Getting into the mindset and the head of the apostle Paul is rather uncomfortable at times. It’s uncomfortable because we like ourselves the way we are. That’s to say that we are comfortable with what we’ve got now. In one sense we assume we have enough strength to do what we need to do, that we are decent people and of good character, and as for our goals in life… We’ll, just been comfortable is enough isn’t it? All that, and sometimes Paul just comes across as a masochist of our modern sensibilities.
The apostle Paul says, “We rejoice [or boast] in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,” (Rom. 5:3–4)
Why should you be proud of suffering, or be boastful about it? (The ESV uses the word rejoice to get at this idea with a bit more clarity)
The answer is not immediately obvious to us. In fact whats obvious to us is that the opposite is something worth boasting about; To boast in our comfort, or that things are running smoothly. We’d rather boast about achievements. Sometimes the achievement is that the week was simply ordinary. In our chaotic and busy lives an ordinary week where things simply work could easily stir envy in another’s heart.
Paul has something else in mind though. He doesn’t measure a successful life based on the same standards that we used to measure a successful life. A comfortable life doesn’t necessarily produce good character, hope or endurance. A comfortable life breeds nothing (except maybe more comfort, but even that’s arguable as we adapt). It wants things as it is.
That is contrary to God’s will. When you suffer as a Christian, it produces in you endurance and character and hope.
Peak Christian experience is not worldly contentedness. The Christian life is a journey to a destination. But to arrive at that destination requires endurance and character. You don’t get to the end by any means necessary. You get to the end having journeyed with good character (demonstrating patience, grace, kindness, faithfulness, etc).
Paul says that suffering produces these characteristics in the Christian.
As you endure suffering, your tolerance for suffering grows and you are able to endure more on the journey. Important, because the journey contains more suffering, which in turn produces more endurance. Without endurance, you would not make it to the end. It would all be a waste.
As you endure suffering, it creates character in you. Godly character looks like humility, patience, faith, gentleness. These are fruits of the Spirit of course. Suffering can produce bitterness, pride (‘I don’t deserve this’), anger. But under God’s grace, it produces character.
Suffering also produces hope. The Christian looks forward to the end, not mere the end of temporal or current suffering. If that were our goal then we have travelled in a circle and have not gone anywhere. Our hope is not in this world and what it has to offer, namely comfort. Our hope is in the new heavens and earth, to be in the presence of God. Suffering reminds us of the goal of our life, the direction of our life, and the hope that we have in God for deliverance. This in turn leads us to depend on him all the more.
These aren’t necessarily thoughts to have in the midst of suffering. These are things to be thinking on in preparation for future suffering, or these are matters to consider retrospectively as you look back at past sufferings and the way that God used them.
What do you do about those reflections? I think you should use them to do as Paul says, to give thanks to God and rejoice in what he has done in your life, specifically what he has produced in your life, be that endurance, character, or hope.
Bigvai and Shiphrah 