SUFFERING AND REIGNING WITH HIM ( PART 2 )

Written by: Chux Ubani

SUFFERING AND REIGNING WITH HIM ( PART 2 )
Being in Christ does not mean that all your sufferings as a human being are in Christ. Some of our sufferings are self-inflicted. Where an overzealous Christian who is not wise in the spread of the gospel engages in an action that leads to either verbal or physical attack on his/her person, such an attack is self-inflicted. Also, where a Christian engages in violence in the name of fighting for God, the person is fighting a personal battle, and would bear the consequences of such, personally. God never told us to either be abusive or aggressive in the spread of His gospel. Rather, our character as Christians should be the first gospel we preach to others. The Bible says, let your light so shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16). It does not encourage us to either be abusive or aggressive in the spread of the gospel. 

When Peter, seeing that Jesus Christ was to be arrested, he drew his sword and cut of Malchus' ear, he was immediately reprimanded by Christ who put back the ear immediately. This shows that we are not in any position to fight for God. Assuming that Jesus Christ was not there, and to also put back the cut ear, imagine what the soldiers would have done to Peter in his overzealousness! To peter, he was fighting for Christ, but in reality he was not, he was on his own. Christianity deplores and abhors violence. Anyone who had fought, is fighting or would fight any physical battle in the name of Christ, should know that Christ is not part of that battle. If death results from such, the person has a direct entry to hell.

Also, when we fall into problems because of our sins, let us not think that we are suffering with and for Christ. Miriam felt that she was fighting for God when she challenged her brother Moses over his choice of wife, until she was stricken with leprosy for touching God's anointed. More often than not, we draw sufferings upon ourselves with our tongues, in the false belief that we are fighting for God. Some of us turn themselves to God's Alsatian dogs, barking, barring their fangs, and at times, biting those who express religious views they cannot comprehend. Please know that anytime you attack God's own, the Angels guarding such a person will war against you, even without the victims knowledge. 

Every suffering with Christ must have His glory in it. If you suffer in the process of making yourself popular or applauded by men, under the guise of religion, you suffer in vain. If you use Christianity to make personal wealth, and not as a channel to positively touch others, and suffer in the process, you have suffered for nothing. The Bible says, "Though I give my body to be burned and I have not love, it profits nothing (1Corinthians 13:3).

You must possess the love of Christ to suffer with Him. When you posses the love of Christ, His spirit will manifest in you. When the spirit of Christ manifests in you, your own selfish spirit dies, and is buried in Christ( Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12; 3:3). At this stage, you have no will of your own. You only have the will of Christ. You become like a sheep before its shearers, dumb. So that in the face of abuses, attacks and persecutions, you take them in your stride and your response will be, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing"(Luke 23:34). It is only at this stage that you can be said to be suffering with Christ. 

Now, having suffered with Christ, how do you reign with Him? 
(To be continued).