Seasonable Counsel

The Suffering of a Pilgrim
1 Peter 4:19
2010-01-28
SRMMX Session Six

This world is not our home. We are pilgrims on earth; we desire a better country, our homeland, the place of our citizenship. We are out of step, we don’t fit in, we are misunderstood and often mistreated. That was true of how our Lord was treated. And will they not treat us, His servants, even worse?

The Christian life, then, is one of suffering. Our pilgrimage is hard. Our outer man is wasting away; our clay pot is being banged up and worn out.

John Bunyan understood suffering. Before he became a believer he mourned the deaths of his mother and his sister, then watched his father remarry (probably) too quickly. In his twenties, he bore the burden of providing for a wife and four kids on a tinker’s income, with one of his daughters being blind. Then he was imprisoned for over a decade because of his preaching, separated from his family and his flock. He was criticized and demeaned and defamed. He knew suffering.

And he wrote about suffering. Though there are brief breaks in The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian’s journey was much more dangerous than delightful from the outset. The religious and non-religious mocked him and sought his downfall. The journey was hard pressed all along.

Bunyan also wrote about suffering in other books. For example, he wrote The Greatness of the Soul and Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof, based on Mark 13:13, “the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” Writing as if quoting Jesus speaking to his disciples,

Following of me is not like following…some other masters. The wind sits always on my face and the foaming rage of the sea of this world, and the proud lofty waves thereof do continually beat upon the sides of the boat or ship that myself, my cause, and my followers are in; he therefore that will not run hazards, and that is afraid to venture a drowning, let him not set foot into this vessel. (Works, vol 1, 105)

The book I’ve found gloriously fruitful is, Seasonable Counsel, or, Advice to Sufferers. He wrote it to encourage persecuted believers in Bedford, taking his text as 1 Peter 4:19.

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

The entire epistle of 1 Peter applies. Peter wrote to persecuted believers as well. He encouraged them with the truths of their great salvation, exhorted them to submit to authorities, and counseled them for encountering and enduring trials. Peter addressed his readers as resident aliens, as pilgrims, providing instruction for their hard journey. [By the way, I trust you realize how apropos our study of 1 Peter on Wednesdays with Mr. Sarr is for our theme--Living on Unseen Things--and how well it fits with Bunyan's life and with The Pilgrim's Progress.]

We come to address the suffering of a pilgrim by considering the implications of 1 Peter 4:19 with Bunyan’s help.

The Benefits of Suffering

Only Christians have a category for consistently evaluating the profit of suffering. Only those who live on unseen things, who are being renewed in the inner man and who look forward to resurrection with Christ and the Celestial City can appreciate the advantages of adversity. For unbelievers, present suffering is only a precursor, a taste of much worse pain they’ll endure forever. They are eager to get out of difficulty as fast as they can and to avoid it altogether if possible. Pilgrim’s see benefits.

First, suffering humbles.

God only accepts broken hearts. Proud men receive no grace, no help. Trials remind us of our inabilities and inadequacies. They also, if we are spiritually sensitive, remind us that we actually deserved much greater suffering. Pain and persecution may be used by God to break up hard hearts and cause them to lean on Him. He “opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).

I saw, that as God had his hand in all providences and dispensations that overtook his elect, so he had his hand in all the temptations that they had to sin against him, not to animate them unto wickedness, but to choose their temptations and troubles for them; and also to leave them, for a time, to such sins only as might not destroy, but humble them; as might not put them beyond, but lay them in the way of the renewing of his mercy. (Grace Abounding, #157)

We are apt to overshoot, in the days that are calm, and to think ourselves far higher, and more strong than we find we be, when the trying day is upon us. (Advice, in Works, 694)

Second, suffering purifies.

Suffering weans us from unrighteous loves. It unfastens us from seen things and turns the eyes of our faith toward Him. And like gold–though tested by fire–our faith is strengthened and our assurance increased even as we love the one whom we don’t see. (cf. 1 Peter 1:6-8)

How subject we are to dote upon and to be entangled with the snares that lye couched and hid in the things of this present world.

