Keys of The Kingdom 14 - Think It Not Strange

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you... But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator. (1 Peter 4:12-19)

Peter says think it not strange the fiery trial—yet we all do think it strange when these things come into our lives.

Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Why do bad things happen? That is one of the difficult questions all men struggle with. If you asked twenty people on the street, you would get more than twenty answers, every kind of personal and philosophical view.

Someone from a Buddhist or Hindu background might tell you bad things happen because of karma—your future and fate are determined by your past, even your past in other lives. That seems pretty fatalistic and deterministic. A Chinese Taoist might explain it as yin-yang: there is nothing truly good or bad, only the appearance of it, and in every bad there is good and in every good there is bad. A naturalist or atheist might say there is no good or bad, only random things in a random universe; if it increases your well-being you call it good, if it decreases it you call it bad. A Muslim might tell you that good and bad happen because life is a huge pass/fail test, with Allah as the cosmic proctor deciding whether you are worthy of his heaven.

Even within Christian theology this discussion falls into a category called theodicy, a word coined in the 18th century by a German theologian. Volumes have been written on it, and if you ask a dozen theologians why bad things happen, you will get as many differing views among believers as among unbelievers.

A Caveat: This May Offend Your Sensibilities

Peter has an interesting perspective in 1 Peter 4:12: "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial." The problem is that, especially in 21st-century American culture, we do think it strange when bad things happen. Merely asking "Why am I suffering?" tips its hat in the direction of thinking trials are strange.

Because every one of us has an inordinate affection for ourselves, when we suffer we grieve. We may even move through the stages of grief—shock ("this can't be happening"), denial, anger ("why me and not him?"), bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Peter says: think it not strange concerning the fiery trial.

I want to give a caveat to our study: what Peter says here may offend your sensibilities. I have spent hours this week having my sensibilities offended by this text, and I'm only going to subject you to thirty-one minutes—so you're getting off easy.

Trials Are Normal

Point number one: trials are normal. Suffering is normal. What Peter essentially says is, don't think it strange when you suffer; instead think it strange when you don't suffer. That simple movement of the word "don't" presents a very complex architecture for suffering. To the question "Why am I suffering?" Peter might say, "Why not?"—or even, "Why are you not suffering?"

Let me set a framework. There are two forms of suffering in the world: normal and abnormal. Normal suffering is what all human beings experience because we live in a fallen, broken world cursed through sin—cancer, disease, natural disaster, accidents. Some of it seems random; some of it results from our own decisions or indecision, when we did something we were warned not to do.

Every person on this planet becomes aware that the world is not as it should be. There is in us a recognition that things are broken. But only the Christian faith explains why. Read Genesis 1, 2, and 3: God created everything good and intended a world without brokenness, suffering, death, or sin. Through the fall of humanity in Genesis 3, sin and the curse entered the world.

Abnormal Suffering and the Adversary

Abnormal suffering is suffering we experience by or because of supernatural means. The naturalist discounts this, but the person of faith acknowledges there is more to this world than meets the eye. Depending on your view of God's sovereignty, you may see such suffering as God-ordained, God-allowed, or as the consequence of following God in a world under the sway of the one who opposes His glory.

The Bible describes this enemy—the adversary, the devil, whom Peter introduces in chapter 5 as the one who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Ephesians says this whole world is under his sway. So if you live to promote the glory of God, you can anticipate coming into contact with the one who opposes it. This is what Scripture calls spiritual warfare. Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12 that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual principalities and powers," and therefore we must put on the whole armor of God.

This abnormal suffering, experienced by supernatural means because you promote God's glory in a world opposed to it, is the suffering only the Christian experiences—and it is primarily what Peter is speaking of here.

Beloved—God Is Not Against You

Notice Peter begins verse 12 with the word "beloved." This is über important. I have prayed with Christians going through fiery trials who were tempted to conclude, "God is against me. He hates me. This is happening because He's angry at me." Many of us have met that person, or fallen into that trap ourselves.

