" Ide por todo o mundo
e pregai o evangelho."
Marcos 16:15
Copyright©Todos os Direitos Reservados 2007-2017 Jesuseapalavra.com
Sabbath School Lesson
Thursday
Faith Amid Trials
As we have seen, Peter was writing to believers who were suffering for their faith. And as Christian history has shown, things only got worse, at least for a while. Surely many Christians in the ensuing years found solace and comfort in what Peter wrote. No doubt, many do today, too.
Why the suffering? That, of course, is an age-old question. The book of Job, one of the first books of the Bible to be written, has suffering as a key theme. Indeed, if there was anyone (besides Jesus) who suffered not as “a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters” (1 Pet. 4:15, NKJV), it was Job. After all, even God said of Job: “‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?’” (Job 1:8, NKJV). And yet, look at what poor Job had endured, not because he was evil, but because he was good!
How do these texts help answer the question of the origin of suffering? 1 Pet. 5:8, Rev. 12:9, Rev. 2:10.
The short answer is that we suffer because we are in the midst of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. This is not a mere metaphor, a mere symbol for the good and evil in our natures. There is a real devil and a real Jesus fighting a real battle for human beings.
Read 1 Peter 4:19. How can what Peter wrote here help us in whatever we are struggling with now?
When we suffer, especially when that suffering does not come directly as a result of our own evildoing, we naturally ask the question that Job had asked, again and again: Why? And, as is so often the case, we don’t have an answer. As Peter says, all we can do, even amid our suffering, is to commit our souls to God, trusting in Him, our “faithful Creator,” and continue in “doing good” (1 Pet. 4:19, NKJV)
Why is knowing the character of God for yourself,
knowing of His goodness and His love for you personally, such a crucial component for a Christian, especially one who is suffering? How can we all learn to come to know God and the reality of His love better?
