Psalm 119:49-72; Wisdom 4:16-5:8; Col. 1:24-2:7; Luke 6:27-38
The writer sees a day when the wicked will see and know that there is a payoff for righteousness. In this life the wicked seem to have all the advantages as they gain much of earth in their wicked ways and persecute the righteous. In the end, at judgment, they will see with new eyes that there is more to even this life than the stuff of earth, they will see that the meaning of this life is primarily found in the next life. Teleology is the study of ends and purposes, and as Christians we believe that our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Our purpose is given to us in Jesus who passed through this world without accumulating anything but whose life was utterly devoted to the will and purpose of the Father and in the end He could say that He glorified the Father. Life matters but we don’t measure our lives or the success of our lives in the same way the world measures such things.
Jesus gives more counter-cultural advice on life. Loving your enemies, doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you and praying for those who abuse you is not wordly advice. Allowing yourself to be abused and taken advantage of cuts across everything we know about being human and that is the problem. None of this behavior was to characterize humanity and so we actually don’t know how we are supposed to deal with such behavior other than ways the world teaches us or that fallen human nature demands. Jesus not only taught these things, He lived all of them out, many just in the final hours of his life. It is possible to live this way but not if you want to impress the world and make your name great (with a few notable exceptions).
How can Paul “rejoice in my sufferings”? Can anyone truly rejoice in sufferings? I believe it is possible if the result is something we value enough to endure suffering. What then is the motive or purpose of Paul’s suffering in which he rejoices? He suffers for the sake of the church and the elect that when he stands before the Lord to give an accounting of his life he can point to mature believers who came up under his ministry. We in the church today can attest to Paul’s work if we accept his testimony and follow the path he taught. In the Anglican church we ordain people based in part on a promise to “be loyal to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them?” We also require an ordained person to state, “I solemnly declare that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation” That includes all of Paul’s writings so we are part of Paul’s sufferings. Are we willing to suffer for the sake of others and are we able to say with Paul, that we “toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me”? Paul knew the demands of the Gospel and committed himself to it in love for all the grace he had received,
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.
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