The Blessing of Suffering

As far as I am aware, everyone wants to be blessed. Do you want to be blessed? If you say “No,” I probably wouldn’t believe you! The desire to be blessed is common among everyone regardless of location, age, race, gender, or religion. We all want to benefit, succeed, and be happy.

According to scripture, there are different ideas communicated by the word bless. Last week we saw two of those. One way of blessing is to speak well of someone. 1 Peter 3:9 says we are to bless or speak well of those who insult us. Another aspect of blessing is to receive benefit of some kind, whether physical or spiritual.

But there is yet another aspect of blessing that plays an important role in our passage today and it relates to happiness, not just average happiness but profound and deeply rooted happiness. But the strange thing about 1 Peter 3:13-14 is that we are told profound happiness can be found in suffering. Peter said, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed.”

All the reasoning in the world would say this is not true and cannot ever be true, for suffering seems to be the very opposite of happiness! Yet it’s exactly what the Apostle Peter teaches. How can this possibly be true?

What is suffering?

Let’s look first at what it means to suffer. Right in the text, Peter connects being harmed with suffering and I think we would agree. Physical or emotional harm tends to be our first picture of suffering and rightly so because it’s probably the worst kind of suffering.

But more qualifies as suffering than just physical harm. The Greek word translated suffer can also mean to be vexed which means to be frustrated, annoyed, or worried. If we may not be able to relate well to suffering as physical harm, we can certainly relate to suffering as frustration.

Given all this, a good working definition of suffering could be to endure evil, to be afflicted, or to be vexed.

Suffering for what is good

But there are many reasons someone can suffer. For this reason, Peter clarifies that blessing comes from suffering for doing what is good and righteous rather than what is wrong. This begs another question though: What is the good for which we are supposedly blessed to suffer? Again, Peter has given us examples of this already in his book:

1. Abstaining from passions of the flesh (1:14, 2:11, 4:2)

2. Loving one another (1:22, 2:17, 4:8)

3. Not participating in malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander (2:1)

4. Submission to authority (2:13,17-18, 3:1)

5. Showing honor and respect to everyone (2:17, 3:7)

6. Having unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, tender heard, humble mind, blessing those who insult you (3:8-9)

7. Showing self-control (4:7)

8. Hospitality without grumbling (4:9)

Here are some more examples of what is good and righteous from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7:

1. Poor in spirit (5:3)

2. mourning over sin (5:4)

3. meek (5:5)

4. pursuing righteousness (5:6)

5. merciful (5:7)

6. pure in heart (5:8)

7. peacemakers (5:9)

8. quickly reconciling hurt relationships (5:21-26)

9. marital loyalty (5:27-32)

10. honesty (5:33-37)

11. turning the other cheek (5:38-42)

12. giving generously and selflessly to those in need (6:1-4)

13. forgiving others (6:5-15)

14. valuing the eternal over the temporary (6:19-26)

15. trusting God (6:25-34)

Ultimately, what is good is obedience to the teaching and example of Christ. If we want to know that the suffering we experience is for something good, then we must first know what is good. This list is anything but complete, but it gives a good starting point. Take some time this week and search through scripture to find and add more examples of what is good and then compare the list to what your own actions to see where your values lie. If you feel like you are suffering, doing this will help you to know whether you are suffering from doing good or bad. When Christians suffer for doing good, there can be a profound blessing of happiness.

But we are still left with question, “How can suffering make me happy?” Any normal person would not be happy when suffering! But Christians are bot exactly normal people, and we do not value normal things.

After searching through the book of 1 Peter, I found 6 truths about suffering that should bring genuine followers of Jesus profound happiness.

1. Eternal glory

First, suffering relates directly to eternal glory. This connection is made three times in 1 Peter (1:11,5:1, 5:10), but it’s summed up wonderfully in 2 Corinthians 4:17 – “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” There is a repeated truth throughout the New Testament that suffering because of righteous living leads to experiencing eternal glory. Very little on this earth can qualify as glorious but if you’ve experienced a glimpse of God’s glory, it’s something you never forget. Those experiences have a way of changing a Christian and an eternity of living in the glory of God awaits those who suffer for being righteous. This leads then to the second truth about suffering: Suffering because of good is a sign of God’s glorious presence with you.

