“So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.”
“Be ready to suffer!” isn’t a winning slogan we’ve heard before. Even the commercials for joining the military sound more glamorous than that. Yet ultimately, as much as the Gospel is good news, the Christian life is about suffering. We celebrate Christ and the cross until we realize he wants us to imitate him. Some only get halfway up the mountain dragging a cross behind them before they give up.
So what is the benefit of suffering? Peter tells us here that if we suffer physically for Christ then we are “finished with sin.” That sounds good. Wouldn’t it be nice to stop chasing your own desires that keep leading you in the wrong direction and just be able to do what God wants for you all the time? This is why throughout church history some practiced self-flagellation (beating themselves with a whip in order to physically suffer). I don’t encourage this practice, because I think it misses the point. But voluntary suffering through fasting, giving away money or possessions to the poor, or risking your worldly reputation to stand up for justice are some ways we can suffer in the imitation of Christ.
Here’s your freedom for today: you can walk freely into liberation. You have the opportunity to be done with evil things. You can walk away from sin. Through Jesus we have the power to do this because we are no longer slaves to sin. The key to leaving sin behind is suffering, in part because sin often brings us temporary comfort. It’s kind of like saying, “I can be healthier by leaving chocolate behind!” The question then becomes, “Do I really want to?” How far into your own freedom are you willing to walk today by leaving behind the things you are clinging to?