Peter reminds us with one simple word that you, as a follower of God, are beloved of God. He is not doing this because He is mad at you. If God so loved the world that He gave His only Son while we were yet sinners and enemies, how much more does He love you now that you are His child? God is no more doing this to harm you than a loving father or mother would harm a suffering child. Yet, as any parent knows, there are times we allow our children to go through something because we want a good result from it.

So do not be shocked by trials as though some strange thing were happening to you. This is the normal Christian life. The Bible never teaches that following God shelters you from trials. And the question should be asked: if we are never suffering any trial for the name of Christ, have we become too much of the world and not enough of the kingdom of God?

The Refiner's Fire

The phrase "fiery trial" translates one Greek word, pyrosis, picturing the refiner's fire. To refine gold, you heat it to its boiling point so the impurities rise to the surface and are burned off. The trial you face as a follower of God is a refining work He is doing in your life.

None of us like the refiner's fire. We used to sing that song, "Refiner's fire, my heart's one desire"—and that is not our desire. I'd sing it thinking, I don't believe this at all; I'm completely lying. The flesh does not want refining. But Peter says the trial is brought into your life for the purpose of trying and testing.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." Yes, God allows trials as a proving test—a refining fire. It's a test; it's only a test.

A Pass-Pass Test, Not a Pass-Fail Test

Does this make the God of the Bible like the Allah of the Quran, bringing trials as a pass/fail test? No. Here is the difference. Allah brings trials to see if the Muslim is worthy of his glory. God brings trials into your life as a pass-pass test in which He reveals His faithfulness and refines ours. The test is not designed to make you fail; it is designed to bring you to see His faithfulness and to strengthen your own.

Look again at 1 Corinthians 10:13: "But God is faithful." In the trial, the temptation, the suffering—whatever you call it—you are coming into the experience of the faithfulness of God. He will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able, and in His faithfulness He makes a way of escape that you may bear it.

So point number two: trials prove God's faithfulness and refine ours.

Rejoice—Partners with Christ

Peter continues in verse 13: "But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy." Don't be shocked—do rejoice. I'm working on this one; I haven't quite got it, but almost there. We rejoice not because the trial is enjoyable, but because of its outcome.

He said the same earlier in 1 Peter 1:6-7: "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold... may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Point number three: trials forge our partnership with Christ in His suffering and His glory. The New Living Translation renders verse 13: "Be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to the world." Paul agrees in Romans 8:15-17: "You received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father.'... and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."

If you are a Christian and you suffer because you are a Christian, you are suffering with Christ, and you will receive also His glory. That is something to rejoice in. Jesus was glorified before His disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17, so awesome they could barely behold Him—and that was only a sneak peek. Paul says the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.

Happy When Insulted for Christ

Verse 14: "If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." The New Living Translation says, "So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you." We are not sadistically enjoying the trial; we understand that this is merely a blip on the radar of eternity, and there is so much more in glory beyond it.

Jesus taught the same in Matthew 5:11: "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven." Some ethicists say you should never serve God for the reward He gives you—yet the Bible constantly says to serve God for the reward. I'm going to believe the Bible.

We go through trials with joy not because we are weird and twisted, but because the testing of our faith produces patience, and patience its perfect work, so that we may be complete, lacking nothing. We glory in tribulations, knowing tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance hope, and hope does not disappoint. Our hope is eternity, where there is no suffering, no death, no curse.

Better or Bitter

Point number four: trials can produce joy in this life and will be rewarded in the next. I purposely said can, because the same trial can equally produce bitterness in someone who professes to know God. Perhaps you've met that person who encountered suffering for Christ and gave up. I think they are pictured in the parable of the sower—the seed that fell on shallow ground, sprang up quickly, then was scorched by the sun and withered. Jesus explained the seed is the Word, the soil is the heart, and the shallow ground is those who receive the gospel with joy until trials come and burn it out.

