The Theme of Suffering in the Pauline Epistiles
For many Christians today, the Gospel is not Christ centered but self centered. One can hardly turn on Christian television without hearing how God promises them this or that; how God guarantees them health and wealth in this life; how life is to be blessing filled. It is sad to see those who follow after Christ for their own sake. It grieves me that so many are turning to Christ as a new way to prosper or as a new method of happiness. This is a very skewed view of the Gospel. At the center of the Gospel message is Christ and Him crucified. In order to be obedient to Him, we are told that suffering, tribulation, and persecution come along with following Him. Paul understood suffering very well. He considered his suffering for Christ an honor and privilege and this is a reoccurring theme throughout his epistles. We can learn much from Paul about what it truly means to follow Christ.
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