#DailyDevotion Let Us Suffer Here With Jesus
1 Peter 2: 19It is a fine thing if, moved by your conscience to please God, you suffer patiently when wronged. 20What credit is it to you if you sin and patiently take a beating for it? But if you suffer for doing good and take it patiently, God is pleased with you.
So Jesus told us to pick up our cross and follow him. Follow him to where? Golgotha, where he was crucified. If you were promised a rose garden, it is full of thorns which are your crown as well as our LORD’s in this life. We will on occasion have to make a choice of conscience. If we follow our conscience and obey God rather than men, it is good and pleasing to him. Just make sure you check your Word of God for the Will of God to see if it is God’s Will or your imagination of God’s Will.
Peter knows something about this. He and the apostles were imprisoned for preaching the Name of Jesus. They were told by the Sanhedrin (the Jewish ruling council) to stop. He told them they would obey God rather than man. Someone may be convinced it is God’s will to bomb abortion factories and kill those who work in them to save babies. Christians are not called to violence. We are called to change people’s hearts through the name of Jesus and through our the conduct of our lives with faith in Jesus. I know this is an extreme example but you can take it down from there I hope.
If you do wrong, if you sin and you are punished for it, that is no credit to you. That is not part of bearing your cross and following Jesus. Jesus was arrested, falsely accused, and killed obeying the law. That is the path you have been called to when you were baptized into Christ. Jesus did not revile those who reviled him. He did not respond in kind to those who mistreated him. He did not strike back at those who struck him. He did not call his followers to overcome the Romans who mistreated his people and who unjust laws and immoral customs. He called them to follow him and do what he did. I’m not by saying this saying we are justified by doing this but rather because we have been justified through faith in Jesus we are called then to follow his example.
If you suffer for doing good and take it patiently, as Jesus did at his trial, then God is pleased with you. Rejoice for suffering for his name’s sake. Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. Jesus has prepared a crown of life for you. You will be a kingdom of priest and rule with him in his kingdom. We probably need to pray more and argue less. We need to show mercy, love and kindness more rather than righteous indignation. With the eyes of our faith fixed on Jesus as he is crucified let us live our lives of faith following his example of how to live in this world.
Heavenly Father, guide us by your Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth with your word, so we may suffer for doing good and be an example of Christ to a world who does not know him or love him, even as he is our example to follow in suffering for good. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.