1136. The "Needs Be" of Suffering
The "Needs Be" of Suffering
"Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations" (1Pe_1:6).
The Holy Spirit reveals in the Epistle of Peter a twofold necessity for suffering. The first has to do with the antagonism which the world holds toward those who know the Lord. The second has to do with the testings and purgings which the Lord finds are necessary to bring us into right relationship before Him.
1. The "needs be" from without. There are six passages is which the First Epistle of Peter gives the attitude of the world to the Church; that is, the attitude of the sinner to the saint.
1Pe_2:12 : "They speak against you as evildoers."
1Pe_3:14 : "Be not afraid of their terror."
1Pe_3:16 : "They falsely accuse your good conversation."
1Pe_3:14 : "Ye suffer for righteousness' sake."
1Pe_4:4 : "They think it strange that ye run not with them."
1Pe_4:14 : "Ye be reproached for the name of Christ."
A careful study of these verses reveals the antagonism which the believer must expect in this world. The Word of God never promises the Christian an easy path. The rich young ruler would have followed Christ, had Christ not reminded him that he must sell all that he had. A certain young man hastily said to Christ, "I will follow Thee;" but Christ replied, "Foxes have their holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head."
The world will criticise and persecute the Godly saint. It will seek for faults and failures in the conduct of believers that it may accuse them. If the world can not find its quest, it will falsely accuse the motive of the good conduct of believers.
The world will misjudge the saints in their separation. It will condemn them if they do not run with them to the same excess of riot; it will just as bitterly condemn them, if they do. So there we are. If believers always walk as Christians should walk, they will still be called upon to suffer for righteousness' sake. We will be reproached simply because we are Christ's. This must be expected. "If they call the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call them of His own household." If they hated Him, how much more will they hate those who love and serve Him.
2. A "need be" within. The Lord tests His people. He does not test them in order to pull them down, but in order to lift them up.
The Lord chastens His people–"Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." However the Lord chastens us for our profit. When the vine bears fruit, "He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit."
The Lord's testings and chastenings bring suffering. But it is a suffering made necessary because of sin, or because there is faulty obedience or retarded growth.
Peter himself is an example of this. Christ said to Peter, "Satan hath desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat." The devil's aim in tempting Peter was to destroy him. Christ granted the request of satan, because Christ knew that the result would be Peter's purging, and Peter's strengthening. He prayed that Peter's faith should fail not.
All this was true in the chastenings of Job, and in the chastening of David. The chastenings of the Lord may, for the time, seem grievous, but they always bring forth holiness of life and sincerity of love. There is always the inward "need be," before there is the outward suffering.
Illustration: A friend visiting a shepherd and his flock observed one sheep with a broken leg. Immediately he was moved to sympathy and he inquired of the shepherd how the sheep broke his leg. The reply from the shepherd was, "I broke it." "What," said the astonished visitor, "you broke it?" "Yes," said the shepherd, "this sheep caused me more trouble than any sheep. He was wayward, rebellious; he went away and led others with him; he refused to heed my call and to follow my lead. Therefore, I broke his leg and then bound it up. At first when I took him food he bit at- me and refused to eat, but watch him now. He will lick my hand. I broke his leg, I have won his heart, and in a few days when the leg is well he will be the most devoted of all my sheep."
Thus, our Lord finds ofttimes, as taught in the Epistle of Peter, a "need be" of suffering from within. We need it, our heart life needs the chastening of the Lord.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR