For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him. Philippians 1:29
“To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. When it comes, it is not an accident, but a necessity. It is not the sort of suffering which is inseparable from this mortal life, but the suffering which is an essential part of the specifically Christian life. It is not suffering per se but suffering-and-rejection, and not rejection for any cause or conviction of our own, but rejection for the sake of Christ.
If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering.
The Psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of men, and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. But this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ. The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only a man thus totally committed in discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) in The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1979) 98-99. Click here to download this classic work.
Are you totally committed? This statement is worth repeating for those who want to grow in generosity.
“The Psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of men, and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. But this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ. The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only a man thus totally committed in discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross.”
Our lives should not appear as ordinary. It is a necessity that we embrace the cross regardless of the cost. The alternative results in a tragic ending for people.
Paul wrote this to Timothy in his second letter. “If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us.” 2 Timothy 2:12
Have you pursued a life of comfort instead of life with Christ? Yesterday I asked these questions: How is God speaking to you this week? What does obedience look like or need to look like for you?
I ask them again today because the cost of failing to endure in discipleship is that Christ will disown us. Our lack of perseverance will reveal where our heart really was in the first place.
Make Christ first in your life. And embrace whatever suffering, consequences, or ridicule that comes with it.