Focal Passage: I Peter 4:12-19
I had been a Christian for several years before I heard anyone speak on God’s purpose in suffering. I had heard preachers affirm Paul’s desire “to know Him and the power of His resurrection,” but they often failed to finish the verse: “…and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10).
The false gospel of prosperity idolizes health and wealth, because it wrongly associates suffering with either sin or a lack of faith. On the contrary, the Bible teaches us to expect suffering. While God often uses suffering to produce spiritual maturity and perseverance in us (Romans 4:3-4, James 1:2-4), the Bible more frequently connects Christian suffering to our identification with Christ.
Peter exhorted his readers to “rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when His glory is revealed” (I Peter 4:13). Paul conveyed the same truth to the Romans as he identified believers as “heirs of God and coheirs with Christ — if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:17). After recalling his own persecution in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, Paul plainly declared, “All those who want to live a godly life Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (II Timothy 3:12). Suffering for Christ proves you to be a true believer.
Peter’s declaration, “For the time has come for judgment to begin with God’s household” (I Peter 4:17a) must be understood in the context of Christian suffering. The rest of the verse and the following verse note the contrast Peter is making regarding God’s judgment: “And if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God? And if a righteous person is saved with difficulty, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” (I Peter 4:17b-18).
As Thomas Schreiner explained, Peter emphasized the distinction God’s judgment makes between believers and unbelievers (See Malachi 3:1-5). Believers, whose lives should be marked by righteous suffering, are being purified by sanctification and conformed to the image of Jesus. Conversely, unbelievers are suffering for sin and will perish under God’s righteous condemnation.
When I was a teenager, my father would send me to the garden in the late summer to dig potatoes. Some potatoes were gnarled from maturing in hard ground, while others were wounded by cultivation or harvest. Only a few were really smooth.
No matter where it ranked cosmetically, each one that remained firm was cleaned, gathered, and taken to the house. But some of them fooled me. I would roll back the soil to find a sizeable, smooth potato that appeared to be quite a trophy. But the closer I got, the worse it smelled. The impressive surface was quickly overshadowed by its mushy, rotten constitution. I would quickly cast it aside as good for nothing.
True believers are being refined to stand firm until the end when they will be gathered by the Son and presented to the Father. All others will be cast out to eternal destruction as unfit for the Father’s house. No matter the soil in which you are planted or the hard knocks you endure, “entrust [yourself] to a faithful Creator while doing what is good” (I Peter 4:19b). B&R — Rust is associational mission strategist for Holston Baptist Association.