Suffering With Christ

“Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets. For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company… He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords” (Psm. 55:11-14,20,21). These were the words of David, and there is little doubt that he was speaking of his trusted counselor Ahithophel, who forsook him to support David’s son Absalom when he usurped the kingdom from him momentarily, and drove him out of Jerusalem (II Sam. 15:14,31). The sobering truth is that if we follow Jesus faithfully, being led by his Spirit continually, we are going to suffer similar things as David spoke of here. Anyone who steadfastly follows the Spirit of God will eventually make manifest exactly where everyone around them is at with God, or where they are not at. That’s just the way it is, and it’s the way it has always been. That is why the scripture plainly tells us, “IF we suffer [with him], we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us” (II Tim. 2:12). And again; “Yea, and ALL that will live godly in Christ Jesus SHALL suffer persecution” (II Tim. 3:12). Persecution is not fully suffering with Jesus until it comes from sources that it should not come from, namely brothers and sisters in Christ. That is who persecuted Jesus, and that is who persecuted David, as our text passage shows. Jesus even took it one further, informing those who would follow him how they would suffer for his sake: “And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Mat. 10:36). We can choose to be nice, cozy ‘Christians,’ and suffer nothing more than a little flack from someone who doesn’t even claim to believe on Jesus. But that isn’t going to merit “reigning with him,” as the scripture states, because that isn’t who persecuted Jesus. It’s when we see the reality, holiness, and love of God manifested more clearly, and choose to follow after that, that the real persecution will come from those whom we have trusted as brethren. That reality of God my friend, will rarely be found within the confines of the modern Christian religion, because most of Christianity is NOT following the Spirit of God; neither is it teaching the same things that “the SPIRIT [is saying] to [God’s people]” (Jn. 16:13; Rom. 8:14; Rev. 2:7).

The true reality of God can only be found on the outside of the modern Christian traditions, even as Jesus was already shut out by and large from the hearts of his people by the time that the latest writings of the new testament were written: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). If we truly desire pure fellowship and communion with Jesus, as he promised to those who would “open the door;” we will have to obey the scripture that says, “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb. 13:13). If we are not willing to follow the true leading of God’s Spirit, and forsake the religious forms of today’s Christian religion; then we will be ensnared in the same trap that those who rejected Jesus were caught in: “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (Jn. 12:42,43). But if it is our heart’s desire to walk with Jesus in truth and holiness, and if we are willing to deal with the heartbreaking persecution that surely goes with it; then there is one way, and one way only, to overcome it all and finish our course pure and clean in heart. That one way is the simplistic way that David told us about in the very next verse from where we left off in our text passage regarding his suffering: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Psm. 55:22). The truth is that the 'righteous’ simply will not allow anything to remain or dwell in their hearts that is contrary to the undefiled and pure love of God, regardless of what ANYBODY does or says against them. Not everyone is going to be willing to employ that practice and continue in it, as Jesus told us: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mat. 24:12,13). But those who are willing to go God’s way will be like Stephen, who upon being stoned to death, was able to sincerely cry out with his last words, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:60). Those words my friend, are the words of someone who truly followed Jesus, and who knew how to truly “cast [his] burden upon the Lord.” Amen.