In Matthew 10:28-31 the Lord Jesus says, “Do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but fear rather Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them shall fall to the earth without your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore, do not fear: you are of more value than many sparrows.” God is the only One who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. This word implies that if the apostles sent by the Lord fail in their suffering of persecution, they will be disciplined by God. This will take place in the coming age, after the judgment at the judgment seat of Christ, when believers will receive reward or punishment (2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12).
In affliction the believers, by experiencing the dispensing of the processed Triune God, enjoy the peace of Christ who has overcome the world. The Lord Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but be of good courage, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We have peace in the Lord. Although He has died and has been resurrected, we remain in the world where there is no peace. In this world we shall have only trouble. But the Lord Himself will be our peace, and we can have peace in Him. No matter how much this world troubles us and persecutes us, the Lord has overcome the world. We do not need to worry nor do we need to fear the world. Let the world persecute us and trouble us. The Lord is our peace. He has overcome the world.
The believers’ suffering ushers them to perfection and glory (1 Pet. 5:10). This suffering ushers us to perfection today and to glory in the future. However, we like to have perfection and receive glory without suffering. But God is sovereign; He knows how much suffering we need. Therefore, He arranges everything sovereignly so that we may suffer in order to be perfected in this age and glorified in the coming age.
First Peter 5:10 says, “The God of all grace, who called you into His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you.” In this verse “all grace” refers to the riches of the bountiful supply of the divine life in many aspects ministered to us in many steps of the divine operation on us and in us in God’s economy. The initial step is to call us, and the consummate step is to glorify us. Between these two steps are God’s loving care while He is disciplining us and His perfecting, establishing, strengthening, and grounding work in us. In all these divine acts the bountiful supply of the divine life is ministered to us as grace in varied experiences. The God of such grace will perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground the persecuted believers after they suffer a little while. Therefore, the suffering believers should be encouraged by the fact that, although they are suffering, their God is the God of all grace. Furthermore, He has called us into eternal glory, a glory that is unlimited in both space and time.
According to what Peter says in 5:10, our sufferings are only for a little while, but God’s glory is eternal. After we have suffered a little while, the God of all grace will personally perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us. Through the suffering of persecution we are perfected, and eventually we shall be ushered into glory.
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