Passage: 1 Peter 3:8–4:19 (focus on 4:7–19)
Speaker: Mitch Kim
Series: Heaven Touching Earth – Community
Being Real with Suffering
Can we be real about suffering? Sometimes we want to fix or ignore suffering; we focus on solving the problem or hope for things to work out in the end. Yet how should we respond to our suffering we face? In the face of marginalization and persecution, Peter refocuses our attention from the circumstances of our suffering to Jesus Christ who suffered for us and with us. Today’s passage is quite long so we must focus on the big picture as Peter equips the church to deal with the reality of suffering. Specifically he shows that because our suffering shares in Christ’s suffering, we love more deeply and rejoice more fully to bring glory to God (1 Pet 4:7–19). In this way, we can be real with suffering.