How kindly, therefore, doth God deal with us, when he chooses to afflict us but for little, that with everlasting kindness he may have mercy upon us. (cf. Isaiah 54:1-2) (Advice, 737)

Not only that,

We should be overgrown with flesh, if we had not our seasonable winters. It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will be no fruit, because there is no winter there. (Advice to Sufferers, 694)

There is that of God to be seen in such a day as cannot be seen in another. His power in holding up some, his wrath in leaving of others; his making of shrubs to stand, and his suffering of cedars to fall; his infatuating of the counsel of men, and his making the devil to outwit himself; his giving of his presence to his people, and his leaving of his foes in the dark; his discovering the uprightness of the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying open the hypocrisy of others, is a working of spiritual wonders in the day of his wrath, and of the whirlwind and the storm. (Advice, 694)

Third, suffering prepares.

Not only do trials break our hearts and then build our faith, they also build our anticipation for the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:5). God is getting us ready for glory. As we saw from 2 Corinthians 4:17, God is super-sizing our joy bucket that we might enjoy an eternal weight of glory. We’re light weights, drinking from Dixie Cups. We can’t appreciate all that He has prepared for those who love Him, but suffering increases our capacity for eternal delight and heightens our anticipation.

[I]t hath…been my usual course, as always, so especially in the day of affliction, to endeavor to keep my interest in the life to come clear before my eyes. (Grace Abounding, #255)

It is also the will of God, that they that go to heaven should go thither hardly or with difficulty. The righteous shall scarcely be saved. That is, they shall, but yet with great difficulty, that it may be the sweeter. (Advice, 725)

Fourth, suffering proclaims.

That is, the pilgrim’s suffering is a testimony to the world. They will see our good works and glorify God in the day of visitation (1 Peter 2:12). They will see our good works and ask about the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). They will bump into our clay pots and grace will slosh all over them; death is at work in us but life in others (2 Corinthians 4:11-12). Suffering builds a wide platform to witness to God’s being better than not-suffering.

A man, when he suffereth for Christ, is set upon a hill, upon a stage, as in a theatre, to play a part for God in the world. (Advice, 720)

Where can the excellency of our patience, of our meekness, of our long-suffering, of our love and of our faith appear, if it be not under trials, and in those things that run cross to our flesh? (Advice, 707)

Bunyan realized the truth in his imprisonment.

Thus I was tossed for many weeks, and knew not what to do; at last this consideration fell with weight upon me, That it was for the Word and way of God, that I was in this condition, wherefore I was engaged not to flinch a hair’s breadth from it. (Grace Abounding, #336)

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Hopeful became hopeful, that is, he was moved to hope by the courageous example of Christian and Faithful in Vanity Fair. (101)

So in God’s economy, suffering is an investment that always pays off. John Owen worked hard to get Bunyan out of prison. The 12 years were brutal. Was Owen a failure? Yes and no. Was Bunyan’s imprisonment how it should have been? Yes and no. Our God is in control, and he walked out with a manuscript for The Pilgrim’s Progress that God formulated in him in suffering. It wasn’t better for Bunyan to be there, but it was beneficial, to him and to us.

Abounding afflictions lead to abounding grace that leads to abounding thanksgiving that leads to abounding glory.

The Types of Suffering

1 Peter 1:6 states that there are “various trials,” there are a multitude and plethora of trials. Suffering comes in all shapes and sizes. The apostle Paul seemed to regard all kinds of suffering in one pile when encountered in the path of a pilgrim, whether sickness or slander, beatings or burden.1

Those types of suffering are not what I want to discuss here. Especially in the context of 1 Peter 4:19, distinguishing the two types of suffering makes a large difference. Some suffering is deserved, some suffering (for the pilgrim) is undeserved.