2. Sign of God’s presence with you

In 1 Peter 4:14 Peter wrote, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” That one should be so different from the world to incur insult because of Christ is a sure sign that the Holy Spirit, God himself, has manifested himself in the believer’s and is performing glorious transformation. This is opposite what we often assume concerning God, namely that we are suffering because his presence has left us. Rather, we may be suffering because his presence is with us!

3. Identifying more with Jesus

Jesus knows all about suffering and he truly suffered because God’s Spirit rested upon him. Whenever a follower of Jesus suffers for doing good, he is following in the example that Jesus set for Christians to follow. 1 Peter 2:21b: “…Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.” If our ultimate goal on this earth is to be transformed to be more like Jesus, what joy suffering like Jesus must bring us! In our suffering we identify with our Savior who selflessly and humbly endured suffering for our benefit which is in fact the fourth truth of suffering.

4. Bringing others to Christ

Suffering well brings others to Christ. Peter said in 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…” Through Jesus’ suffering, we who now follow Jesus have been brought to him and given life. When followers of Jesus suffer because of faith in Jesus, God works in the same way by using that testimony of patient endurance through suffering to bring sinners to repentance. This makes complete sense too because Jesus did not come to save the well, but to save the sick, so Christianity is a faith of sick people and what better way to reach sick people than to identify with them in their suffering while carrying and distributing the ultimate hope and cure.

5. Removal from fleshly desires

Fifth, suffering helps to remove us from the desires of our flesh. People are naturally materialistic but suffering reminds us that material things can hurt and will always fail; it forces us to look to something greater than our circumstances and pleasures. Peter talks about this in 1 Peter 4:2 and Paul mentions it in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. Here’s what Paul said: “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had reached the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” Suffering works to purify our hearts and desires to make us more like Christ.

6. Heavenly renewal

Finally, Peter gives one last reason at the end of his book in 5:10: “10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” These words must have been simply glorious to Peter’s audience because some of them were being ripped apart by lions and impaled on spikes because of their faith and so to hear that they will be renewed by God himself would have brought incredible comfort as it should for us as well. Yet it’s promised only to those who are faithful through everything to the very end.

As a recap, Peter has taught us that we can be truly happy through suffering because suffering leads to eternal glory, it’s a sign of God’s presence in our lives, it makes us more like Jesus, it brings others to Christ, it purifies our hearts, and it leads to heavenly renewal by God himself.

Endure suffering

However, we will not experience the blessing of profound happiness in our lives unless we patiently endure suffering for righteousness. Peter said that it is a “gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” (1 Peter 2:20). We often work our hardest to either avoid suffering or escape suffering, yet when it’s on account of our faith, neither of these approaches to suffering is pleasing to God. Rather, we must endure.

Conclusion

What Peter is saying in these two short verses is that nothing, not even potential for suffering, should prevent us from doing what is good and righteous in the eyes of the Lord. And if we find ourselves suffering maybe by running into frustration or worry because of our choice to do good, then we are blessed because of it. We can know that what we have done is pleasing in the eyes of the Lord and we are not responsible for whatever follows. With a clear conscience and knowing all the wonderful and glorious ways God uses suffering to bless us and others, our hearts can rejoice even through the suffering.

Nowhere else will you find this perfect and glorious truth. God, in his infinite mercy and wisdom has made a way for his children to experience profound happiness in the greatest of trials.

If this is you right now, if you are suffering because you are making the choice to live in a way that is good and pleasing to the Lord, take a moment to thank your Heavenly Father and praise him for the incredible things he has done, is doing and will do in your life and in the lives of those around you. Whatever you are walking through right now is a light and momentary affliction that is preparing you for the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Remain steadfast in Christ and open to the transformation he desires you to experience in this life.

If you are not suffering right now, take this time of rest to prepare your hearts when suffering comes. Consider how you are living your life and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the ways in which you might be avoiding or trying to escape suffering. When we want to avoid or escape suffering, we will make all manner of compromises to our faith thereby denying ourselves and others divine and transformational blessing.

May God do such a work in us that we choose to unapologetically live out our faith in Christ Jesus to its fullest degree for the glory of God and for His blessing.

Amen.