Suffering: For to This You Were Called... 1 Peter 2:21
📖Scripture:
“For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps.” – 1 Peter 2:21🔎Examination:
Peter’s words confront the Church with sobering clarity: the calling of the elect is not comfort, applause, cultural acceptance, or earthly ease. It is conformity to Christ — the crucified, sinless, suffering Lamb. Our union with the resurrected Lord does not exempt us from suffering; it defines the shape of our lives within a hostile world. The apostle insists that suffering is not an interruption to the Christian life; it is part of the divine calling. The footsteps we follow are blood-stained.This is neither the idolatry of masochism nor martyrdom obsession. It is the fruit of supernatural regeneration. The Holy Spirit conforms the saints to the pattern of the Lamb who entrusted Himself to the Father. Sunday’s sermon emphasized this: Christ is our hypogrammon — our underlying template, the fixed pattern into which we are being shaped by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is "the way," i.e., the only legitimate path, and the elect walk it not by gritting our teeth, but by the supernatural power of the new birth and Immanuel — God with us.
Peter’s original audience lived under the threat of real persecution — geographic displacement, governmental hostility, social shame, ethnic and economic pressures, and relational fracture. Their temptation was the same as ours: escape the difficulty by softening biblical conviction and submitting to cultural conformity. But the Apostle Peter roots the Church in something infinitely superior to human strategy: the sovereign call of God. “For to this you were called...” Not by accident. Not by misfortune. By divine appointment!
Modern counterfeit gospels collapse here. Prosperity teaching insists suffering is abnormal. Progressive ideology insists holiness is oppressive. Therapeutic deism insists God’s chief goal is your personal comfort (emotional, financial, physical, etc.). Nominalism insists Christianity is compatible with worldliness. But Peter’s Spirit-driven words crush these illusory lies. Christ also suffered for you — not merely to redeem you, but to DEFINE you. The elect are not mere spectators of the cross; we are sharers/participants in it.
"I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death," -Philippians 3:10
"I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." -Galatians 2:20
"...Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." -Acts 14:22
“The Spirit Himself bears witness... provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” -Romans 8:16-17
“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” -2 Timothy 3:12
“For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort also.” -2 Corinthians 1:5
“For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” -Philippians 1:29
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” -Colossians 1:24
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” -1 Peter 4:12-13
The Apostles preached the very same message of suffering that King Jesus did: “Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered... I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!” -John 16:32-33. The word Jesus used is translated in Greek as thlip'-sis, which means affliction, anguish, burdens, persecution, tribulation, trouble, distress, and anguish, i.e., suffering!
The suffering Peter describes is not random pain; it is suffering because of righteousness. Voluntary humility. Patient endurance. Refusing retaliation. Speaking truth when it costs something. Living faithfully when slandered. Standing firm when misunderstood. These are not works of the flesh; they are the aroma of resurrection life in an age of rebellion. The world hates, despises, and rejects Christ because He exposes its wickedness and darkness. Therefore, Christ's Body & Bride, the Church, must expect the same... anything else is ignorance, folly, fantasy, and delusion-driven disobedience.
But here is the staggering Good News: His footsteps are not a burden — they are the evidence of our baptismal identification and supernatural union with Him. We follow because we belong to Him. We endure because He is sustaining us. We persevere because the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls has already gone before and is behind us. His Spirit is within us. His sovereign grace hovers over us. Not in PREVENTION but PERSEVERANCE! The saints are not guaranteed to be SHIELDED from SUFFERINGS, but divine endurance and victory in them. We are not called to begrudgingly trudge through the world, trying to imitate a distant hero; we are supernaturally united to and sealed by the living God who leads, empowers, sustains, upholds, and has already secured the VICTORY for His people.
Scripture's revelation grounds us in four immutable realities:
- Christ suffered for you. Not vaguely. Not symbolically. Not only for you personally, but for His Body & Bride, the New Testament Church, as the Passover Lamb whose sinless life and precious blood redeemed us from the kingdom of darkness into His marvelous light!
- Christ is the perfect pattern. His humility, trust, endurance, boldness, and obedience reveal the holiness, perfection, righteousness, and exclusive standard for Christians and, therefore, the Church.
- Christ’s footsteps define our path. Not culture, comfort, desires, fears, or fantasies. He is our example (hypogrammon).
- Conformity is evidence of adoption. Only those truly born again (not merely “self-identifying”) can walk the path of Holy Spirit-enabled obedience by grace through faith in Christ.
This is why the regenerate Church does not fear persecution or cultural hostility. Christ walks ahead of us. His path has already secured the victory. The testimony of Scripture is that the cross always precedes the crown... suffering precedes glory. Just as Adam's pattern of entitlement and sin is passed on to all of his descendants, Christ's pattern of shameless humility and suffering is passed on to His. The footsteps we follow lead not TO despair... but THROUGH it into resurrection life. This is THE WAY.
Sunday’s sermon warned us: counterfeit Christianity flees the narrow path of Christ. It seeks alternative routes around, under, and over... Contrastingly, the sheep of the Good Shepherd walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death with joy because His presence is our peace. King Jesus not only walked it first... His footsteps are not merely our example... He walks with us even now as the guardian of our souls. The same One who suffered and shepherds, sent the Holy Spirit as our counselor, comforter, helper, and advocate. He empowers our obedience, sustains our hope, and guarantees our future glory.
To follow Him is costly. To refuse Him is deadly. But as King Jesus asks in Mark 8:36, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
🤺Action:
- Test your allegiance – “Examine yourselves.” (2 Cor 13:5). Are you following Christ’s footsteps or improvising your own and expecting Him to meet you there?
- Test your endurance – “Let us examine our ways.” (Lam 3:40). Do trials, tribulations, anguish, and sufferings drive you toward obedience in gathering, growing, giving, and going as a devoted member of Christ's Body & Bride... or when suffering comes do you resort to practicing the default sins of the flesh: scattering, decaying, robbing, and avoiding out of selfish entitlement and autonomy?
- Test your humility – “Search me… lead me.” (Ps 139:23–24). Are you resisting cross-like cruciform living out of pride, fear, or self-preservation?
- Test your conformity – “Be doers of the word.” (Jas 1:22–25). Is it truly Christ’s life-pattern shaping your choices, reactions, and relationships... or is it your first father, Adam, through whom sin and death came to all?
🧠Reflection:
As Pastor Deitreich Bonhoeffer once said, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." We are called to walk the narrow path with confidence. The footsteps we follow are illuminated by the light of the WORD. The light, path, and word are the Lamb of God who conquered sin, crushed death, and reigns forever. He is not calling us into morality — He is calling us into Himself. Let us fix our eyes on the One who walked the path first and who now walks it with us as the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls... until the day He physically returns in all the glory of our Heavenly Father!
Blessings & love,
Kevin M. Kelley
Pastor
BigIslandChristianChurch.com
Click the following link for a video short of today’s post: https://youtube.com/shorts/ndbEgDZOxXk?feature=share
Click this link for Sunday's sermon: https://youtu.be/cR-y3l3hgso
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