Deserved Suffering

It it possible for Christians to behave in such a way that the pain or trouble they encounter was brought on by their own behavior. They pulled the bookshelf onto themselves. Being a pilgrim does not make it so that we don’t reap what we sow. If we sin, God will discipline us. If we make the bed in foolishness, it’s foolish to lay down in it and call it persecution. Enduring that type of suffering is not special. Neither is being punished by authorities because we disobeyed. Taking your punishment with patience is not praiseworthy. We are not to suffer for wrong doing, meaning, don’t do wrong that reaps suffering.

what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? (1 Peter 2:20)

For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:17)

let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. (1 Peter 4:15)

It is a miserable testimony when pilgrim’s behave like their worldly neighbors, when their suffering is sin-inflicted. Neighbors will use it against Christ’s name. Bunyan knew it.

It is the greatest blemish that can be to a Christian, to suffer as an evil doer. To say nothing of the reproach that such do bring to the name of Christ, their Lord. … The man that suffereth as an evil doer, and yet weareth the name of a Christian, what stumbling blocks doth he lay in the way of the ignorant in the kingdom? (Advice, 706)

Undeserved Suffering

Because we are sinners, there is a sense in which we’re never beyond deserving some trial, even if it was for something we did a long time ago. But throughout the Bible, especially here in 1 Peter, it is possible to suffer unjustly.

this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly….If when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. (1 Peter 2:18, 20-21)

who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. (1 Peter 3:13-14)

rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. … If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. (1 Peter 4:13-14, 16)

This is the type of suffering that conforms us to Christ, as we follow in His steps. This is also the type of suffering that most stands out. We are missing opportunities when we fight for our rights just like everyone else. There is nothing supernatural about that, nothing Christlike about that (cf. 1 Peter 2:21-23). If someone puts scrambled eggs of injustice on your plate and you busily work to unscramble them, you’re more likely to get your hands messy than anything else. Work on what you can.

If thou wilt needs be a ruler, thou hast a tongue, rule that; lusts, rule them; affections, govern them; ye, thou has excellent graces, manage them, cherish them, strengthen and replenish them….Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth….Nor do I think that murmuring, shrinking, wincing, complaining and the like, when men, governors, lay a yoke upon our necks, flow from anything else, but love to our flesh, and distrust of the faithfulness of God to manage men, things, and actions for his church. (Advice, 706)

That doesn’t mean we can’t groan, cry, and even appeal. Bunyan appealed his imprisonment. He desires release. But his attitude showed that unseen things were more important to him than seen things.

Don’t walk into a beating with your mouth. (“A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating” – Proverbs 18:6)

Here is a call not to meddle with the other, but to mind our own business; to walk in our Christian profession, and to adorn it with all good works; and if any man will meddle with me, and ask a reason of the hope that I have, to give it to him with meekness and fear, whatever follows thereupon. (Advice, 715)

Deserved suffering isn’t special, it’s a blight. Undeserved suffering shines brightly.

The Causes of Suffering

I’m thinking about the causes of undeserved suffering (since deserved suffering comes with it’s own answer as to cause). Why do pilgrims suffer apart from their own sin?

Men’s Irrational Hostility

The natural man, the unbeliever, wants nothing to do with the true pilgrim. The pilgrim irritates him and aggravates him. The pilgrim challenges his comfort and his ease. He confronts the sin and unbelief or false belief, and the sinner prefers to be left alone. By the pilgrim’s very presence, his anger is stirred.

Carnal men cannot endure to hear [about God's righteousness]; because it quite excludes them, as such, from a share in the kingdom of heaven. To this, again, the Christian stands and backs what he says by the Word of God. The game begins, and the men of the world are thoughtful how they may remove such troublesome fellows out of the way. But because the Christians love their neighbors, and will not let them thus easily die in their sins, therefore they content with them, both by reasonings, writings, sermons, and books of gospel divinity; and stand to what they say. The world, again, are very angry with these sayings…for that by them they are concluded to be persons that are without repentance, and the hope of eternal life. Here again, the carnal world judges that these people are proud, self-willed, pragmatical, contentious, self-conceited, and so unsufferable people. (Advice, 712)

However, man’s hostility is a secondary cause.

