By experiencing the dispensing of the processed Triune God, the believers can accept with joy the plundering of their possessions, knowing that they have a better possession and an abiding one (Heb. 10:34). Under the old covenant the Jewish people inherited earthly things as their possession, but under the new covenant the believers inherit the heavenly riches as their possession. This better and abiding possession is “the eternal inheritance” (9:15) and the “inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you” (1 Pet. 1:4). This better and abiding possession is a great incentive for us to suffer the loss of earthly things and even to accept this loss with joy.
Through the divine dispensing, the believers also share the kingdom of Jesus in His tribulation and endurance for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1:9). Being fellow partakers in the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance in Jesus means that we suffer and are persecuted as we follow Jesus the Nazarene. According to the facts of the Lord’s life on earth, His name, Jesus, denotes a suffering person, a man of sorrows (Isa. 53:3).
If we are fellow partakers in the tribulation in Jesus, then we are fellow partakers in the kingdom. To be in the kingdom in Jesus today is not a glory, because the kingdom in Jesus is a kingdom of suffering. The more we are in the kingdom, and the more we are for the kingdom of the heavens, the more we shall suffer and be persecuted (Matt. 5:10-12). Being in the suffering of Jesus is a strong sign that we are in the kingdom. Moreover, we are also fellow partakers in the endurance in Jesus. For both the tribulation and the kingdom we need endurance. As we are in Christ, we partake not only of His life and holiness but also of His endurance. If we are partakers in the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance in Jesus, eventually, in the coming age, we will be rewarded by sharing the Lord’s kingdom in glory and enjoyment.
If we love the Lord, we will be under trials. Trials come from the environment and are for God to prove our faith (James 1:2-3) through suffering (vv. 9-11). James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the man who endures trial, because when he has become approved by testing, he will receive the crown of life, which He promised to those who love Him.” The crown of life is the glory, the expression, of life. We endure trials by the divine life, and this will become our glory and expression, our crown of life, as a reward given to us by the Lord at His appearing for our enjoyment in the coming kingdom (2:5). This crown of life is promised to those who love the Lord. To believe in the Lord is to receive the divine life for our salvation. To love the Lord is to grow in the divine life unto maturity so that we may be qualified for a reward—the crown of life—to enjoy the glory of the divine life in the kingdom.
Peter considered the trials that the believers suffer to be a fiery ordeal (1 Pet. 4:12), just like the burning of a smelting furnace for the purification of gold and silver (Prov. 27:21; Psa. 66:10). The burning furnace used by God to purify our life is God’s way to deal with us in the judgment of His governmental administration. The Lord uses persecutions and trials to serve a positive purpose—the purification of our life. We believers can be compared to gold and silver. However, we need to be purified because we still have some amount of dross. Gold and silver are purified through burning, and we also need to be purified in this way.
Therefore, Peter tells us not to regard the fiery ordeal as strange. We need to realize that fiery ordeals are common. Persecutions and trials are the common experience of Christians, for we have been appointed to such ordeals. The world rises up against us because we believe in Christ, love Christ, live Christ, and bear testimony to Christ, witnessing of Him in this age. 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. Whatever Christ suffered, we also suffer. We cooperate with Him in living a life of suffering and follow Him along the way of suffering. By experiencing such a fiery ordeal, God considers us to be sharing, participating in, the sufferings of Christ. Such trials are due to the fact that we are Christians, men of Christ.
As Christians, followers of Christ, we should be those 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 will be encouraged whenever we suffer for Christ. Peter even says that we should rejoice as we share in the sufferings of Christ so that we may rejoice exultingly at the revelation of His glory (1 Pet. 4:13). This means that we will not only rejoice inwardly, but we will sound out our joy. At the time of the revelation, the unveiling of the Lord’s glory, we will exult. We will be excited to the uttermost, beside ourselves with joy.