Christlike In Endurance

December 2010

I started this series of articles in July about the biblical mandate of becoming like Christ in the way we think, feel, and much of what we do.
Paul exhorts us to let the mind of Christ be in us (Philippians 2:5). We emulate his attitudes of kindness and gentleness of heart, his unconditional love, his grace and forgiveness and mercy, his total faithfulness to he poor, the sick, and the weary, his humility, and his faithful and painful endurance.

We also must learn to feel what Christ felt. When Jesus saw need or human brokenness, his heart went out of him in compassion. Jesus’ emotional intelligence is unmatched. Ours must follow his.

We also emulate Christ in some of what he did: act on behalf of others as Jesus did for the woman caught in sin (John 7:53-8:11), or as he did for the widow when he gave her back her son (Luke 7:11-17). We see with his eyes, we feel with his heart, and we act as his hands. Of course there are actions Jesus did that are not ours to imitate, such as dying on behalf of the world, create all things, walk on water, or change molecule to transform water into wine instantly.

I’ve already written about being like Christ in his incarnation, in his service to others, in his loving ways, and today I write about being like Christ in his endurance. The fact is: Our God is a suffering God. Jesus is acquainted with grief, a man of sorrows, rejected and despised, a suffering servant par excellence. One of the unique things about Christianity resides in this truth: Our God knows how to suffer (suffer for us, share in our suffering, and endure his and our pain).

The biblical roots of suffering and endurance are a mile deep beneath the veneers of shallowness.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus endured his sufferings for what was on the other end of suffering: joy (Hebrews 12:2). Suffering is not our aim. It’s the means to the end of joy in Christ.

Paul wants to know Christ (be intimate with a life that is immersed in eternal qualities—John 17:3). He wants to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection, to be continually rescued by the life Christ now lives in the believer according to Romans 5:9-10. He wants to ultimately be worthy to share in the sufferings of Christ, and to be like him in his death (Philippians 3:10). To suffer willingly as Paul is teaching here sounds much like a foreign language to most of us. Has “feeling good” replaced finding God in our sufferings? What tells us this is not the case for most people today?

Peter writes to the persecuted Christians under his care calling on them to endure even slavery and unjust punishment without complaint or revenge (1 Peter 2:18). Why must we endure? We ought to endure because we follow as disciples do in the footsteps of our Master (1 Peter 2:21). A disciple is not above his teacher, but when the disciple is fully formed, he will be like his teacher. If Christ is our teacher, he must be our teacher in suffering and endurance.

What then are we called to endure as Christians? Nothing that our brothers and sisters around the world are not enduring in the name of Christ! Chinese Christians, for example, routinely endure jails, public shame, and martyrdom, not unlike our Indian, Laotian, Iraqi, Iranian, and many other brothers and sisters in Christ. The litany of this kind of enduring suffering for the cause of Christ is too long to list. Simply search the web under the subject of persecution of Christians.

As Christianity becomes less tolerated in the Western world, western Christians will have to learn a suffering endurance much like many of our ancient and modern brothers and sisters in Christ. Let your soul soak in the story of Perpetua, the early Christian martyr. Reflect on what history tells us about how the 12 disciples died! John Stott warns: “This call to Christlikeness in suffering unjustly may well become increasingly relevant as persecution increases in many cultures today.”

The call to Christ has embedded within it a call to self-denial, suffering, and even death. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who is considered a 20th century Christian martyr by many, said: When Christ bids a man come and follow him he bids him to come and die. The very first act of the Christian faith is a funeral!

We who are Christians in the Western World have come to believe that we have “the inalienable right” not to suffer. Many want us to believe that we are entitled not to suffer for our faith. We sport attitudes of being “winners” over others when we are called to win against our own sinfulness and evil perpetrated on others by means of suffering with them. We have forgotten than in this world we will have trouble but to be of good cheer because our suffering Christ has overcome the world by means of his many sufferings. Ours is not a triumphalistic faith by means of asserting our rights. Christ is victorious by relinquishing his rights and enduring the cross.

Our emulation of Christ in his endurance has deep biblical roots. Romans 8:28-29 is penned by one who was committed to the Via Dolorosa (the way of suffering) in imitation of his Lord. In a context of suffering Paul says, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, and who are called according to his purpose… to be conformed to the image of God’s Son…” Meaning that in the midst of enduring the pain of suffering, the Holy Spirit is working in our lives to transform our character into the character of Christ. Those who walk with the Master are willing to endure as Christ and his early followers endured.

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