6. The Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings (Philippians 3:10)
The second to last maturity step Paul
identified in Philippians 3 is “the fellowship of His sufferings.”
Jesus’s identity as a sufferer is one of His most important characteristics.
For example, consider Isaiah 53, arguably the most lucid description of Jesus
in the Old Testament. Verse 3 says:
“He was despised and forsaken of men, a
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their
face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
Many Christians read this and immediately
think of the crucifixion. That is part of it, but does it also refer to
something more enduring? Something, perhaps, that He carried with Him His
entire life?
To answer this question, consider another
passage where men despise, forsake, and hide from
Jesus – John 3:19-20. For clarity, I will replace “the Light” with “Jesus
Christ” or “Him.” It says:
“[Jesus Christ] has
come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than [Him], for their
deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates [Him],
and does not come to [Him] for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
There it is. This is why Isaiah said Jesus
was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” when men despised,
forsook, and hid from Him. Jesus was grieved for their sakes, not His.
He was concerned about what their rejection meant for them, not Him.
They despised and rejected Him because they loved evil and feared exposure of
their true condition. Jesus’s grief and sorrow were not results of the
cross as much as they were motivators for it. Grief and sorrow, combined
with love, are what caused Jesus to leave heaven and come to earth in the first
place.
In fact, even throughout the crucifixion
process, Jesus’s grief and concern were more for others than Himself. When
women wept for Him as He carried His cross, He grieved over the horrors they
and their children would experience in a few decades (Luke 23:28). When He saw
His mother from the cross, His concern was that she be well taken care of when
He was gone (John 19:26). When He saw the Pharisees taunting Him, His still
longed for their forgiveness and salvation (Luke 23:34). The greatest sorrow He
always felt was for others, not Himself. This is the same sorrow the Father
felt in Genesis 6:6 when He saw how evil mankind became and watched countless
souls being lost forever day after day: “He was grieved in His heart”.
What is the Fellowship of His Sufferings?
The Christian worldview is simultaneously
more wonderful and more terrifying than anyone can fully imagine. To the same
degree that God loves us (immeasurable), He is also severe toward sin. To the
same degree that eternity for believers is wonderful, the second death is
likewise terrible.
God is a grieving Father. We cannot
possibly grasp the pain He feels over the souls that pass into eternal
separation day after day, hour after hour. Every single one was meant to be His
son or daughter forever.
Several years ago, I felt an understanding
of the reality of hell that shook me to the core. I had trouble eating,
sleeping, or thinking about anything else for about two weeks. Now that I am a
father, the idea of one of my children dying without Christ is more awful than
I can bear to think about. Yet this is the pain God feels continuously.
I hate thinking about hell. I hate that
there are billions of people there right now and billions more will go there in
the future. I hate that angels rebelled, I hate that mankind fell, and I hate
all the terrible things that have precipitated as a result. I hate this war and
can’t wait for it to be over. I don’t hesitate to use this language because I
believe God feels the same way. He hates it too. He never wanted this, but the
possibility of it was an inescapable byproduct of creating beings with free-wills,
beings that could actually choose to love and worship and were not controlled
like robots.
I said earlier that there is no higher
calling, in a sense, than becoming a spiritual father or mother. It is also
probably the most painful calling because it involves internalizing
God’s fatherly love for people that, in some cases, will die without Him. This
may be the most terrible suffering a Christian can experience. This is part of
what Paul referred to when he said he knew “the fellowship of His
sufferings”.
Suffering For the Kingdom
Jesus was rejected by close friends and
family members. He was constantly attacked by spiritual and political leaders.
He endured heavy demonic opposition. He was ultimately imprisoned, tortured,
and crucified. But He chose all these things willingly because He viewed them
in light of the souls that would be saved as a result. The apostle Paul and
many others also endured various kinds of suffering on behalf of God’s kingdom.
Modern-day believers likewise can experience rejection or persecution from friends,
family members, or even governments for their faith in Christ. This is another
part of “the fellowship of His sufferings.”
The Compassion of Jesus
A final aspect of the “fellowship of
His sufferings” is experiencing Christ’s compassion. “Compassionate”
is the very first word God used when He declared His nature to Moses in Exodus
34:6. The word compassionate means to suffer with. Because He is
compassionate, God experiences our suffering as if it is His own.
Many of the trials we experience are not
directly on behalf of God’s kingdom, but are just part of living in a fallen
world. For example, we may face health issues, a rocky marriage, a difficult
boss or coworker, a broken friendship, or a rebellious child. All of these can
mature us if we turn to Jesus in the midst of our pain and discover that He is
suffering alongside us because He cares for us.