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No Exemption from Sorrow, September 18
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak,
then am I strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10
.
Christianity promises no exemption from sorrow. “We must through
much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (
Acts 14:22
). Faith
is needed, strong, trusting faith, which believes that God will bring His
children into no temptation greater than they are able to bear. What such
faith has power to do is told by Paul in his letter to the Hebrews. Speaking
of those who in the face of persecution and death had maintained an
unshaken trust in God, he says:
“Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, ob-
tained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of
fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong,
waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women
received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and
others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds
and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were
tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins
and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented” (
Hebrews 11:33-37
).
In this world these heroes of faith were counted unworthy of life; but
in heaven they are enrolled as sons of God, worthy of the highest honor.
“They shall walk with me in white,” Christ declares: “for they are worthy”
(
Revelation 3:4
). In the courts of heaven there awaits them an “eternal
weight of glory.” “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin
which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith”
(
Hebrews 12:1
). “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look
not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for
the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen
are eternal” (
2 Corinthians 4:17, 18
).
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