Post by Cindy on Dec 13, 2021 6:14:12 GMT -5
MATURITY IN SUFFERING
May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 1 PETER 5:10
A Christian’s call to glory necessitates walking the path of suffering. Today’s verse explains why. Suffering is God’s way of maturing His people spiritually. He is pleased when we patiently endure the suffering that comes our way. Suffering is a part of God’s plan to prepare His people for glory.
The apostle Peter said this regarding the value of suffering: “You greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:6–7). God allows suffering as a validation of our faith. It also produces patience, though patience is a quality we won’t need in eternity—there will be no reason for impatience there. But beyond those benefits, suffering increases our capacity to praise, honor, and glorify God—and that’s something we will use throughout eternity.
MacArthur, John, Truth for Today : A Daily Touch of God’s Grace
READY TO SUFFER
Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. 1 PETER 4:1
One of the blessings of being a Christian is our identification with Christ and its resulting privileges. However, just so we won’t take those blessings for granted, assuming that they will result in our being loved and respected by the world, God also allows us to suffer. In fact, the apostle Peter in his first epistle clearly shows that those most blessed in the faith suffer the most.
The Christian life is a call to glory through a journey of suffering. That’s because those in Christ are inevitably at odds with their culture and society. All Satan–energized systems are actively at odds with the things of Christ. The apostle John said a person can’t love both God and the world (1 John 2:15), and James said, “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
MacArthur, John, Truth for Today : A Daily Touch of God’s Grace
CALLED TO SUFFER
For to this [suffering] you were called. 1 PETER 2:21
Though today’s verse seems to point out that we are called to suffer, it actually refers back to the last part of verse 20, which says, “When you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.” When Christians endure suffering with patience, it pleases God.
That shouldn’t surprise us. Earlier in this chapter of First Peter, the apostle Peter states that Christians “are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (v. 9). Our dark world resents and is often hostile toward those who represent the Lord Jesus Christ. That resentment and hostility may be felt at certain times and places more than others, but it is always there to some extent as a part of the privilege of being His own.
MacArthur, John, Truth for Today : A Daily Touch of God’s Grace
WHAT DO YOU REALLY LOVE?
If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple. LUKE 14:26–27
Apart from God, nothing could have been dearer to Abraham than his son Isaac. But that was the test: to find out whether he loved Isaac more than God. If we love God supremely, we will thank Him for what He is accomplishing through our trials and sufferings. But if we love ourselves more than God, we will question God’s wisdom and become upset and bitter. If anything is dearer to us than God, then He must remove it for us to grow spiritually.
In today’s verse, Jesus was not indicating that we’re to hate everyone. Rather He meant that if you do not love God to the degree that you willingly, if necessary, cut yourself off from your father, mother, spouse, children, brother, sister, or even your own life, then you don’t love Him supremely. You must determine to do the will of God first and foremost, no matter what appeals others may make to you.
MacArthur, John, Truth for Today : A Daily Touch of God’s Grace
May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 1 PETER 5:10
A Christian’s call to glory necessitates walking the path of suffering. Today’s verse explains why. Suffering is God’s way of maturing His people spiritually. He is pleased when we patiently endure the suffering that comes our way. Suffering is a part of God’s plan to prepare His people for glory.
The apostle Peter said this regarding the value of suffering: “You greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:6–7). God allows suffering as a validation of our faith. It also produces patience, though patience is a quality we won’t need in eternity—there will be no reason for impatience there. But beyond those benefits, suffering increases our capacity to praise, honor, and glorify God—and that’s something we will use throughout eternity.
MacArthur, John, Truth for Today : A Daily Touch of God’s Grace
READY TO SUFFER
Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. 1 PETER 4:1
One of the blessings of being a Christian is our identification with Christ and its resulting privileges. However, just so we won’t take those blessings for granted, assuming that they will result in our being loved and respected by the world, God also allows us to suffer. In fact, the apostle Peter in his first epistle clearly shows that those most blessed in the faith suffer the most.
The Christian life is a call to glory through a journey of suffering. That’s because those in Christ are inevitably at odds with their culture and society. All Satan–energized systems are actively at odds with the things of Christ. The apostle John said a person can’t love both God and the world (1 John 2:15), and James said, “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
MacArthur, John, Truth for Today : A Daily Touch of God’s Grace
CALLED TO SUFFER
For to this [suffering] you were called. 1 PETER 2:21
Though today’s verse seems to point out that we are called to suffer, it actually refers back to the last part of verse 20, which says, “When you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.” When Christians endure suffering with patience, it pleases God.
That shouldn’t surprise us. Earlier in this chapter of First Peter, the apostle Peter states that Christians “are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (v. 9). Our dark world resents and is often hostile toward those who represent the Lord Jesus Christ. That resentment and hostility may be felt at certain times and places more than others, but it is always there to some extent as a part of the privilege of being His own.
MacArthur, John, Truth for Today : A Daily Touch of God’s Grace
WHAT DO YOU REALLY LOVE?
If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple. LUKE 14:26–27
Apart from God, nothing could have been dearer to Abraham than his son Isaac. But that was the test: to find out whether he loved Isaac more than God. If we love God supremely, we will thank Him for what He is accomplishing through our trials and sufferings. But if we love ourselves more than God, we will question God’s wisdom and become upset and bitter. If anything is dearer to us than God, then He must remove it for us to grow spiritually.
In today’s verse, Jesus was not indicating that we’re to hate everyone. Rather He meant that if you do not love God to the degree that you willingly, if necessary, cut yourself off from your father, mother, spouse, children, brother, sister, or even your own life, then you don’t love Him supremely. You must determine to do the will of God first and foremost, no matter what appeals others may make to you.
MacArthur, John, Truth for Today : A Daily Touch of God’s Grace
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