Dear friends, when the fiery ordeal arises among you to test you, don't be surprised by it, as if something unusual were happening to you. - 1 Peter 4:12
Why are we surprised by suffering, when it is the promised mark of the Messiah's presence in our lives?
Christ died for our sins as it is clearly declared in the Scriptures. According to the eternal plan of Divine Sovereignty, Jesus suffered and died. The Apostle Paul wanted to know Christ, including the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. When you read the Bible, it seems that it would be unusual for a Christ-follower to escape suffering, not the other way around as many proclaim and believe.
The suffering of which Peter wrote occurs within the context of persecution and persecutors seem to always wear one of two "hats." One is the hat of paganism, idolatry, or atheism (general unbelief) and it may be the most common source of persecution outside of America (though certainly growing in the West). The other hat of persecution is religious ritual, tradition, and liberalism. It exists where the church has lost its heart and soul. While more subtle, it is no less harmful where it is not resisted.
Which "hat" of persecution do you face? It will most likely be one or the other, but let us endure by faith to the end anyway.
To punish a man because he has committed a crime, or because he is believed, though unjustly, to have committed a crime, is not persecution. To punish a man, because we infer from the nature of some doctrine which he holds, or from the conduct of other persons who hold the same doctrines with him, that he will commit a crime, is persecution, and is, in every case, foolish and wicked. - Thomas B. Macaulay
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