2 Timothy 1:8-12

"Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me his prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the Gospel according to the power of God . . . For this reason also I suffer these things, but I am not ashamed."

Our topic today is one in which we all ought to be experts. Every life in this room has experienced, and will experience, a measure of pain, suffering, tragedy, and affliction. Our culture pictures life as an endless series of Stroh-Light Nights culminating in Weekends Made for Michelob, but deep in our hearts we know it is not so. The happiest and most successful of us knows from experience the meaning of words like loneliness, fear, disappointment, rejection, failure. If we live long enough, we will add to that list the death of loved ones, betrayal, ill health, the feeling of uselessness. You cannot avoid suffering. You can muddle thought it blindly; you can make it worse by rebelling against it futilely; or you can understand it biblically and bear it redemptively. Some men suffer bitterly; some pitifully; some grievously; some needlessly; all men suffer inevitably. One of Paul's concerns in 2 Timothy is that the Christian experience the joy and privilege of suffering for the Gospel. To do this, we must understand the biblical view of suffering in the Christian life, which has at least three elements:

I. THE PLACE OF SUFFERING IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

We would prefer to think there isn't any. Our favorite verses are all about abundant life and joy unspeakable, understandably so. But the view they give of the Christian life is not so much false as incomplete. A biblical view must also include 2 Tim. 1:8: We are to join with the Apostle Paul in suffering for the Gospel. Instead, the theology of success and prosperity, health and wealth ("Name it and Claim it" — or, perhaps more accurately, "Blab it and Grab it") continues to grow in popularity and, in subtle and less blatant forms, to infect even those who think they reject it. While God does sometimes reward his faithful with material wealth, there is no blanket promise of this type of blessing; there are many biblical examples counter to it; and there is explicit teaching that contradicts it. We do have joy unspeakable and full of glory, a foretaste or earnest of heaven — but we are not going to be in heaven until we get there. To deny the biblical place of suffering is simply to make the real suffering that does come harder to bear.

Let me share then three ways of saying the same thing about the place of suffering in the Christian life. First, it is part of our calling (2 Tim. 1:8-9, 1 Pet. 2:20-21). Paul asks Timothy to join with him in suffering for the Gospel. This is to be done according to the power of the God who has called us with a holy calling. Peter reminds his readers that suffering for what is right finds favor with God, for they "have been called for this purpose." Second, it is part of our identity (2 Tim. 2:3-6, 1 Pet. 4:15-16). Timothy is to suffer hardship because he is a good soldier of Christ Jesus, and Peter's readers are to suffer as a Christian rather than as a murderer or thief. And third, it is part of God's will for us (1 Pet. 3:17). It is better, if God so wills, that we suffer for doing right.