Rejoice in Suffering?

Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness. Colossians 1:24-25

The world today is all about pleasure and happiness. We go out of our way to make sure that our lives are filled with happiness and to avoid suffering at all costs. Paul reminds us in this passage that life includes suffering. The good news for the believer is that God uses suffering to make us more like Jesus and to mold and mature our character.

Paul knew suffering “up close and personal.” This letter to the church at Colosse was written from prison. He certainly wasn’t in prison by his own choice, however, he used his sufferings on behalf of others and because it allowed him to identify with Jesus Christ. When Paul says he is filling up what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, he isn’t saying that Jesus’ suffering on the cross was insufficient. On the contrary, Paul’s attitude is Jesus took the punishment for him; and that suffering brings about an identification with the Savior that nothing else can.


Philippians 3:10-11, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”