EXPLORE IT! - 1 Peter 4:12-13

In the Scripture passage for this week, the writer begins to discuss in further detail the responsibilities of a church and its leader in the midst of trials. During the time that 1 Peter was composed, the believers in Asia Minor (to whom the letter is written) were being punished for simply bearing the name of Christ. The letter points to the example of Peter and the other apostles who were killed and suffered for Christ, and it calls the second generation of believers in Asia Minor who are now also being persecuted to live as they did.

The persecution was so intense that the writer refers to it as a “fiery trial” of suffering. But his message doesn’t end with suffering, it ends with hope and glory. The writer says to them, “Don’t be surprised by the fiery trial surrounding you.”

He even goes so far as to tell them to praise God for their persecutions.

He says, “Rejoice that you can suffer as Christ suffered and experience his glory more fully when he is revealed.”

He later goes on to say that if you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

This message is so opposite of what we would like to hear. We don’t want to suffer. And when we do suffer, we don’t want to think about what good can come out of it.

Now, we should be clear that we don’t praise God for bad things. That is not the writer’s point here. His point is that we need to see the bigger picture – that even though the suffering we have right now is evil and of the devil, God is using Satan’s schemes against him. As anti-Christ as this persecution is, God is using it to bring about the salvation of the entire world.

How would the Kingdom of Heaven fill the earth if God evacuated his people every time things got hard? We are a part of God’s Creation, and in our suffering we bear the image of Christ himself more clearly within this earthly realm, and we proclaim that Christ is King over Creation.