“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you,
which comes upon you for your testing, as though something
strange were happening to you; but to the degree that you share
the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that
at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be overjoyed.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed,
because the Spirit of glory, and of God, rests upon you.
Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer,
or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian,
he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.”
~~1 Peter 4:12-16~~
You’re probably wondering why I used this particular image for this blog entry. Well, as I began to study this passage, I discovered that fiery ordeal <pyrōsis> means ignition (to subject to fire or intense heat), i.e. (specially), smelting. In my typical nerd fashion, I found the need to research the process of smelting. Here’s what I found out.
Smelting is the process by which a metal is obtained from its ore by heating it beyond the melting point; as you apply the heat to the ore, the metal and the ore separate and you can then skim off the impurities that rise to the surface. Smelting can also be used to authenticate metal’s purity. Interesting, huh? Yeah, I thought so too.
So, God is saying here that we are not to be surprised by these times of “smelting”. Just like the high temperatures used in smelting separates the ore from the valuable metal, our fiery ordeals reveal impurities in our character so we can remove them. If we never face the truth about ourselves, we can’t remove the impurities that weaken the “metal” of our character.
The second thing that smelting does is authenticate a metal’s purity. For instance, if someone purchased a gold bar, it may be smelted to prove there’s no lesser metal present. So God uses fiery ordeals to reveal what we’re truly made of. The fiery ordeals test our character.
Fiery ordeals reveal.
Fiery ordeals authenticate.
When this passage spoke of the “sufferings of Christ”, what came to mind was when Jesus told his disciples, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also.”, John 15:18-20.
This passage indicates that not all fiery ordeals come from God. Some can come because of our own stupidity (“Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler”). That doesn’t bring God glory at all. But “if you are insulted for the name of Christ”, that’s a different story. Then “you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, and of God, rests upon you”. If the world insults us, defames us, and causes us to suffer because of our faith and our relationship to Jesus, the Word says we are blessed <makarios> supremely blessed and fortunate.
PAUSE TO PONDER. Suffering = Blessed?? That sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? Well, think this through with me. This passage says that if we suffer for the cause of Christ, we are blessed, not necessarily because of the suffering, but because the suffering gives the Spirit of God an opportunity to shine. In the phrase, the Spirit of God rests upon us. The word rests <anapauō> means to repose (a state of resting after exertion or strain); by implication, to refresh (to restore strength and animation to : revive : to freshen up : to restore or maintain by renewing supply). Because the Spirit of God rests on me, I am able to bounce back regardless of the amount of stress or strain I’ve been under. Because the Spirit of God rests on me, He will restore my strength by His renewing supply of whatever I need.
“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times,
having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”
~~2 Corinthians 9:8~~
God is ABLE to bless us abundantly…in ALL things… at ALL times…having ALL you need…you WILL abound in every good work.
If anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed,
but is to glorify God in this name.
PAUSE TO PONDER. If I suffer as a Christian and feel shame, where is my focus? It’s on “me”. (buzzer sounds) Wrong focus. If I suffer as a Christian, I am to glorify God because there’s something, actually Someone, evident in me that marks me as different from the world.
WHAT DID WE LEARN?
Fiery ordeals reveal.
Fiery ordeals authenticate.
Fiery ordeals bless.
Fiery ordeals glorify God.
Remember that we are studying the Bible not just to learn it, but to live it! I am praying for you, as I hope you are for me, to be able to have a different perspective of the fiery ordeals that we may face. You are not in this alone…