Matthew 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.
Paul said very plainly and explicitly, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2 Tim 3:12) This verse is very troubling. If persecution is a litmus test for godly living, I’m afraid most of us would fail the test. Persecutions are not troubles, trials and temptations that are common to man. The children of the devil also must endure such as these. Unbelievers get sick. Unbelievers run out of money. Unbelievers lose loved ones. Unbelievers have hardships and trials just as the Christians do. This may be hard to swallow, but unbelievers also are delivered from such. What we deem as our personal trials and tribulations are merely Adam’s bane. God told Eve, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children…” (Gen 3:16) Likewise, God told Adam, “…cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;” (Gen 3:17) Life has a way of bringing forth sorrow: troubles, trials and tribulations indeed.
However, there’s a difference between that and persecution for righteousness’ sake. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he warns them of false apostles. He reluctantly (almost sarcastically) compares the works and experiences of the deceitful workers to those of himself, a true apostle. Paul asks, “Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned…” (2 Cor 11:23-25) Does living godly in Christ Jesus afford such fruit? Stripes, prisons, deaths, beatings, and stonings? When’s the last time you had to endure just one of those?
Now, we don’t want to go off the deep end and say that one absolutely cannot live godly in Christ Jesus unless they suffer persecution, because that’s not what the Bible says. But why do we always stop short when we quote Phillippians 3:10? “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection…” No, that verse doesn’t end there. Paul also desired to know “the fellowship of his sufferings.” We may truely know God. We may know the life changing power of his resurrection. But are we acquainted with the fellowship of his sufferings? Paul desired that he be “made conformable unto his death.” Now some people will teach that this is equivalent to the mortification of sin: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5); and that being made conformable unto his death is a crucifixion of the flesh: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” (Galatian 5:24) Some may see the fellowship of his sufferings as being crucified with Christ. (Galatians 2:20) In our circles, a dying to oneself is taught and this is sometimes likened to being made conformable unto his death, including dying to the world and the world to you. (Galatians 6:14) All these are so and may be necessary to know the fellowship of his sufferings, but they hardly are the fellowship of his sufferings.
The fellowship of his sufferings is the actual partaking of his sufferings (1 Peter 4:13). To partake of Jesus sufferings is to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake. This is the solemn fellowship of the martyr: those that came out of great tribulation (Rev 7;14), those that loved not their lives unto the death (Rev 12:11), those that held fast His name and as not denied His faith (Rev 2:13). These are they that are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. (2 Cor 4:8-10) The trials they faced were not common to man, but common to Jesus Christ, the righteous suffering Saviour. Yes, Jesus was touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but they were touched by the feeling of his sufferings? Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18) Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. How earnest is our desire for the blessings of God?
Here is some real good preaching on the fellowship of his sufferings. He makes it real clear that it’s not a partaking of the substitutionary aspects of his suffering, but rather something else. Dr. James Crumpton, The Fellowship of His Sufferings.