But Jewish people came from Antioch and Iconium; and after they won the crowd over and stoned Paul, they were dragging him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. But while the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went back into the city. On the next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe. After proclaiming the Good News to that city and making many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. They were strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in faith, and saying, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.”

Acts 14:19-22 (TLV)

Wait, what?? How is a promise of persecution encouraging? This merited a deeper dive.

Paul wasn’t alone

Going back to John 15, Jesus, himself, encourages us in similar fashion.

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

John 15:18-19

I recognize that from that snippet alone, it isn’t clear whether Jesus was encouraging his disciples or just telling them the facts as they were.  To see the encouragement clearly, it is helpful to take it in the full context.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’
“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
“These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.

John 15:1 – 16:1 [Emphasis mine]

With whom are you aligned?

So here, we have what we would think of as bad news laid out amidst all that good.  I think the key to understanding all of this is in that last statement — I have spoken these things to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.

I think most of us deep down want to be liked.  It’s natural.  When we’re not, we try to figure out what we’re doing wrong and what we need to change so that we can be liked.  How kind it was of Jesus (and subsequently Paul) to alert us to the fact that there will be times when people not liking us means that we’re doing something right and rather than changing, we must stay the course.  It was also kind to let us know that it may not have anything to do with us at all other than a single choice we have made.  With whom do we choose to align?

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

1 John 2:15-17

Why is that encouraging?

The word most frequently translated as ‘encouragement’ is παρακαλέω (parakaleo) and it does not mean “make somebody feel good”.  It is a compound word para (beside) + kaleo (call) and means to call near or to call one beside. It is the ultimate, “I’m in this with you and you’re in it with me.”  For the Lord to call us to his side, we must be enemies of the world because He is.  Aligning ourselves with Him brings persecution because he brought persecution.  We will be hated.

As foreign as it feels to regard people hating and persecuting us as encouraging, that’s what the bible tells us so we must believe it. I think it is encouraging because it places our current circumstances in the context of the eternal. It enables us to take the long view when someone treats us poorly, here, today. Best, it places us in the company of Jesus.

17 Then we who are alive, who are left behind, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air—and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 (TLV)

Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

If ‘TLV’ appears in the citation, then scripture is taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*.
Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society.  Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Our hope is in God

That God comforts us in the midst of our afflictions was clear to me but I don’t think I understood then how he comforts us. Today I do. Through faith and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can endure through our trials and in doing so, His character is revealed to us. As His character is revealed, we know Him better so we trust Him more. We are comforted by the hope inherent in a complete dependence upon Him. We become able to have a heavenly perspective and take a long term view that extends beyond our our current circumstances. We see this played out in the next set of verses.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction which occurred in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who rescued us from so great a danger of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, if you also join in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons in our behalf for the favor granted to us through the prayers of many. For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you.

2 Corinthians 1:8-12

Paul’s affliction left him burdened excessively, beyond his strength so that he despaired even of life. That forced him to depend not on his own abilities but on God’s character which led to hope, not just about the present circumstance but about the future as well.

Comfort is for others

It is important not to miss that the abundance of comfort which God has sent into our hearts is not intended to be hoarded for ourselves. In comforting us in our afflictions, he equips us and expects us to pay it forward. Our trials are training that enable us to come alongside those who are experiencing the same things we did and to comfort them in the same way that God comforted us.

Think about one of the bigger struggles you’ve had in your life. Really come up with one. Right now. Were you comforted by people who denied or minimized the struggle? Were you comforted by people who hadn’t walked it but who pointed you to uplifting bible verses or suggested you try turmeric? Hopefully, you had somebody come alongside you who knew what you were experiencing, who could tell you that it was real, who could meet you in the pain, hold your hand, and point you to Him who could save you. It is expected that you now pay that forward.

Paul did just that when he shared with the church at Corinth that he came to a point of despair and realized that he’d been relying on himself. He openly exposed this sin to them because he cared so much less about his reputation than about God’s plans for them through him. This is the same reason he told Timothy that he was foremost among sinners. Note the lesson — for us to put our training into action, for us to comfort others requires not only compassion but humility and a willingness to be vulnerable.

Comforting others means being exposed

The word translated as ‘comfort’ which is used nine times in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7, is παράκλησις (parakalesis) which means ‘to call alongside’ and it is sometimes translated as ‘encourage’. It says, “I’m in this with you and you’re in this with me.” It is so comforting to have the encouragement of somebody who has walked the path before us and who has come out the other side intact and confident in the Lord. But how can we possibly find one another if we present an image that conceals the paths on which we have walked? We are called to live in the light.

Among my immediate family, we have been trained to comfort the orphans, the abused, the lonely, the ignored, the desperate, mutilators of self, anorexics, addicts, lovers of violence, those caught in habitual sin of all types, the oppressed, victims of assault and of incest* and of rape, those who cannot imagine living tomorrow, children of divorce, the unjustly persecuted, and the chronically ill. That might cover half of it. Looking at this passage on comfort from my family’s perspective today:

Our hope for [people who are described above] is firmly grounded, knowing that as [they] are sharers of our sufferings, so also [they] are sharers of our comfort.

2 Corinthians 1:7 [with my adaptation]

As we go forward and bring this comfort and encouragement to others, we ourselves are encouraged that it is God Almighty who strengthens us.

16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, 17 comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

* It should be noted that four of our children are adopted.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

My mind goes to when Jesus had to field a question about a man who’d been blind from birth — whether it was because of his sin or his parents’ sin.

Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

John 9:3

In spite of what our vanity often tells us, sometimes the circumstances we’re in aren’t about us at all. Have you considered my servant, Job?

Returning to the belief that that we need to be smiling in our trials, let’s dig deeper. Removing the parenthetical middle from James 1:2-12, we see how we can consider it all joy.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without hesitation and without reproach; and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting—for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord— he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
But let the brother in humble circumstances boast in his high position— and the rich person in his humble position, because like the flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun arises with a scorching heat and withers the grass, and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So also the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.
Happy is the one who endures testing, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him.

James 1:2-12

The joy ties not to the circumstances but to the endurance and its subsequent result. Further, when James tells us to ‘consider it all joy’, the word for ‘consider’ is ἡγέομαι:

2. hegeomai (ἡγέομαι, 2233), primarily, “to lead the way”; hence, “to lead before the mind, account,”

(Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary)

We’re told, therefore, to lead our minds to all joy knowing that in standing the test, we will receive the crown of life. That is much different than enjoying your immediate circumstances and being happy about hurting. It requires long term thinking.

To understand this point, it helps to look at Jesus’ life here on Earth. He came only to do the Father’s will so we don’t have to worry about whether his circumstances were to teach him a lesson or because of his own failings. He was perfect. Nevertheless, his circumstances from moment to moment were not always great. Here are a few examples of when he experienced various trials (emphasis mine):

• “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. (Matthew 17:15-18)
• And He *took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He *said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” (Mark 14:33-34)
• Jesus wept (John 11:35)
• And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. (Luke 22:44)
• And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” And He *came to the disciples and *found them sleeping, and *said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? (Matthew 26:39-40)
• In the days of His humanity, He offered up both prayers and pleas with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His devout behavior. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him. (Hebrews 5:7-9)
• About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” (Matthew 27:46)

Where was His joy? It’s not a fair question, is it? And yet we get the answer to it in Hebrews 12:

Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews 12:1-3

Jesus had long term thinking — His joy came from the prize that he could see on the horizon and He endured. By doing so, he paved the way for us to follow. Peter didn’t miss this point:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls

1 Peter 1:3-9

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org