God’s Judicious Sovereignty

There is no suffering that occurs apart from the will of God. That comes straight from 1 Peter 4:19.

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

We read in 1 Peter 1:6 that heaviness in trials comes “if necessary.” Who determines that? Not the sufferer. Not the ones inflicting the troubles. God designs and God directs.

It will not help to say that God is not in control of our suffering. This is anything but fatalism or discouragement. The God who controls our suffering does so for our benefit. And He is the same God who loves us in Christ with incalculable and inscrutable love. Nothing happens to us, or doesn’t happen to us, that is not ordained by Him.

God has appointed WHO shall suffer. ‘Let no man,’ said Paul, ‘be moved by these afflictions, for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto’ (2 Thessalonians 3:8). … He has appointed WHEN they shall suffer….It is also said concerning Jesus Christ, that even then when ‘they sought to take him, no man laid his hands on him, because his hour was not yet come’ (John 7:30). … He has appointed WHERE this, that, or the other good man shall suffer….Christ said, it could not be that a prophet should ‘perish out of Jerusalem’ (Luke 13:33). … He has also appointed WHAT KINDS of suffering….God said that he would show Paul beforehand how great things he should suffer for his sake (Acts 9:16). … It is also appointed FOR WHAT TRUTH this or that saint shall suffer…BY WHOSE HAND this or that man shall suffer…so HOW LONG [is] determined. (Advice, 723-724)

It is not what enemies will, nor what they are resolved upon, but what God will, and what God appoints, that shall be done….And as no enemy can bring suffering upon a man when the will of God is otherwise, so no man can save himself out of their hands when God will deliver them up for his glory….We shall or shall not suffer, even as it pleaseth him….Suffering comes not by chance or by the will of man, but by the will and appointment of God. (Advice, 722-723)

So we have no reason to fear men.

God’s bridle is upon them, God’s hook is in their nose: yea, and God has determined the bounds of their rage, and if he lets them drive his church into the sea of troubles, it shall be but up the the neck, and so far it may go, and not be drowned. (Advice, 725-726)

I love that as Christian reached the top of the Hill Difficulty, even though Timorous and Mistrust came running the opposite way in fear, Christian saw that the lions on either side of the path were chained; “no hurt shall come unto thee,” as long as we stay in the center of the path, even though they will roar and snarl.

I have, in a few words, handled this…to show you that our sufferings are ordered and disposed by him, that you might always, when you come into trouble for this name, not stagger nor be at a loss, but be stayed, composed, and settled in your minds, and say, ‘The will of the Lord be done.’ Acts 21:14. (Advice, )

The Counsel for Suffering

So how should we prepare? Bunyan knew he must live on unseen things. Peter provides similar counsel in 1 Peter 4:19 as a summary to 4:12-18.

The Sufferer’s Consignment

The ones suffering according to God’s will must entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. The command is entrust. It means deliver over; deposit, as in a treasure into safe and trustworthy hands. That is what consignment means. You hand over to someone else in a permanent way. You give up, you relinquish control to the other person, and let them do as they please. We are to consign our souls. We deliver them up to God’s custody, for His whole disposal and care.

Christian and Faithful must have had 1 Peter in mind when they endured mockeries, beatings, and imprisonment in Vanity Fair.

But committing themselves to the all-wise dispose of him that ruleth all things, with much content they abode in the condition in which they were until they should be otherwise disposed of. (95)

Persecution is aimed at the soul. Peter’s exhortation is an awakening call to watchfulness. We are in danger, and we are so busy with other things that we forget our souls to their ruin. It may be that when you suffer, all you have left is your soul.

I had also this consideration, that if I should now venture all for God, I engaged God to take care of my concernments. (Grace Abounding, #329)

The Sufferer’s Caretaker

Entrust your souls to a faithful Creator. What a curious choice of adjective and title for God. Our confidence depends on the character of the caretaker. Peter emphasizes that He is faithful, that is, He is dependable, trustworthy. Count on Him to do the right thing. He won’t fail to care. He always fulfills His promises, that’s why it’s worth living on unseen things.

