Suffering

I'll be frank: It seems to me that a lot of my Christian friends - particularly the ones from my college fellowship - have a distorted view on what it means to suffer as a Christian.

I hear things such as, "Christians should be selling their possessions and spending as little money as possible and eating cheap food and going to remote locations overseas as missionaries... because Christians are called to suffer."

To be fair, there exists some amount of truth in this mindset. As Christians, we should be stewarding our money responsibly. And we should be missions-minded on a global scale. And yes, sometimes, these tasks can certainly be challenging. But a partial truth is still a lie. And so Christians need to ask themselves, does this rationale actually reflect a biblically accurate understanding of Christian suffering? I don't think that it does.

After Jesus spoke to a very rich man who wanted to know how to achieve eternal life (but ended up walking away sad because he could not part with his possessions), he told his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” And a lot of Christians point to this comment as evidence for the "suffering" required to be a true Christian. But this "hard" thing of leaving money behind in order to enter the kingdom of God is not an example Christian suffering; it is an example of lack of love for Jesus. Of course it would be difficult - in fact, impossible - to follow Jesus if you don't love him.

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Mark 10:29-31

Jesus said this right after he talked about how difficult it was for rich people to leave their wealth for God, except through God. He promises that those who do leave everything behind for him will be rewarded an increase in homes, in family, in blessing - not just in the after life, but in this present age, meaning today! now! - but he also tells us to expect something else: persecution.

What Christians need to understand is that, when the Bible talks about suffering as a disciple of Jesus, it is talking about suffering as a result of persecution. Christians need to be careful not to confuse suffering from persecution with suffering from doing what is good because you'd rather do what isn't. Because the latter isn't Christian suffering. It's just sin.