Suffering Wrongfully

Suffering Wrongfully

“For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.” 1 Pet. 2:19.

We walk by faith and not by our human understanding or by sight. 2 Cor. 5:7. Because of this we have to do much that people do not understand; we have to suffer being despised and misunderstood. We must suffer as those who are wrong and who will be proved right only after a shorter or longer period of time. “If because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.”

You must not marvel at not being understood if you are faithful to the light God gives. Jesus wasn’t even understood by those who were closest to Him. Mark 3:21. Many people are left behind on the way because they draw back from suffering wrongfully. They want to wait to do what God is working in them until they meet with the approval of others—those who are closest to them. We like to be understood, but in that case the reproach falls away. Such people do not advance on the way.

“Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Pet. 1:21. Their words became “a light that shines in a dark place.” V. 19. “And the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:5. A person likes to be accepted and well liked; consequently, he is not given as a sacrifice to God. Rom. 12:1. God cannot do His work in and by such people. They just become nice, religious people who are well liked by everyone. Nothing ever happens through them. You have to be a sacrifice—you have to seek God’s honor and not think of yourself if something is to happen through you. Then you can follow God’s working and let the light shine in the darkness. This is what the martyrs did. Something happened through them. The fathers murdered them, and their children built monuments for them. Matt. 23:29-32.

Joseph was faithful and did not walk in the ways of his brothers, but God testified about him. It took time, and he had to suffer wrongfully. Therefore we need patience so that we, having done the will of God, may receive the promise. Heb. 10:36. This is written in connection with the martyrs, and we are exhorted not to cast away our confidence, which has great reward.

“Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” Heb. 10:38.

By faith the elders obtained a good testimony. What a person does according to his human reasoning results in a work of man. The people’s worship of God had sunk to a human level so that they did not recognize Him of whom the law and the prophets had spoken. This is also the state of affairs in these days, living as we do, just before Jesus’ second coming. They organize churches on a “biblical pattern” according to their human understanding by majority vote, and even as they believe they are performing God’s work, they become enemies of the truth. What they create is far from being a church which is the body of Christ with Christ as the head. On the contrary, the result is many denominations, each with their own name, who fight against each other, and even among themselves, for power. Just as in former days, Jesus must now also come outside all the humanly recognized worship service.

The church, which is the body of Christ, cannot be organized according to a pattern. It grows together and is furthered by those people who have become a sacrifice and who live by faith. They have fellowship with each other just as the Father and the Son have fellowship. All of them have been in darkness, but when the light—the truth—shone into their darkness, they received it by faith. They agreed with the truth, and the morning star arose in their hearts. 2 Pet. 1:19. You cannot build the church with anyone else. This was also Jesus’ comfort when He said that those who were of the truth heard His voice. They are Jesus said that they are His sheep. Therefore it is God who adds to the church—those who are being saved. Acts 2:47. They do not argue, for they are one heart and one soul. Acts 4:32.