Colossians 1: 24 → “24 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,”
Cross-References → John 15: 18-25, John 16: 33, and 2 Corinthians 11:
23-28, Acts 5: 17-41, Matthew 5: 10-12, and 1 Peter 4: 12-13, Ephesians 3: 1, 8; 2 Corinthians 1: 3-5, and 2 Corinthians 7: 2-7, Romans 8: 16-17, 2 Timothy 1: 8, and 1 Peter 4: 12-14.
Part #1 → Paul’s attitude during suffering.
The key word here is ‘rejoice.’ His attitude was one of rejoicing!
This Greek means to be glad or even to be exceedingly glad. Paul was
exceedingly glad that he was suffering for the cause of Christ!
Part 2 → Paul had an audience in mind in his suffering.
The key thing to take away is this thought: when we go through suffer-
ing for the sake of Christ, one important step to keeping an attitude of rejoicing is to consider that our suffering is for someone else besides ourselves!
Part 3 → Paul’s Apprehension of Suffering.
I feel confident that what he is saying can be thought of in a couple of
ways:
1) There is a certain amount of persecution assigned to each of us as
part of the body of Christ.
2) When the church is suffering, Christ is suffering.
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