What does it mean to suffer for Him?

When we suffer for what is right,not for our own sin....

 

We have been granted two things according to this passage:

1. the ability to believe

2. the ability to demonstrate the endless superiority of the worth of Christ through suffering

I am always amazed when "christians" recommend a path of ease instead of option no. 2. It makes me wonder sometimes if they were ever granted option no. 1.

 

In context this is the suffering of persecution. Paul was telling the Philippians that they are going to be persecuted just like he is being persecuted as he wrote the letter, and that the persecution is a good gift from God just like their faith is.

Can we expect to be persecuted? I think that even a casual reading of the NT will show us that God, more often than not, accomplishes the spread of the gospel through the means of persecution. Paul tells in this same chapter of Philippians that his imprisonment has turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. So if we are intent on spreading the gospel, I think we can expect to suffer for the sake of the gospel.

And I think it is not stretching things to extend this to other sorts of suffering as well, for God accomplishes good things through other sorts of suffering. Paul's thorn in the flesh (apparently some sort of physical affliction), for instance, was there to make Paul a better minister of the gospel by keeping him humble.

We are to count it joy when we suffer because we understand that our suffering is accomplishing good things--it is a good gift from a good God given for a good purpose.