In this message we shall consider further matters related to the believers’ being profited by all things in their circumstances and environments.
First Peter 4:12 says, “Beloved, do not think the fiery ordeal among you is strange, which is coming to you for a trial, as a strange thing happening to you.” The Greek word for fiery trial, purosei, means burning, signifying the burning of a smelting furnace for the purification of gold and silver (Prov. 27:21; Psa. 66:10). Peter considered the persecution the believers suffer as a burning furnace used by God to purify their life. This is God’s way to deal with the believers in the judgment of His governmental administration, which begins from His own household (1 Pet. 4:17-19).
The Greek word for strange in 4:12 is xenizo. Fiery persecution is common to the believers. They should not think it is strange or alien to them and be surprised and astonished by it. This persecution is a trial, a testing.
Peter’s use of the metaphor of a burning furnace indicates that today the Lord is using persecutions and trials to serve a positive purpose-the purification of our life. We can be compared to gold and silver. However, we still have some amount of dross. Therefore, we need purification. As gold and silver are purified through burning, we also need to be purified in this way.
Peter tells the believers not to regard the fiery ordeal as strange. As Christians, we need to realize that fiery ordeals are common. Persecutions and trials are the common experience of Christians. Such things are not strange, alien, foreign, to us. On the contrary, they are common, for we have been appointed to them. It is our destiny to suffer in this age.
In 4:13 Peter continues, “But according as you share the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, that at the unveiling of His glory you may also rejoice exultingly.” Although persecution is a trial that purifies us through burning, Peter says that by experiencing such a fiery ordeal we share, participate in, the sufferings of Christ. If we were not Christians, we certainly would not suffer the kind of persecution described in 4:12 and 13. Such persecutions are due to the fact that we are Christians, men of Christ.
Because we believe in Christ, love Christ, live Christ, and bear testimony to Christ, witnessing of Him in this age, the world rises up against us. This age is under the hand of the evil one, and for this reason unbelieving ones persecute those who believe in Christ and witness of Him. In the sight of God this kind of suffering is regarded as the sufferings of Christ. Christ lived a life of suffering. Now we are His partners (Heb. 3:14), living the same kind of life, cooperating with Him in living a life of suffering and following Him along the way of suffering. This means that what Christ suffered, we also suffer. Therefore, when we suffer for Christ in this way, our sufferings are counted by God as the sufferings of Christ.
We should not be discouraged because we must suffer as Christians. These sufferings are positive and very precious. Today we should be Christians, followers of Christ, who undergo the sufferings of Christ. We need to participate not only in the riches of Christ but also in the sufferings of Christ. If we take this view, we shall be encouraged whenever we suffer for Christ. We may face fiery ordeals, but these are the sufferings of Christ in which we have the privilege to participate.
In 4:13 Peter says that as we share the sufferings of Christ, we should rejoice so that at the unveiling of His glory we may rejoice exultingly. This means that we shall not only be joyful inwardly, but we shall sound out our joy. At the time of the unveiling of the Lord’s glory, we shall exult. We shall be excited to the uttermost, beside ourselves with joy. Today we may rejoice, but when the Lord is unveiled we shall rejoice exultingly.
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