 28:7 

This is a good example of such a promise (though the promise was conditional upon Israel's obedience). And Israel did defeat its enemies when they were in obedience to God. But for the church, we are told that people are not our enemies. (Some Christians need a revelation of this.)

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12

This NT passage shows us two things. One - people are not our enemy. Two - the devil and his demons are. So, do we go fight the devil in the same way that the Israelites fought their enemies? No. Jesus has already defeated the devil; we just have to enforce his defeat. 

Jesus, in giving the Great Commission to His apostles, said, "In My name they will cast out demons." (Mark 16:17) It is our responsibility to cast the devil out of every part of our lives. That is how we deal with our enemies. 

So, we can apply every promise in the Bible to ourselves, but we do have to remember that the NT church is in a different situation, physically and spiritually, than were the ancient Israelites to whom the promises were made. Those promises are truly for us, but may be applied rather differently than they are for the Jews. On the other hand, we should not hesitate to ask God to fulfill those promises in our lives because in Christ, they are "Yes" and "Amen" to the glory of God. 

 

Old Testment laws for today?

In the next few posts, we will be discussing the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. We are still covering principles of Bible interpretation, so I have not really started a new series. Consider this Season 2, Episode 1 of Reading the Bible in Context. The Old Testament (OT), for the Christian, is interpreted by the New Testament. Then, again, the New Testament (NT) cannot be understood without the Old. 

When we read from either the Old or New Testament, we must keep the other Testament in mind. And this we generally do without thinking about it. We turn to Isaiah 53 where it says, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities" and we understand this as referring to the cross of Christ. But we should realize that Jewish rabbis, as a whole, reject this interpretation. It seems obvious to us, but that's because we understand the New Testament. On the other hand, we understand a lot about the cross by reading Isaiah 53. We must know that the OT enriches our understanding of the NT. 

What OT laws must the Christian obey today? 

This is one of the most difficult subjects to deal with in regards to understanding the OT in particular. There are 613 laws in the OT of which less than 300 could even possibly be obeyed today. That is because most of the laws have to do with the temple and sacrifices. Since the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, those laws cannot be followed at all. Additionally, the NT teaches that Christ fulfilled those sacrificial laws by sacrificing Himself. By accepting Christ and His sacrifice, we are considered to have fulfilled all of that. 

But let's look at some other OT laws. How about the kosher laws about what can be eaten or not. Leviticus 11:2-3 reads, 

Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth: Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud—that you may eat.

 What follows is a list of criteria of what can and cannot be eaten. Must we eat like this today? I know of Christians who say that we do. But what does the NT say? Are Christians ever told to eat kosher? Are they ever rebuked for not doing so, or exhorted to do so.
Not at all. In fact, Jesus tells us that it is irrelevant to us if our hearts are pure. "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:11). Later Paul would write to Timothy, "Food [which]  God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer" (1 Timothy 4:2-4). 

We have made some progress! We have determined that some laws - sacrificial laws and kosher laws - do not apply to the Church. 

Now let's look at some other laws and what some have said about them. We are told by some (so-called?) Christians that since the aforementioned laws, the sacrificial and kosher laws, are in the book of Leviticus, mainly, then we should not have to obey any of the laws in Leviticus which are supposedly "out-of-date". Why do they say this? Well, it just so happens that the prohibitions against homosexuality are in Leviticus 18 and they approve of that. They want it removed from the list of sins. Of course, what they fail to mention is that the prohibitions against incest and bestiality are in that chapter as well. 

So, what can we say to this? Quite simply, we look at the New Testament and see what it says. Paul writing Romans 1:27 condemns homosexuality outright. "men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due." I could quote other NT passages including statements by Jesus, that condemns that and similar sexual sins that we find were condemned in Leviticus. 

Now we have established a principle that if an OT law is repeated in the NT, the OT law is still to be followed. In fact, sometimes the OT law contains more detail than the NT "version" of it, but we should still apply the parts of that OT law that do not appear in the NT. 

There is one more area that remains: what about the laws that are not specifically done away with in the NT, like the kosher laws, but are not repeated in the NT. The biggest of these are the sabbath laws. Exodus 20:8 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work." This is one of the Ten Commandments and, yet, Christians disagree as to whether or not to keep it. Some Christians, Seventh-Day Adventists, keep a Saturday sabbath. Many other Christians keep a Sunday sabbath. They say it was changed to the first day of the week. Their reason is that Jesus arose on a Sunday and we now commemorate that day of the week as "the Lord's Day". 

I must say that I find the reasoning behind changing the day of the week as very weak. It "makes sense" in some ways but we find no such reasoning in the NT. Now it does seem that the church met on Sundays, but nowhere is it even implied that it was a new sabbath day. If you want to keep it as a day of rest and do it to honor the Lord, then that is fine. But if not, then that is fine, too. Nowhere in the NT are Christians rebuked for not keeping a sabbath day. Nowhere are Christians specifically enjoined to keep a sabbath day. This is telling. I am convinced that if Christians were to keep a sabbath, it would have been put in the NT somewhere! I cannot believe that no church ever needed to be reminded or exhorted to keep a sabbath day as we find it in the OT if, in fact, Christians were supposed to keep it. They had to be reminded about everything else! 

My conclusion is this: If an OT law is repeated in the NT, then we must keep that law. If not, then we need not do so.