And He is a faithful Creator. This is the only time in the New Testament that this title is used for God, even though His work of creation is mentioned. It stresses that He is capable of our care. The power that created the universe is at His disposal in our sufferings. Nothing can separate us from His love, and nothing can keep Him from taking care of our souls. They are safe with Him.

When Christian and Hopeful “came to the delectable Mountains, which Mountains belong to the Lord of the Hill,” they asked some Shepherds about the direction to the Celestial City, the remaining distance, and if there were dangers ahead. The shepherds answered that the way is “safe for those for whom it is safe” (124). The security of our journey depends not on our strength or sense, but on our relation to the owner of the Land.

I should have believed his word; and not have put an IF upon the all-seeingness of God. (Grace Abounding, #243)

The Sufferer’s Conduct

The little phrase at the end of verse 19 is an electric charged goad. We consign our souls to the faithful Creator while doing good. We don’t shrink back and hide, licking our wounds. We are busy well-doers.

That’s part of the point in 1 Peter 2:11-12, so that others might see our good works. 1 Peter 3:9 is even more proactive.

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

When we’re suffering unjustly, it’s not enough to not sin. We are called to bless those who persecute us. This is impossible for the poser pilgrim. It goes too far for him. But genuine pilgrims leave a fragrance when they are crushed. Pots don’t try to keep all the grace to themselves when they are bumped; they spill it out. Impact a dying world while dying ourselves.

This was Christian and Faithful in Vanity Fair. “The men being patient, and not rendering railing for railing, but contrawise blessing, and giving good words for bad, and kindness for injuries done.” What frees us to suffer, die, and spread blessing all the while, is faith.

See also Matthew 5:39-45 and Romans 12:14. “May this journey, bring a blessing. And at the end of my heart’s journey, with Your likeness, may I wake.”

This is what makes a man like Bunyan so powerfully used by God, because grace abounded through his hardships and suffering. He didn’t hole up in prison, he served his family and fellow prisoners and generations to follow.

This is Peter’s exhortation to every pilgrim. It is also Christ’s example.

For to this [unjust suffering] you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:21-24)

The way Jesus suffered unjustly without sinning was to entrust Himself to Him who judges justly. He gave His care into His Father’s hands. The significance in chapter 2 is that God is the just judge, meaning that unrighteous treatment is not going unnoticed. All unrighteousness toward His Son, and His pilgrims, will be called to account. Either it was paid for by Christ or it will be punished in hell.

We are to live on unseen things; the Judge’s justice, the Creator’s power and faithfulness. The Father’s promise of glory, this is our calling as pilgrim,s to follow the footsteps of Christ and suffer according to the will of God.

Has thou escaped? Laugh. Art thou taken? Laugh. I mean, be pleased which soever things shall go, for that the scales are still in God’s hands. (Advice, 726)

Conclusion

Let me beg of thee, that thou wilt not be offended either with God, or men, if the cross is laid heavy upon thee. Not with God, for he doth nothing without a cause, nor with men, for…they are the servants of God to thee for good. (Advice, 694)

Jesus’ suffering was not only an example for us. It is an example, but it also provided forgiveness and healing. His death and resurrection guarantees our resurrection and receipt of all God has promised.

The cross is the pinnacle of unjust suffering, the pinnacle of God’s sovereignty over suffering, and the pinnacle of grace abounding through suffering.

As pilgrims, we celebrate Christ’s suffering for our sin and conquering of death in communion. As we consider His afflictions, and the grace that spreads because of Him, thanksgiving increases to the glory of God. At the Lord’s Table, we proclaim His death until He comes as the only way of salvation, and we see our own death to the things of this world and certain life with Him in the Celestial City.

It is only for pilgrims who have entered through the wicket-gate, who have repented from their sin and have had their burden removed at the cross.