Suffering In Service
SUFFERING IN SERVICE
COLOSSIANS 1:24-28
Suffering endured for Jesus is the easiest kind to bear, since he shares the burden with you.
When Paul dictated the letter to the Colossians he was in chains (4:10,18), yet he found an occasion of joy in the sufferings he endured since he was bearing in his flesh the “afflictions of Christ” (1:24). The apostle took seriously that the afflictions were really Christ’s because they were ultimately directed against him. Every time he had scourged a Christian it was as if he had laid the lash on the back of Christ (Acts 9:4). Now he is whipped, imprisoned and exhibited as a spectacle, and Paul rejoices that he may bear these indignities on behalf of his Lord; he completes what is lacking in the suffering to which he has been appointed as an apostle (Acts 9:16). He participates in “the beginning of sufferings” (Matthew 24:8) which must precede the triumphant return of the Lord. Since the entire church will share in this triumph, Paul’s sufferings are “for your sake” and for the benefit of the church at large. The term “afflictions of Christ” is never associated with the redemption of Jesus on the cross. It speaks, rather, of those sufferings which Paul bears because he represents and serves Jesus Christ.
Paul was specifically the apostle to the Gentiles (Galatians 1:15f.; 2:7-9). He rejoiced that the message with which he was entrusted was one which centered in hope: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (1:27; see also 1:5,23). He labels this news a “mystery,” aware that the false teachers were offering mysteries of their own to those who would listen. But Paul quickly qualifies this term as a secret which has been revealed by God to the entire church. It is the open secret that God has chosen to dwell in the hearts of Gentiles, who had no claim on him, through Jesus Christ, the source and goal of all hope. In contrast to spiritual advance for the few urged by the false teachers (2:16-18), the intention of Christ and of his minister is that everyone may be presented to God irreproachable and mature (1:28; see also 4:12).