Philippians: A Life in ChristSample

In our journey of discipleship, there’s one question we must repeatedly ask ourselves: How do we become more like Christ? Paul gives the Philippians an answer that may shock most Christians in the West: suffering.

“I want to know Christ - yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11)

Do you hear the longing in Paul’s voice here? He aches to know Christ. Yet how does he seek to experience this closeness? Through suffering, even death. Rather than avoiding pain, Paul welcomes it! This is because Paul knows an essential truth about suffering: it transforms us.

One of the biggest questions people have is about the problem of evil. How could a loving God allow so much pain, sickness, suffering and death? Many of us (yes, even Christians) have wrestled with this question as we’ve experienced suffering of many kinds.

We may never feel we have an answer for the suffering we experience in our lives, or at least not one that makes suffering any easier. But in Philippians, Paul doesn’t seem all that interested in showing us how to avoid suffering. Rather he teaches us how to view suffering as a pathway to deeper communion with God.

One of the ways we get to know the God of the universe - truly know him - is through hardship and suffering. Where can you find God in the midst of difficult circumstances? How is he drawing closer to you through pain?