Tonight as I was translating 1 Peter 4:12-19 I had an epiphany regarding this perplexing subject.
Up until now I had always understood this within the frame of suffering that is being caused by God. In other words not all suffering that happens is God's will but there is a particular kind that is His will and that is the good kind......... and that just never quite made sense.
1 Peter 4:19 Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.
That verse alone put up with a few other isolated verses can cause confusion but put in their literary context this verse in particular looks like this:
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory,e which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.f 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker. 16 Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. 17 For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And
“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?”
19 Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.
Suffering now is seen not as coming from God but as a part of living in this world. The key issue is not suffering but HOW one suffers. We are told to suffer while doing good, while being Christians, while not returning blow for blow, while being more moral and upright than our oppressors or the system which is oppressing us. Not as evil doers or murderers or immoral men.
This all reminds me of what I read in Howard Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited where he tells of when a young black man asked MLK Jr. why black men must be more moral than the white men oppressing them. In other words why do you say we should turn the other cheek, meet hatred with love, violence with peace!
The answer is that in suffering there is one thing that a man still controls, that is his soul. He can corrupt that and continue the cycle of violence, retribution, and suffering or he can receive the blow and stop the cycle saying that the cycle of violence and vengeance ends here.
A man can gain the whole world but lose his soul, he can lose all but still be strong and resilient in the face of suffering because that kind of strength comes from within.
In other words, suffering according to the will of God is living uprightly and courageously in the face of oppressive peoples, systems and situations. It is not letting that outward system, person or situation destroy the very fabric of your being.
When Christians suffer like this, it brings glory to God for in it we imitate our Lord who suffered under a corrupt system at the hands of cruel men but in the end God resurrected Him and has set Him at His side. He will do the same for those who are conformed to the image of His Son, who take up their cross and when suffering comes (and believe me suffering comes be it from whatever direction) suffer while doing good, while living fairly, justly and righteously.
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