“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter4: 12).
The idea is prevalent that God should protect a Christian from all the ordinary vicissitudes of life and its severe trials. But the fact is that conversation is but the beginning of conflict with the tempter and sets a man against the ways of the world and the pull of the self-life. Failure to recognize and expect this continual struggle may account for the discouragement of many.
One would have thought that, as the missionary of the Christian Gospel en route to Rome, the Apostle Paul would have been free from perils on land and sea. Instead, it was one long hard fight with persecuting Jews, awesome tempests, venomous vipers, and all the powers of earth and hell. He was rescued from a watery grave only by the narrowest margin.
“Was that like a God of infinite power?” we may ask. Yes, that is His way of developing reliance upon Himself in the darkest hour, and of showing others that a Christian has what it takes. Saved from sin’s dominion, the Christian is to expect severe conflict. But while there is no discharge from this conflict, he may go on from triumph to triumph.
“Beloved, think it not strange … “! But that is just what we do think. For nowadays we have become accustomed to a distorted gospel, with such catchphrases as “Come to Jesus and be happy,” or “Jesus can satisfy the heart.” To be sure, the Gospel does bring happiness. Happiness, however, is not the goal of the Gospel, but merely a byproduct, and that frequently experienced in times of trial. For when we are truly saved by grace, something much bigger and grander than personal happiness becomes our goal – the glory of God. In other words, self with its selfish desires is dethroned, and God is given His rightful place in the center of our lives.
For Christ, the will of God meant a cross and a grave! And when we die to self and sin, and rise in newness of life in Christ, we find that we are in this world, not as pleasure seekers, but as men and women who have been called to sanctified living; not as those on a picnic, but as warriors engaged in battle.
Accordingly, we shall receive the same hostile treatment which Christ received. There is not the one way of the cross for Christ, with immunity for His disciples. Hence we are to expect suffering and sorrow; but this provides the proof that we are shouldering the cross and following Him, who sees of the travail of His soul in us and is satisfied.
“Beloved, think it not strange … “! But that is just what we do think. We think is so strange, that we are ill with the strain of puzzling it out. “Why should this injustice have befallen us?” we ask ourselves- a question which reveals that the trouble is not the actual suffering but our rebellion against it.
Better far to recall the Lord’s words to His anxious disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). No Christian who has faced the implications of the lonely cross in his own life will cave in before the world’s opposition or allow his peace in Christ to be disturbed. Trouble by itself does not cause nervous breakdowns. It is the satanic suggestion that we are suffering more than we deserve or are able to stand which does that.
But why should we give entrance to Satan’s insinuations, and permit them to fester in our thoughts and to dissipate our energies? The accuser of the brethren has been overcome by Christ. The war of nerves has been won for us. Hence, though we are to expect tribulation, as beloved of the Father we can prove the “good cheer” of Christ in His overcoming power. Consequently, for those of faith, mountains of anxiety may be removed, and they left in a calm frame of mind to face their affliction and to win through in it.
Is there a heart o’er-bound by sorrow?
Is there a life weigh ‘d down by care?
Come to the cross, each burden bearing,
All your anxiety, leave it there.
“Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial … “! Whatever the form of the fiery trial, Christians need not to be despondent, since the Spirit of the Christ of glory of the Father strengthens their spirits for the conflict (1 Peter 4: 14). Think of the graphic way in which the Apostle Paul describes his experiences of divine strength given in trial. “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:8-1 0).
Here, in quick succession, are five pictures of Paul’s struggle and affliction. In the first, the idea is that of crowds pressing in from all sides, and yet not crushing him because the Chief Constable of Heaven, the Spirit of glory, has cleared the way just wide enough for him to pass. The literal translation would be, “We are crowed on every side, but not crushed.” The second picture is that of one whose way seems completely closed, and yet he is enabled to press through: there is a darkness, but there is sufficient light to show him the next step. Rotherham translates it, “without a way, but not without a by-way.” The third picture is that of the enemy in hot pursuit, while the divine Defender stands by to protect him. A Rotherham renders it, “pursued, but not abandoned.” The fourth figure is still more vivid. The enemy has overtaken him; has struck him; has knocked him down. But it is not the fatal blow. He is able to rise again. “Overthrown, but not overcome.”
Once more the trial is renewed, and now it seems to be death itself- “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus … ” (2 Corinthians 4:1 0). But while he dies to sin, he does not die to God, for ” … the life also of Jesus … ” comes to his aid, and he lives in the life of another, until his task on earth is completed. What a ceaseless, strenuous struggle with evil was Paul’s missionary pilgrimage. But through it all, he was ” … strengthened with might… in the inner man” (Ephesians 3: 16), by the Spirit of glory who prepared him for the fray.
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you … ” The indwelling Spirit of glory who burns up the dross of sin, can use the outward trial of the enemy to drive the believer into closer union with Christ. Both the chastening of the Lord and the fiery trials of Satan can be used by the Strengthener to purge us from every appearance of sin, and to make us strong in holy living and divine service.
There are two scriptural pictures that bear on this subject. Isaiah 40:31 says that, ” … they that wait upon the LORD … shall mount up with wings as eagles … ” The picture conveyed is that of a young eagle who is pushed out of the aerie to test its powers of flight, and when it begins to tire the wings of its parents are beneath to bear it upward. The other picture is our Lord’s comparison of His love for His people with a hen fussing over her chicks. Both exposure to life’s trials, in the case of the eagle and the protective care of the hen over her chicks, are applicable to the Spirit indwelling the Christian. He uses the trial to knock off the rough edges, to expose the weaknesses, to produce humility, to forge a closer love bond with Christ.
“Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.” The fact that the Spirit is none other than the Spirit of glory suggests another reason why suffering could not be considered as strange. As there is no suffering in Heaven, the Spirit, through the refining of suffering, prepares believers now for the burning bliss of Christ’s holy presence. Under the Spirit’s supervision, all the hammering and welding in life’s factory are helping to forge the finished showroom product for the time when the saints will be perfected in Christ, and Christ will be admired in His saints.
Called to glory via suffering, believers participate in Christ’s travails, and Christ through the Spirit shares in theirs, that they might be worthy joint heirs of God with Him. And that day of glory, when they shall be like and with Him, shall far eclipse the memory of finite trials. Hence the way of the cross leads Home. It is the way the Master went your way and mine.