What is the only difference between better and bitter? The letter "I." When I get inordinately focused on me, I become bitter. And by nature I am inordinately focused on me. Who's the first person you look at in a family picture? You. The picture is "good" or "bad" based on how you look. We can get so focused on ourselves that we fail to see God and the work He wants to do, and instead of finding joy we become angry and bitter.

This offends our carnal nature, which does not want to suffer or experience any discomfort—and that is the very thing God needs to purge. That nature is not going on into eternity. This corruption will put on incorruption; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed and made like Him, and this fallen flesh that abhors discomfort will go away.

Suffer as a Christian, Not as an Evildoer

If trials produce reward, should we induce suffering on ourselves? No. Verse 15: "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter." Don't suffer for things even non-Christians recognize as evil, because these dishonor the name of God.

What is a "busybody in other people's matters"? There is one Greek word here, and Thayer's Greek Lexicon defines it as those who "with holy zeal meddle in other unbelievers' lives and affairs in order to make them conform to the standard of Christ." In other words, if you suffer because you are trying to force your Christian standards on a Christ-rejecting culture and they retaliate, that suffering is not commendable.

Sadly, the church's history bears blights where, through political or military means, it tried to force people to live a converted life. That is not the gospel. The gospel is the call to fallen, sinful people to turn from sin to Christ for grace, forgiveness, and salvation—never the imposition of the kingdom by power or politics. If you suffer for that kind of meddling, Peter says that is deserved suffering.

But there is no shame in suffering for being a Christian. The New Living Translation says, "Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name." Point number five: trials are the unashamed privilege of the Christian. Though a world opposed to God may shame, ridicule, and insult you, do not be ashamed—it is a privilege to suffer for the name of Christ. We do not glory for suffering, but we glory in it, glorifying Him for what He accomplishes in and through us.

Judgment Begins at the House of God

Verse 17: "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel? Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?"

Peter makes a complex shift here, but it must be understood in the context of abnormal suffering. He indicates that the suffering a Christian experiences is like a form of judgment. And here is the sobering thought: if God, who loves you and would not even take you out of the world (as Jesus prayed in John 17), allows you to go through these trials, consider what will happen when He judges those who are unbelievers.

When he says "the righteous one is scarcely saved," he does not mean salvation is hard to earn—you are already called righteous before you are saved. He is speaking of ultimate salvation. We often think of being saved in the past tense, when we believed in Christ. But ultimate salvation is yet future, when God redeems us out of this world. Peter already said in 1 Peter 1:5 that we are "kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time," and in verse 9, "receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls." So if the righteous are saved through much hardship in this world, what will become of those who refuse to obey the gospel?

Point number six: the suffering of trials is as bad as it will ever be for the Christian. As one preacher put it, this is as close to hell as the Christian will ever get—but the sobering reality is that the hardness of this life is as close to heaven as the unbeliever will ever get.

Commit Your Soul to a Faithful Creator

Peter applies it in verse 19: "Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator." Trials are normal. They are the refining tool of God in our lives as we are partnered with Him for His glory. Yes, we may be partnered with Him in suffering, but He will one day reward us as we follow Him faithfully, enduring the trials of this life.

So do not be ashamed of the trial you go through, and do not think it strange as though some strange thing were happening to you. Rejoice, knowing that this suffering is the worst it will ever be, and that God has a great reward for us in eternity. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Father God, help us to comprehend these things that are difficult, that our fallen nature struggles with. We don't like to suffer; we don't like discomfort. But I pray that You would help us recognize that these things we endure in this life are a momentary, light affliction, working for us a far greater, eternal weight of glory. God, transform our understanding, and help us to rejoice in whatever we face, knowing this life is not all there is. Help us to have a proper view—to see You seated high and lifted up, and to understand that this life is only a shadow of what is to come. Work in us this week, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.