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NASB | Colossians 1:24 ¶ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Colossians 1:24 ¶ Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf. And with my own body I supplement whatever is lacking [on our part] of Christ's afflictions, on behalf of His body, which is the church. |
Bible Question:
Thank you for your very well-delineated answer, Makarios! I was wondering, though: Would these sufferings that constitute a share in Christ's sufferings only be those that result directly from our efforts to share the Good News? Haven't there been many who have patiently borne sickness and other misfortunes "for His sake," and is this Scripturally sound? Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter on suffering says, "One can say that with the passion of Christ all human suffering has found itself in a new situation. And it is as though Job had foreseen this when he said: "I know that my Redeemer lives...," (Job 19:25) and as though he had directed towards it his own suffering, which without the Redemption could not have revealed to him the fullness of its meaning." Jacob Muller said that it is more than “suffering for the sake of Christ (in tribulation and persecution), or in imitation of Christ. It means all suffering, bodily or spiritual, which overtakes the believer by virtue of his new manner of life, his ‘Christ life’ in a world unbelieving and hostile to Christ.” Do the sufferings of Christ in which we share include not only His passion and death on the cross, but also His suffering at seeing the Father's house turned into a den of thieves, or at seeing His beloved friend Lazarus dead, or when the nine lepers failed to show gratitude for their healing? Is our sharing in these types of sufferings also a share in the suffering of Christ? --Cheryl |
Bible Answer: Cheryl; I thought I would send this comment your way. I hope it helps you. I know it did me when I first read it. "Those who are suffering, or those who seek to counsel the sufferers, are all too quick to name sin as the standard cause for the distress. The very nature and circumstances of Christ’s sufferings exposes as utterly false the present-day notion that Christian’s who suffer are always sinning or out of God’s will. If Jesus, who was the perfect, sinless Son of God, suffered so much, then how can Christian’s who are so imperfect expect to escape all sufferings? The answer is that we cannot, as 1 Peter 2:20 - 23 demonstrates. Such a theology of nonsuffering, if carried to it’s logical extreme, must claim that Jesus was out of God’s will when He died on the cross." (Notes taken from the book; The Power Of Suffering - By John MacArthur Jr.) |