Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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1 Corinthians 11:25-28
When we observe the Passover each spring, we each drink from a cup of wine. The wine symbolizes the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on our behalf, which accomplishes a number of tremendous things that we cannot do for ourselves. We tend not to focus as much on the cup, but it, too, is a foundational part of Passover's meaning. When the Bible speaks of "drinking of the cup," it indicates that a person is also sharing in the consequences of whatever the cup contains. "Drinking of the cup" goes beyond merely partaking of the liquid but implies accepting everything that happens as a result. Thus, when the mother of Zebedee's sons petition Jesus to grant her sons positions of honor, He asks James and John if they are able to "drink the cup" that He is about to drink (Matthew 20:20-23). He implies that if they desire to reign with Him in glory, they have to be willing to also share in His whole experience, not all of which would be glorious. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asks the Father to let that cup pass from Him if it were possible (Matthew 26:39-42). The cup of which He speaks is the cup He had just drunk from at the Passover. At that meal, He had identified the cup as "the new covenant in My blood" (Luke 22:20; emphasis ours throughout). By drinking from that cup, He had agreed to make the New Covenant, which required a perfect blood sacrifice that only He could fulfill. When we drink from that cup at Passover, we, too, agree to share in whatever results from that covenant, assenting to pay whatever it costs to become fully unified with Jesus Christ. On the one hand, priceless blessings and promises come from that cup. But on the other hand, a price must be paid in this life, which can perhaps best be summed up with the word "suffering." Suffering is not a concept that we like to think about, and our mind resists it, even as Christ prayed that, if possible, that cup would pass from Him. However, when we become united with Christ through partaking of His blood, our lives with Him will involve suffering, just as His did. To evaluate the depth of our convictions and the maturity of our faith honestly, it is necessary to understand what the Bible has to say about suffering. Because of the weakness of our flesh, we eagerly anticipate the Messiah's crown of honor but shy away from identifying with the crown of thorns that was thrust upon His head. We look forward to the white robes of glory but turn from the scarlet robe of mockery and ridicule placed on Christ. As one commentator put it, most Christians "would desire to share the glories and triumphs of redemption but not its poverty, contempt, and persecution." If we are merely seeking that crown of glory, hoping to skirt the less enjoyable parts of Christ's experience, we must ask ourselves whether we really understand and accept the Passover cup. Even a cursory reading of the epistles shows a clear sequence: First, there is suffering, then there is glory—and we cannot have the second without some measure of the first (see Luke 24:25-26; Romans 8:17; I Peter 1:10-11; 4:13; Revelation 2:10). Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of this sequence because only He has suffered and been glorified. Nevertheless, we can also look at the record of the heroes of faith, as well as the apostles and prophets, and realize that, throughout history, being chosen by God meant there would be some suffering involved. Just as day follows night, so our glory will not come until we have gone through darkness
David C. Grabbe
A Look at Christian Suffering (Part One)
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Colossians 1:24
The Amplified Bible renders this: [Even] now I rejoice in the midst of my sufferings on your behalf. And in my own person I am making up whatever is still lacking and remains to be completed of Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church. Paul claims that he is in the process of completing or filling up what remained for his afflictions to get to the level of Jesus Christ's afflictions. What does he mean? The Greek word translated as "afflictions" is never used in reference to the crucifixion. Instead, it refers to the pressure, the troubles, and the distress Christ suffered during His life. The apostle is saying that all the afflictions that Jesus suffered are at one level, and all of his own afflictions are at a lower one, but by laboring on behalf of the Gentiles in Colossae, Paul was filling up the difference between them. This expresses Paul's greatest desire to be just like Christ, including having the same experiences His Savior did. Paul was suffering in the cause of the church, just as Christ did. Paul was enduring the rejection, the contempt, and the abuse, similar to what Christ did. Paul was not suggesting that he would ever complete all that was lacking, only that as he was suffering, he could compare it with Christ's suffering and say, "I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer." Paul yearned so greatly to be made just like Christ in all respects that he rejoiced at the opportunity to experience more of what Christ endured and labor on behalf of the Body of believers just as Christ did.
David C. Grabbe
A Look at Christian Suffering (Part Two)
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1 Peter 2:19-21
Peter's choice of words makes suffering a requirement! God called us to emulate Jesus Christ in doing good, and because of the anti-God bent of the world, some suffering is guaranteed to result from doing the right thing. It often offends our sense of justice to see the wicked prospering while the righteous endure hardship and grief. In the long term, God's justice will be served, but in the meantime, we may need to adjust our expectations for leading a comfortable or easy life. If we have been called by God, we must follow the example of Christ, which epitomized unjust suffering while always doing good.
David C. Grabbe
A Look at Christian Suffering (Part Three)
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1 Peter 4:1-2
Peter suggests that, since Christ suffered for us, we should put on this attitude as we would a piece of armor. This attitude or guiding principle has a couple of elements. One is that Jesus was so determined to do the Father's will that, after He drank of the cup, He suffered rather than turn back for the sake of self-preservation. Thus, in our own lives, we must also have the attitude that the Father's will is what matters the most. If doing His will leads to some sort of suffering, then we are sharing the fellowship of Christ's suffering. A second element is the relationship between suffering and sin. In verse 2, Peter points out that suffering is a way for us to cease from sin. Just as our sins caused Jesus to suffer so we could have life, so our sins and those of others will lead to suffering in our lives and in those around us. Yet, if we approach that suffering with faith—that is, with belief, trust in God, and obedience—then our suffering can be used to a good end. The presence of suffering reveals that at some point God's royal law of liberty—His perfect law of love—has been transgressed, thus suffering can serve as a powerful teaching tool to increase our understanding of how God wants us to live. Sometimes our suffering has little to do with what we believe, and it may not even be directly related to an action or failing on our part. It may be what we consider "undeserved." However, if we commit ourselves to Him who judges righteously, and He decides that we must drink from this cup, we can trust that the suffering will accomplish good somewhere, at some time, even as Christ's wholly undeserved suffering has accomplished an overwhelming amount of good. Maybe it will teach us an aspect of God's way that we could not learn from simply reading about it. Perhaps it will allow us to identify more closely with our Savior. It may allow us to sympathize with another member of His Body in his suffering. It could be a means to test our trust in Him or even a way that He has decided to keep us humble and submissive to Him. Whatever the reason—and we may never fully understand it in this life—if we approach it with faith, we can trust that God will strengthen us as we suffer and He will cause the circumstance to bear good fruit. Part of that fruit will be abhorrence of whatever sin caused the suffering, and in this way, part of God's law will be written indelibly on our hearts. Part of the New Covenant, which He signed with His own blood, is that He promises to write His law on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10; 10:16). Therefore, part of our keeping of the covenant is to allow Him to keep those terms and to trust Him as He faithfully carries out His work in us.
David C. Grabbe
A Look at Christian Suffering (Part Three)
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