The Honor of Suffering: Colossians 1:24-29
The Honor of Suffering
Colossians 1:24-29
Happy When Suffering
Who likes suffering? Who enjoys pain? The pain caused by illness, injury, isolation, abandonment or betrayal are avoided at all costs. We just want relief.
So, why would Paul say that he rejoiced in what he suffered? Was there something wrong with him? What did he suffer? Why did he suffer anyway? How can we be happy about troubles and trials?
Why does the Apostle Paul say that there is something lacking in Christ’s suffering? I thought that Jesus suffering was enough. If not, then what is it that is lacking in the suffering of Jesus? Listen and make sense of a simple text that is often misunderstood.
Suffering for Others
His suffering was for others
Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, (Col. 1:24).
There are many ways we can suffer. People can trouble us. Illness can overtake us. Finances can fail us. Friends can abandon us. Years can escape us. We should not invite these trials, thinking there is happiness in misery.
Suffering for others means that there is purpose behind the misery we face. To help others, to build others, to provide for others, to minister love and grace to others will cost us dearly. It is not free. It is not cheap. So when we pay the price of pain for other people, we should be happy. It is all for them.
Jesus’ Suffering is Not Enough
.. and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church (Col. 1:24).
When He died on the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished.” His work for us was complete. There is nothing to be added to his death. Stop working and striving to be saved. There is nothing you can add to His work on the cross for you.
So why does the Apostle Paul state that something is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, that he is making up for the sufferings of Christ.
THE ANSWER
Jesus work on the cross is enough to save us. But how are people going to hear the message? Some must send and others must go. To do this means that there is sacrifice made. This sacrifice we make is painful, self denying, costly. This sacrifice we make is for the body of Christ. His body is the people who believe. We pay a price to build the body of Christ. As we suffer to bring the Good News to others, we are suffering for the body (the people) of Christ.
Remember the words of Jesus.
What you do for the least of these, you do to me (Matthew 25:40).
Why are you persecuting me (Acts 9:4).
The Pastor Serves the Church
I have become its [the body of Christ] servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness (Col. 1:25).
For many pastors, the body of Christ is there for them. They need a pension fund, side benefits and a nice pay check each week. The body of Christ is there to pay all these for them. They remind he body each week and flash the methods of giving across the bottom of the screen whenever they get a chance. Any needs, just manipulate the body of Christ into thinking that they are blessed when they give to the pastor. Did his air conditioner break? Certainly there is some generous soul in the body who will come forward to purchase a new unit for him and pay for all the installation. After all, the pastor should not be sweaty. Many enter the ministry as a career and not a calling. It is upside down. They are to be servants of the body of Christ, but they are its masters. Don’t cross them or they will remind you that they are men of God in positions of authority.
Oops. Wait a minute. I thought Jesus said something about the greatest would be the servant of all.
“by the commission God gave me …”
The word commission is the word house hold manager. This means that the Lord has left his house under the care of the pastors. How are they doing? Has the trash been taken out? The bills paid? The kids fed, bathed, taken to school and to the park to play after school? Of course these metaphors carry over into the body of Christ. If you are a minister to the body of Christ, then you have been given responsibility over the household of Jesus. How are you doing with that responsibility
What is this goal?
… so that we my present everyone mature in Christ.
Complete and Mature
Here again there is something lacking. The maturity of the believers. The believers need to grow up, become adults in Christ. No longer thinking like kids and acting like children.
So the suffering that is lacking, is the suffering of servants to maturity the the body of Christ. Paul’s goal of suffering was to complete the suffering of Christ – i.e. the pain of bringing the Good News to people – and he completes the maturity of the body – i.e. teaching, admonishing, praying for the body of Christ (the people who believe).
How To Accomplish the Goal?
proclaim, teach and warn with all wisdom, with every ounce of energy that the Holy Spirit provides (Col. 1:28,29).
Hard Work
It requires more than our best. to minister to the body of Christ. It requires every every ounce of energy that the Lord will provide and more. This requires super hero power. This requires an attitude that does not quit. We must not give up, but must press on in Jesus strength to serve his body, to bring many to maturity.
