Worthy To Suffer

Everyone has a sense of understanding things that sound right to them or a little "off". This has a lot to do with the way our experiences have taught us how to interpret the world we live in. Of course, the stakes seem much higher when we face choices that affect our personal lives. At that stage any discussion of right and wrong become integrally intertwined with your own identity and any ideas that don't fit with you, your experiences and the culture around you feel wrong. 

These are my thoughts when I read from 

1 Peter 4:16 AMP

But if [one is ill-treated and suffers] as a Christian [which he is contemptuously called], let him not be ashamed, but give glory to God that he is [deemed worthy to suffer] in this name.

Doesn't it feel somehow wrong to hear God say to us that it is a good thing to see yourself as "worthy to suffer"?  Doesn't that seem to fly in the face of the idea of healthy self-worth?  

Here is where our worldview bumps against something foreign: our worldview says to forge a healthy self-worth by seeing yourself as intrinsically good, that the basic foundation of your identity resides in the fact that you exist and by that reason alone you have the right to freedom and that that freedom means that you should not suffer because of someone else. 

In this way of thinking it would make sense to us to say that a healthy self-image is one where I say that "I am worthy to be free and to experience personal joy!"

Except that in our pursuit of self-understanding so heavily influenced by sin and our surrounding culture, we forget that there is a huge difference between living for the purpose of pleasing myself and living for the purpose of something that is bigger than myself. 

What God is sayIng in this passage is that to be found and identified as a follower of Jesus Christ is to find yourself at odds with the world and its ways of thinking, and also to find yourself immersed in a life that finds its identity in something other than yourself. To be a Christian (at least ideally) is to live selflessly. 

To be found worthy to suffer, in this case, is to be identified with something that has deep meaning and purpose that goes beyond a few harsh words from people who don't identify with what you are standing for. But don't be fooled: their harsh words do not mean that you are pursuing some kind of twisted self image where suffering is a good unto itself. To think this is to be blind to the fact that God is all about overcoming suffering- it's just that what we see right now is only one small part of a greater journey that has a destination- a destination where suffering will cease. 

Yes, I embrace the idea that I am worthy to suffer, especially when I know that my suffering comes from being identified with Jesus. After all, He is the Author of life not death and He promises that I will live in that life even when I am faced with criticism. 

As followers of Jesus we must be aware that suffering is part of the package because we live in a world that doesn't understand His heart. 

But that doesn't mean that as His follower that I am pursuing suffering.  No.  As a follower of Jesus I am being identified with the only thing that can bring true freedom and life. Sometimes I won't understand what that will look like in my experience. Sometimes I will hurt because of it. But I know that my life is in good hands. 

Am I worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus? 

God help me to be so. 

BT

Pastor Brian Tysdal

Rock of Ages Church

Saskatoon, Sask.