Crucified Hearts

From today’s Facebook post which I thought I would share here as well.

It was just a brief word on the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, and I mean very brief. The subject is inexhaustible.

It is a subject we seldom explore because we run from suffering, especially anything that includes humiliation and it’s associated pain. But to be one with Christ is to be one with him in ministry and to be one with him in ministry means we suffer in bearing the burdens of others. Paradoxically this is our joy as it was His.

Now for that Facebook post…

The apostle Paul to the church in Philippi while a prisoner in Rome —

“Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; in no way alarmed by your opponents⁠—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.”

— Philippians 1:27-30

Paul’s witness of faith during his time of incarceration and his encouragement to the church at Philippi to join him in the fellowship of Christ sufferings is timely counsel for Christians today.

Later in his letter he would expand on this thought —

“…experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
— Philippians 1:30

His experience in the Fellowship of Christ sufferings was to be theirs as well.

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
— Philippians 3:8-110

Whether or not we have already suffered the loss of all things for Christ’s sake, this is the Spirit by which we live if we are faithful to join him in the fellowship of his sufferings. To be in fellowship with him in suffering means we are in fellowship with him in ministering to those who are most in need of him.

Union with Christ means we are drawing close with him to those who are suffering in sin and deat,

So we, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
— Galatians 6:2

Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
— Galatians 6:9-10

Doing good to others for the sake of Christ is the way of God’s love. To truly love means we only will the good of the other. And we bring them the good that is in Christ in both spiritual blessings and material gain to improve whatever is lacking, especially for the poorest of miles, those who are most destitute of Christ and what he has to offer for their healing.

Are we willing to bear the burden of others as the fellowship of his sufferings? Will We join them, side by side, hand in hand, in their journey of recovery from sin to righteousness, from despair to joy, from death To life?

If so, then we will have this commendation at the coming of Jesus: “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’”
— Matthew 25:40

To have the fellowship of his sufferings means we have fellowship with him in ministry, that we have the same Spirit that moved him through his life.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
— Luke 4:18-19

It is this ministry that leads to the cross, as it did for him, where we are crucified with Christ that we might be resurrected with him.

It is in the ministry of love to others that we are made dead to sin and alive to Christ.

We see in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, a letter written from prison, a letter written from the place where he would later be beheaded in his witness for Christ, that to minister to others means we put self aside as we exalt Christ, ministering him to others in word and deed.

The spirit of Paul in Philippians is the Spirit of Christ in bearing the burdens of others in fellowship with his sufferings. It is to exalt Christ when we are in the darkest dungeon, proclaiming him as the light of life when we are facing death ourselves.