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1 Peter 4:13<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n We should be happy when we suffer as followers of Christ.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cRejoice<\/span>\u201d is from chair\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto have joy\u201d or \u201cto be well.\u201d It is expressed here in the imperative mood, indicating a command for us to be joyful.<\/p>\n The word \u201cpartake<\/span>\u201d is translated from koin\u014dne\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto have things in common with\u201d or \u201cto participate in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSufferings<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word path\u0113ma<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cthat which is suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Peter just told us not to be surprised at the fiery trial (the adversity) that is currently happening to us and that we are not to think that such adversities are strange. Here\u2019s what Paul said:<\/p>\n all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will<\/strong> be persecuted.<\/span> (2 Timothy 3:2<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n Therefore, we shouldn\u2019t think it unusual if we are being persecuted for trying to live godly lives. Instead of thinking it strange, we should rejoice in the midst of our persecution and suffering. Say what?!<\/strong> Are we supposed to be some kind of masochist and get really excited when we encounter pain and suffering? No, that\u2019s not what Peter is saying. He is saying that we should rejoice because we are sharing in Christ\u2019s suffering. Paul said to the Philippians:<\/p>\n I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death <\/span>(Philippians 3:10<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n And we should be willing, yes even desirous, of being identified as one of His, even in our suffering. James also said:<\/p>\n Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials<\/span> (James 1:2<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n James even taught us that we will grow from these trials. And keep in mind what our Lord, Himself, told us:<\/p>\n Blessed are you when men<\/span> shall revile you and persecute you<\/span>, and shall say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward in Heaven is<\/span> great. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.<\/span> (Matthew 5:11,12<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n Any personal relationship is strengthened when both parties in the relationship share common experiences, especially if they are difficult or painful experiences. God wants us to develop a closer relationship with Him, and one of the ways we can do this is by sharing in the suffering of Christ.<\/p>\n Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n If we are suffering because of our godly witness and our testimony as followers of Christ, then we are, in fact, suffering with<\/strong> Him. As a result, we will be glad with exceeding joy when Christ comes back in His glory. We will be glad because He with whom we have suffered, with whom we now have a closer personal relationship, is returning as the conquering King who will receive all the glory He is due! Give Him praise!<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2009 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1 Peter 4:13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. Truth to Learn We should be happy when we suffer as followers of Christ. Behind the Words \u201cRejoice\u201d is from chair\u014d, meaning \u201cto have joy\u201d or \u201cto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[141,142,143,89],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fellowship","tag-joyful","tag-rejoice","tag-suffering"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-bS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
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