Suffering in Ministry: Following Paul's example

The apostle Paul gives us an amazing example of someone who followed Christ faithfully in a ministry that was full of suffering. Although he had the joy of planting churches and pioneering gospel work in places where Christ was not known, he also had the hardship of opposition constantly throughout his ministry. Using the book of Acts and Paul's letters in the New Testament, we can build a detailed picture of what his ministry life was like. It certainly wasn't glamorous or free from pain. He faced jealousy from the Jews, who often rejected him (see Acts 13-14). He dealt with deceit and imprisonment (Acts 16), and also had to fend off the false teaching of fake apostles in places where the church was young and fragile (see his letter to the Galatians).

Before Paul was converted, he sought to imprison Christians and even watched Stephen die as a martyr for his faith (Acts 7). So when he became a believer after a dramatic encounter with Christ (Acts 9), he knew that his life would be endangered. Although Acts ends with Paul continuing with a growing ministry, he was martyred in Rome some time later.

Here's what he wrote about his sufferings in ministry:

'To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world – right up to this moment. I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.' (1 Cor 4:11-17)

The scum of the earth! Paul could not have been in ministry for the fame and fortune. Through his suffering he was able to prove his authenticity as an apostle, and when we suffer in ministry, it gives us a similar opportunity to prove how real our faith is to a watching world. Paul urges the Corinthians to imitate him, because his way of life was consistent with his teaching. That's a huge challenge to anyone in ministry! At any point, you should be able to urge your church to imitate you, because you walk the talk. Whether you urge them to or not, they will still be photocopying your lifestyle.

Look at what Paul writes in another letter:

'Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak?' (2 Cor 11:24-29)

In all of these pressures on Paul in his ministry, he was made to feel his weakness constantly. But, as he goes on to write, God wants His servants to serve Him in weakness, because then they rely on His strength. Paul writes,

'I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.' (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

When we suffer and we're in ministry, we can't just wish God would take all the pain away so we can 'get on with the job'. Suffering is part of ministry, part of the call, because it's an integral part of following Christ. We have to learn to trust in His grace despite our weakness. I'm challenged by Paul's example, as I see him
☻ constantly in prayer - his weakness driving him to the Lord, not to despair (1 Thess 5:16-18)
☻ taking joy in the gospel - seeing it bear fruit despite his personal suffering (Col 1:6)
☻ rejoicing in the finished work of Christ - knowing his salvation didn't depend on his ministry efforts (Phil 3:7-12)
☻ trusting that Christ is coming - the day of suffering will come to an end (1 Thess 3:13)
☻ persevering in preaching, teaching and discipling - passing on the baton (2 Tim 1:13-14)
☻ praising God's wisdom - understanding that we don't always understand God's ways (Rom 11:33-36)

Let's imitate Paul as he imitates Christ, and call on those around us to do so too.

Comfort in suffering: 2 Corinthians

Going through suffering is never easy. I've found it so helpful to find books to navigate my way through it: what to think, what to pray, what to sing. Matt and Beth Redman's 'Blessed be your name' (the song and the book) have been very helpful but today I'm going to focus on one of my favourite Bible books: 2 Corinthians.

I've been reading a book of daily devotionals called 'Contentment' by Lydia Brownback. Again, this is an amazingly concise but incisive book that has really challenged me. She wrote today's devotion on Paul's experience of 'the thorn in the flesh' as recorded in 2 Corinthians 12. We don't know what it was, but Paul was experiencing some form of suffering and asked God three times to take it away. Instead, the words Christ spoke to him were:

'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' (v9)

That verse really kicks against what we want to believe. Surely not, God? Surely I'm more useful to you when I'm 'sorted', when I've got it together? But that's not what Jesus says.

Brownback puts it this way: 'Our thorns are opportunities to cling to Christ... There are things about our union with Christ that we just cannot know apart from the thorns that spear our lives. You'll never know Christ's sufficiency if you spend all your energy seeking to pull the thorn out of your flesh.'

This really ties in with the whole letter of 2 Corinthians. Paul's message to the church is that suffering isn't some inconvenient truth which just has to be avoided so we can look like 'real' Christians. Actually, God uses suffering in our lives: to comfort us Himself in a way that no one else can, and to equip us to comfort others (see chapter 1 v4).

Suffering makes us see ourselves for what we really are: jars of clay (chapter 4 v7), so we trust in God not ourselves (chapter 1 v9).

We know God's salvation as a present reality, but also as a future one too:

'we trust that He will yet deliver us' (chapter 1 v10)

We hang on to the physical historical reality of Christ's resurrection as the source of our hope in our own eternal future:

'knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus... we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.' (chapter 4 v14,18)

Suffering reminds me that I haven't got it all together. I haven't figured out answers to all of life's questions. But what I do know, and what I have come to know more in suffering, is that God's promises of comfort are true. May you know His comfort today whatever your suffering is.

Can we be sure of our own salvation?

I am writing this post in response to Phil's comment
'We must never presume we are to be saved'
on my post 'Encouragement'.

I think the Bible DOES give us assurance of our salvation, if we believe in Christ and persevere until the end.

Firstly, our salvation does not depend upon our own works. Our salvation, our means of being acceptable in God's sight, comes through Christ's perfection. It means that when we choose to trust in Jesus, God sees Jesus' holiness in place of our sinfulness. God forgives us and cleanses us through Christ's blood, the unique ransom for our sins. Because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8), there is never any doubt about whether His sacrifice is enough for us. The writer of Hebrews is at pains to emphasise this to his Jewish audience, who were used to making regular animal sacrifices as part of the covenant system:

'Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.' Heb 7:27

'He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.' Heb 9:12

'But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.' Heb 9:26

Jesus' death and resurrection were planned by God from the beginning as His means of redeeming His people. So if we ever sin and shy away from God, thinking that we have sinned too much to be forgiven, this is actually a form of pride. We need to accept that Jesus' blood is enough to pay for our sins past, present and future. This brings fantastic freedom from guilt, and this is why the gospel is 'good news'.

So becoming a Christian is all about arriving at the point where you recognise that you can't save yourself, accepting Jesus' sacrifice for you, and deciding to put your faith and trust in Him and walk His way for the rest of your days.

It is important to remember that true faith is always lived out:

'In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.'
James 2:17

Our assurance of our own salvation comes from these two things:
1. Are we trusting in Jesus' blood to cleanse us from our sin?
2. Are we living each day for Jesus, continuing in our faith?

If you can answer yes to both questions, then even if you are struggling with sin or various doubts, you are still a Christian. It is if you are living totally against God, with no repentance, that you need to be worried about your salvation.

Paul writes to the Colossians:

'Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.' Colossians 1:21-23

Note the emphasis here. God does all the saving- He reconciles you by Christ's death to make you perfect in His sight- but we must continue in faith throughout our lives. Our faith is not just a prayer of confession when we are 12 years old; it is the daily living out of the Christian life.