Rejoice in Suffering

Paul makes lots of referenced to knowledge - "Make known"

we should also note the high concentration of “knowledge” language: “make known” (v. 27); “wisdom” (v. 28); “complete understanding” (2:2); “know” (2:2); “wisdom” (2:3); “knowledge” (2:3). The concern expressed in these words is evident also in 1:9–10, as we have seen earlier. Wisdom and knowledge were very common goals in the ancient world, and it is possible that the false teachers were claiming that it was through their doctrines and practices that ultimate knowledge could be attained

Moo, D. J. (2008). The letters to the Colossians and to Philemon

Colossians and Philemon C. The Mystery of Christ in Paul’s Ministry and Christian Experience (1:24–2:5)

The language is reminiscent of 1:18, where “church” refers not to a local assembly of believers (as is usually the case in the New Testament) but to the “universal church.” By referring to the church as Christ’s body, Paul highlights the corporate solidarity that Christ’s people enjoy with him

Colossians and Philemon C. The Mystery of Christ in Paul’s Ministry and Christian Experience (1:24–2:5)

So we hesitantly adopt the sense “I am filling up in order to complete” what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions.

Colossians and Philemon C. The Mystery of Christ in Paul’s Ministry and Christian Experience (1:24–2:5)

It is not that there is anything lacking “in” the atoning suffering of Christ but that there is something lacking “in regard to” (TNIV) the tribulations that pertain to Christ as the Messiah as he is proclaimed in the world

Colossians and Philemon C. The Mystery of Christ in Paul’s Ministry and Christian Experience (1:24–2:5)

The difference may even be suggested in the vocabulary that Paul uses, since he shifts from “sufferings” (Gk. pathēma) to “afflictions” (Gk. thlipsis), this latter word never being used in the New Testament for Christ’s redemptive sufferings.

Colossians and Philemon C. The Mystery of Christ in Paul’s Ministry and Christian Experience (1:24–2:5)

What is lacking, then, needing to be “filled up,” are the tribulations that are inevitable and necessary as God’s kingdom faces the opposition of the “dominion of darkness” (cf. v. 13). As members of Christ’s own body, his people participate in the sufferings of Christ himself.

Colossians and Philemon (C. The Mystery of Christ in Paul’s Ministry and Christian Experience (1:24–2:5))

“For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer” (1:5–6);

Colossians and Philemon C. The Mystery of Christ in Paul’s Ministry and Christian Experience (1:24–2:5)

It is in this way that Paul’s sufferings are “on behalf of” the church, including the Colossian Christians. And, of course, as a prisoner for the gospel, Paul is suffering for them even as he writes. As members of the fellowship of those raised with Christ and forming therefore part of Christ’s body, we also are the beneficiaries of Paul’s suffering.

This can express the absence of a person to whom one is consciously attached (1 Cor 16:17*; Phil 2:30*). However, it can also be a deficiency regarding a specific situation, as in 1 Thess 3:10*, “what is lacking in your faith”

The apostle, through the sufferings which he painfully bears in his own flesh,26 contributes to foreshortening the eschatological afflictions. This, in turn, brings the dawning of the future glory all the closer.27

According to Acts 9:16* it has been decreed from the beginning that Saul/Paul must suffer for the name of Christ. In Eph 3:1* Paul is called a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of the Gentiles.31

Paul is an “in person example” of the suffering of Jesus.

Jesus’s sacrifice was complete, but the blood cannot be left in the basin. It has to be applied to the threshold of the door.

No greater example of rejoicing in suffering than Jesus on the cross. Was He giddy? No. He was screaming out in agony. But what did the soldier see? Yes, he saw the signs and the wonders. But He saw something more powerful than that- He saw a man who had done no wrong, forgive the people that were torturing and mocking Him in His greatest moment of suffering. Even when the pain and abandonment was so great, He only quoted the Word of God to express the sorrow He felt within.

“Surely this was the son of God”

There always seems to be a roman soldier watching.

Who’s watching you in your suffering for Jesus?

Though my natural instinct is to wish for a life free from pain, trouble, and adversity, I am learning to welcome anything that makes me conscious of my need for Him. If prayer is birthed out of desperation, then anything that makes me desperate for God is a blessing

Nancy DeMoss

We are not called to rejoice at suffering in and of itself. Suffering is bad, suffering is hard, and suffering often comes at the hands of wicked people. Therefore, we do not rejoice in suffering because we love the suffering in and of itself. We rejoice in suffering because we look forward to what God is able to do through our suffering. Paul [in Romans 5:1-5] celebrated the fact that through our sufferings and afflictions God is bringing about endurance, proven character, and hope.

sorrow enlarges the capacity of the heart for joy.

In trial and weakness and trouble, He seeks to bring us low, until we learn that His grace is all, and to take pleasure in the very thing that brings us and keeps us low. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. His presence filling and satisfying our emptiness, becomes the secret of humility that need never fail. The humble man has learned the secret of abiding gladness. The weaker he feels, the lower he sinks, and the greater his humiliations appear, the more power and the presence of Christ are his portion.

-Andrew Murray

Joy in God in the midst of suffering makes the worth of God – the all-satisfying glory of God – shine more brightly than it would through our joy at any other time. Sunshine happiness signals the value of sunshine. But happiness in suffering signals the value of God. Suffering and hardship joyfully accepted in the path of obedience to Christ show the supremacy of Christ more than all our faithfulness in fair day.

John Piper

“Affliction” (1:4), “abundant…suffering” (1:5), “burdened excessively, beyond…strength” (1:8), “sentence of death within ourselves” (1:9), “sorrowful” (2:1), “affliction and anguish of heart” (2:4), “afflicted [and] perplexed” (4:8), “persecuted [and] struck down (4:9), “constantly being delivered over to death” (4:11), “beatings…imprisonments…tumults…labors…sleeplessness…hunger” (6:5), “dishonor [and] evil report” (6:8), “dying [and] punished (6:9) and “having nothing (6:10)

When others see our Christlike attitude – gratitude verses complaining, kindness verses anger, faith verses anxiety, contentment verses greed and joy verses bitterness – God is glorified. It means very little when godly character and spiritual fruit only appear when things are going well in our lives.

Randy Smith

Why name joy the gift in trials? Because trials keep us from becoming complacent about our loving God and Savior when we are forced to our knees and the tears won’t stop. It is only then that our communion with our God is the purest. Trials drive us to run boldly to the throne of grace, to the safety of being on our faces in the presence of God, and to spend time in deep communion with God. When we are hurting, we don’t suffer as much from weak, shallow, and meaningless minutes with the Lord, We learn to relish and anticipate hours with God! The experience of communion and intimate fellowship with God is the very depiction of joy!

Steve Swartz