“I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end, I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” Colossians 1:24-29
Why was the Apostle Paul suffering? Why was he persecuted, imprisoned, and facing death? And why did He rejoice in those sufferings?
Paul, like the other apostles of our Lord Jesus, faced many hardships. To the Corinthians, he wrote in 2 Cor. 11:24-28: “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness — besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.”
Paul suffered all these things because he was a faithful minister of the Gospel — he preached Christ, and Him crucified, as the only way to heaven, as the only salvation for sinful mankind. The apostle called on men everywhere to repent of their rebellion and sin and return to the true God through faith in the crucified and risen Son of God. And for that, Paul suffered greatly in this world — though he now wears a crown of righteousness in heaven with his Savior (cf. 2 Tim. 4:7-8).
Paul was a prisoner when he wrote this letter to the believers in Colosse. He was in bonds for preaching the crucified and risen Christ Jesus as the only source of forgiveness of sins and life eternal for both Jew and Gentile. Yet, Paul didn’t hold back from setting forth the truth in order to preserve his own life or to avoid trouble from those who opposed the Word of God. As Paul wrote, he preached Christ, “warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end, I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily” (vv. 28-29).
Paul preached that Jesus fulfilled God’s eternal plan for our salvation and willingly suffered and died on the cross, paying in full for the sins of the world, and He rose again from the dead on the third day, all so that those who trust in Jesus for forgiveness and life and follow after Him, though they will also suffer in this world, might be presented holy and righteous in God’s sight, their sins cleansed and covered in the shed blood of Christ.
We still rejoice in the Apostle Paul’s sufferings today because they were for his faithfulness to the Gospel, which was revealed to him by God. He faithfully fulfilled His calling. He proclaimed the truth of the Gospel so that we, as well as the Colossians, might come to know Christ and the riches He won for us on the cross and continue to trust in Christ alone and be presented to God complete and without fault on the Last Day — in Christ Jesus!
Dearest Jesus, our blessed Savior and Redeemer, embolden us to speak Your Word faithfully as we should and not hold back, calling upon people everywhere to repent of their sinful ways and trust in You for forgiveness and life. And, if we must suffer persecution — even if that be prison or death — let us rejoice that we were privileged to suffer for Your name’s sake and for the truth of the Gospel. Amen.
[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]