Discipleship and Suffering
Scripture
Read Matthew
10:16-25
Key Verse
“A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant
like his master.”
Study
Jesus warned
his disciples what they should expect when they went out into the
world. It would not be an easy journey and they would have many
trials to overcome. The trials that the disciples would face were
beatings and persecutions and imprisonment. But the warning goes
beyond this and applies to us as well. In many countries this very
thing continues to happen but Lord willing, we will not see it in
ours.
What kind
of trials can we expect if not what Jesus warned His disciples
about?
Even from
within the church, we can expect to encounter persecution. We are
warned that we will encounter wolves in sheep’s clothing. This is
within the church itself. People who appear to be genuine and who
we believe to be our friends may betray us, either maliciously or
ignorantly.
The message,
according to Bonhoeffer, is “Beware of men.” Consider what he
writes: The disciples are not expected to show fear of men, nor
malice, nor mistrust, still less a sour misanthropy, nor that
gullible credulity which believes that there is good in every man:
they are expected rather to display an unerring insight into the
mutual relation of the Word and man.
The suffering
that a disciple must suffer is not without purpose. People suffer
all the time as the result of their own sin. However, the suffering
of the disciples brought them before governors and kings and opened
the way for them to share the gospel with even those in the highest
of places.
How can
your suffering be of benefit to the kingdom of God?
Regardless of
how great our suffering may seem, we have not been asked to do
anything our Lord has not already experienced. The pain, the
loneliness, the agony – He experienced it all and in greater
magnitude than we’ll see. But God is also with us in our
sufferings. He will never leave us, nor forsake us.
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