Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?
Summary: Understanding Paul’s statement is important and can be a challenge in itself. Understanding the application of what Paul is telling us is even more important.
Translators have a difficult job. They have to capture both the message in the original words used as well as the message behind the words.
For example, let’s begin with the Greek text*:
τοσαῦτα ἐπάθετε εἰκῇ εἴ γε καὶ εἰκῇ
And then run it through Google’s translator program:
“So much has happened to you and to you.”
Hmmm … Not quite the same, is it?
Looking through the available English translations, I found the New Life Version (NLV) made the most sense to me:
“You suffered so much because of the Good News you received. Was this all of no use?” (NLV)
Let’s use this one for now.
There are two questions that I hear Paul posing in the NLV translation. First, why did the Good News bring suffering? Second, was there a point to the suffering?
Paul’s own life provides the answers. As we read about Paul in the Book of Acts, we see a man who is hounded by Jews, sabotaged by so-called Christians who promote circumcision, and who is harassed, imprisoned, and eventually executed by the government he lives under.
Underlying all this conflict is the ancient battle Satan wages against God. God provides Truth and Beauty, and Satan does everything in his power to corrupt and undermine what God does.
Why God allows this to happen is a matter of speculation. However, the fact that Satan actively acts to corrupt everything good is not debatable. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12).
There is a price to be paid for believing the God’s Truth. The world hates the Truth and reacts to God’s Truth like acid on the skin.
We don’t know the exact struggles that the Galatians suffered, but we know a great deal about Paul’s sufferings. If we extrapolate even a little bit of suffering from what Paul went through, we can conclude the Galatian churches had their enemies. Let’s agree that whatever the cost was to be a Christian, there was a price to be paid in terms of suffering for the Gospel.
And now people had come in promoting false doctrines that threatened to pollute the core of the Gospel message.
Paul is concerned that whatever has been gained by believing in Jesus might be lost if something doesn’t happen to put the Galatians back on the right track. Paul’s letter is not about insignificant details. Paul is addressing a serious core issue. The fact that God included this letter in his book suggests this core issue is important.
Application: Do not be surprised if you encounter suffering because of the Gospel.
Food for Thought: What value does suffering have for a Christian?
*The text used is from the Morphological Greek New Testament.
Suffering can strengthen our faith.
James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Suffering can help form the image of Christ in Us
Romans 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
In having endured suffering, we can help others
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Suffering can teach us to lean on Him
2 Corinthians 1:8-10 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
Chris,
Nicely put together! Being strengthened in faith, in Christ, in helping others and relying on Christ are all true aspects of suffering for Christ’s gospel. They also provide a rich context for Paul’s words in today’s passage.
Excellent CH. I concur. I like how you utilized James 1: 2 – 4 as well as the other passages.
Another purpose in suffering is that it has us realize this world is not our final destination. And it keeps us longing for our future inheritance.
1 Peter4: 13: But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
Romans 8: 18: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
2 Corinthians 5: 1 – 10: 1For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7For we live by faith, not by sight. 8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Hebrews 11: 13 – 16: All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11: 10 (referring to Abraham): For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Rich,
Thank you!
You have me thinking about the power in realizing “this world is not our final destination.”
By that I mean we have both a reason to endure suffering and a perspective that comes from being an Eternal Being.
03-12-2024, What value does suffering have for a Christian?
In the military we spent much of each day running and exercising with our issued weapon, or at times with our complete combat load including backpack. We were taught “our pain was weakness leaving our bodies”.
Believers are people who have responded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and chosen to separate ourselves from this world, as we seek to live in Christ, John 16:8. Suffering is anything which hurts, irritates or make us think. God allows suffering to get our attention, accomplish His purposes in our lives in a way that would never occur without trial or irritation.
1 Peter 3:18, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
James 1:2-3, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
Romans 5:3-5, Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Jesus suffered so we might have life. We suffer as we die to self and seek to live for Christ. Endure the rejection of friends and family as they respond to the conviction of seeing Jesus in our lives. We begin to grow as we study God’s Word, seek fellowship with other believers, spend time with God through prayer and meditation.
In time we find ourselves at peace in our union with God through Christ. Accepting the rejection of family and friends, and increasingly saddened by the vast majority of people of this world choosing evil over good, Judgement over Salvation. We become fully occupied ministering to all those God brings into our lives. More reject than receive, but the few that receive Christ make it all worthwhile.
Ron,
Your words remind me of a “few” verses:
Matthew 7:14
“But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Matthew 22:14
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Luke 13:22-30
“Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”
Well said Jeff!
Thanks,
Ron
After reading some of the comments I’m reminded of a brother in Christ (M) always telling the group about how God needed to body slam him all the time to get his attention.
Tim,
Yes … I’ve heard him say that. Be careful what you ask for! 🙂