Afflictions of Christ and His body
As we meditate on the passion of Christ, the passion of Christ will be incomplete if we do not consider the afflictions of the members of His Body. The members of His Body fill up in their flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the Church (Col.1:24). During the Lenten days, we meditate only on the sufferings of Christ and not on the sufferings of hundreds of the members of His body who either suffered martyrdom or suffered in many ways.Though Christ suffered and died for our sins on the Cross, yet there is something lacking in his afflictions which needs to be filled up by the members of His body, the universal Church. Today, the Church is facing afflictions either due to persecutions or due to sufferings in other ways. If you are of the body of Christ, you will definitely feel the agonies of those undergoing afflictions in His body.Paul in his epistle to Corinthians (2 Cor.11:23-33) described his great sufferings. Paul did not seek divine deliverance or angelic deliverances in all his afflictions. If you are minister of God, the Holy Spirit exhorts you to take time to meditate on the afflictions of Paul.
“Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft,
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one,
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and in thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches…….”
When the governor was guarding the city with a garrison to arrest him, there was no angelic deliverance of Paul which had happened when Peter was imprisoned. Paul was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from the hands of his enemies.
Paul faced unbearable physical tortures by way of beatings with stripes and rods. He received 39 stripes from the Jews and that too, five times. Paul faced perils everywhere in the world. God even did not give him a favorable weather for his ministry. There was not a single place in his life-time which was without peril. He did not covet comforts for his body. He suffered hunger, thirst, nakedness, weariness and painfulness. Apart from these physical sufferings, the care of all the churches came upon him daily. Paul’s ministry was not on a comfortable dais or pulpit. These days, when we face a little suffering or persecution, we feel demoralized and do not want to serve Him.
I request you to read the biography of a great woman of God who lived and died for Christ in India. She, on her part, had filled up in her flesh the afflictions of Christ. She was an ordinary house-wife with no formal education. Please Click here to read her biography. Dear sister, God has a message for you.
-Job Anbalagan