What is the church suffering?

Down here suffering is emphatically the position of the church. Even in our blessed Lord, what He did was not like what He suffered. Thus with Paul too; the mind of his Lord was upon the great things he should "suffer" for his name's sake. Many have little to do; the many have much to suffer. Sufferings we shall, and ought to, have; thick as hailstones they will come down upon us. We are set in the position of suffering now for Christ's name, and we are called to stand fast in it, not in the sense of being unbending, but in the sense of that glory being ours which is displayed in Ephesians 1.

71 The sufferings of the church are absolutely necessary to her. As soon as she ceases to suffer, she begins to lose her true character, and her testimony in the world ceases. Awakenings have always been accompanied with difficulties and persecutions, because Satan is not yet bound. A man who cannot use arms to defend himself must suffer. It is also very trying to live with persons around us without having one thought in common with them; and the more the natural affections are alive the more the heart will suffer. The Holy Spirit quickens sensibility; but He gives strength to bear the suffering. At the same time, sensibility being more tender, it is wounded on every side without meeting with any sympathy. God tries Christians thus in order to manifest Christ in them. He cannot alter this until He has executed the judgment. As long as the heart yields itself to the testimony God sends, it is yet the time during which God will leave His children in suffering. The power of the Holy Spirit is not of the world: it enters into the world; but it cannot accustom itself to the world, neither find there its contentment. If we consider the mission of the Holy Spirit, the position of the Bridegroom in heaven, all concurs to decide us to suffer with Christ and for His name.

Although David is no type of Christ as Head of the church, but only of Messiah the King (though here and there in his life are circumstances which are characteristic of the church), yet the sufferings he endured from Saul mark the path of Him who is Head of the church as well as King of Israel. If suffering was a necessary introduction to the kingdom, it, cannot be less so to the higher glory of being Head of the church. The glory of the kingdom is for and in the world — the age to come. The glory of the church is separation from this present world in which the church now is. The sufferings of the church take a deeper, (should we not rather say a higher character?) in having fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, the Head, than those of the remnant with Christ the King? The church is a witness for Christ in this world. If there be no suffering from this world, it has lost its true position, and has a different path from the Master, being no longer a true witness for Him.

The Church having no present inheritance, except as one with Christ in heaven, present earthly trials and sufferings are not to her tokens of divine disapproval. Nay, they are as much her proper portion with Christ on earth, as the glory given by the Father to Christ, and given by Him to the Church, is her proper portion with Him in heaven. Hence the sufferings of the Church are her glory. "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church." (Col. 1:24.) "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." (Phil. 1:29.) "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death." (Phil. 3:10.) "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also." (Rom. 5:3.) Christ esteemed it His highest glory that God should be glorified in Him in His endurance of the cross; (see John 14:31;) and the Church, being by the Spirit like-minded with Christ, esteems as her highest glory that she should be "counted worthy to suffer for his name."

Surely the cry, “Throw the Christians to the lions,” the sight of them wrapped in waxed cerements, burning as torches to light up pagan pleasure grounds at night, the catacombs of Rome, the inquisition of Spain, the fires of Smithfield, to mention only a tithe of what Christians have had to suffer for Christ’s sake, are enough to justify Peter characterizing the sufferings of the Church as “the fiery trial.”

The trials that were allowed to come upon the Church at this period were three-fold; suffering from the world, poverty of circumstances, and opposition from the devil.

In the message to Ephesus we have seen departure from first standing. The next state is a different one. We have the church at Smyrna in trouble; the saints of God are suffering. They may have thought the fiery trial some strange thing that had happened to them. But, on the contrary, it is more true that the Lord is grieved with a Christian when He leaves him without trouble for righteousness or for His name's sake. The Lord had Himself known tribulation to the utmost; but in Him it was only the trial of the good that was within, and the bringing out of His perfection. And poor as we are, we too may know trial apart from our evil. The Lord has two objects in view when He lays His hand upon a Christian in the way of chastening. it may come either because there has been something wrong, or because he is in danger of it and this is little felt by him. When David was out of tribulation, he falls into a snare. When his circumstances were full of trouble, then it was that he (inspired, of course, by the Holy Ghost) poured out those sweet strains that we read with joy to this day. The desire to get out of trial is a perilous thing for the soul. The trial may be sent to show us what we really are, or, what is better, to prove what God is for us and to us: but it may be also sent to prevent us from falling into sin. The Lord in His love thus often averts the evil which He sees and we do not. I do not doubt that there is another and a deeper character of suffering, even fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, which must not be confounded with the Lord's faithful discipline, though sometimes it would seem the two things may be in a measure combined. In a certain sense all saints suffer now with Him, though all may not be called to suffer for Him.

(Vv. 12-14).That the world, living according to its lusts without fear of God, should come under judgment is manifestly righteous; but that the believer, who refrains from lust, seeks the will of God, walks in sobriety and watchfulness, seeking in all things that God should be glorified, should be allowed to pass through a fiery trial, might appear as a strange thing. It would, however, only appear strange to those believers who viewed the trial in connection with themselves. Viewing the trial in connection with Christ, the One in whom they believed, who had become precious to them, and whom they loved, it would no longer appear some strange thing that could not be explained. For the Christ that the believer follows is a rejected Christ who suffered in this world, and whose Name is reproached by men. The fire of persecution these believers were passing through was because they confessed the Name of Christ, and above all showed forth in their lives the excellencies of Christ, as the Apostle says, “On your part He is glorified”. In these believers there was an answer to the Lord's prayer when He said to the Father, “I am glorified in them” (John 17:10).

It is this that calls forth the opposition of the devil and the world. Any witness to the glory of Christ is intolerable to the world and the devil. The more faithful the witness to Christ and His excellencies, the more believers will suffer.

There is very little persecution from the world today in the English-speaking regions. For a century and a half great quietude and toleration has prevailed without, and it has synchronized with a period of disintegration and doctrinal laxity within. The sufferings that characterize the saints are mainly of the order spoken of in the first epistle, "many are weak and sickly among you," or else troubles connected with trying circumstances, and the like. The sufferings of which Paul speaks in these verses are very largely unknown by us. The encouragement of which he speaks is also very largely unknown. The saint overflowing with encouragement in the midst of severe persecution is a sight but rarely seen. This we say to our shame, and our loss as well.

It is not the world alone which must suffer by this terrible war; the church, the saints, must share in the common woe. Bereavement, trial, poverty will enter many a Christian household, and over it too shall roll the wave of sorrow. Is no lesson to be learned by this? If one member suffers do not all suffer? May there not therefore be a great deal more practical sympathy between all the members of Christ, be their nationality what it may?