Why Foreign Missions? 20n Paul's
Mission or Affliction Catalogues: The Content of the Gospel and the Character
of Mission
Paul characterises his mission several times
in 'mission catalogues': 1 Cor. 4.9-13; 2 Cor. 4.8f; 6.3-10; 11.23-33; 12.10;
Rom. 8.35; Phl. 4.11-13; 2 Tim. 3.10-11.
These passages have several things in common and, in particular, they
describe the hardships that he faces because of his mission work. So, from these texts we can discover
something of Paul's view of suffering and self-denial, particularly as it
relates to Christian mission. While
parallels may be found in other literature of the time both rhetorically and in
substance, these passages offer a different view of suffering. For Paul, suffering is negative, and yet in
the apostle's weaknesses the positive side of the situation emerges, for God's
strength is manifest through them. And such a theology accounts for the earnest
efforts that characterize Paul's mission; the mission's intensity derives from
accepting whatever hardship or suffering may arise, knowing that this is not
defeat but, on the one hand, a proof that the distress of the end-times is now
upon the righteous and, on the other, that God's purpose and power are revealed
in this human weakness.
In these mission catalogues may be found
Paul's earnest disposition in service of the mission. This earnestness not only may be found in
what is described, but also in the rhetorical features of the catalogues. The lists share the rhetorical schemes of
anaphora (repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of
successive clauses) and/or asyndeton (omission of conjunctions between a series
of related clauses). Also, the lists
contain various sorts of contrasts: contrasts between Paul and the Corinthians
(1 Cor. 4.10-13) or false brothers (2 Cor. 11.23-33; 2 Tim. 3.10); contrasts
between the way in which he is treated and the way in which he responds (1 Cor.
4.12-13; 2 Cor. 4.8-10), contrasts between circumstances experienced (2 Cor.
6.8; Phl. 4.12), contrasts between the appearance and reality of the situation
(2 Cor. 6.8-10), and the contrast or paradox of conquering through or delighting
in negative situations (Rom. 8.35; 2 Cor. 11.21, 30; 12.10; cf. 2 Cor. 4.7,
10). In such ways, Paul piles up
examples of the character of his mission, contrasting it with the philosophy
and behaviour of others, and thereby emphasises his zealousness for it whatever
the personal cost.
The words themselves should also be noted in
these lists. First, they show Paul's
suffering in the mission. Paul uses the
following words for the treatment that he and those with him receive from
others as they minister:
Kolafi,zw (beat)
|
1 Cor. 4.11
|
Loidore,w (revile)
|
1 Cor. 4.12
|
Diw,kw / Diwgmo,j (persecute)
|
1 Cor. 4.12; 2 Cor. 4.9; 2
Cor. 12.10; Rom. 8.35; 2 Tim. 3.11
|
Dusfhme,w / Dusfhmi,a (defame)
|
1 Cor. 4.13; 2 Cor. 6.8
|
… w`j perikaqa,rmata … peri,yhma (offscouring/scapegoat)
|
1 Cor. 4.13
|
Qli,bw / qli/yij (afflict, affliction)
|
2 Cor. 4.8; 6.4; cf. Rom.
8.35
|
Kataba,llw (struck down)
|
2 Cor. 4.9
|
vAna,gkh (distress)
|
1 Cor. 6.4; 2 Cor. 12.10
(cf. 1 Cor. 7.26)
|
Stenocwri,a (difficulty)
|
2 Cor. 6.4; 12.10; cf.
Rom. 8.35
|
Plhgh, (blow)
|
2 Cor. 6.5; 11.23
|
Fulakh, (prison)
|
2 Cor. 6.5; 11.23
|
VAkatastasi,a (disturbance)
|
2 Cor. 6.5
|
VAtimi,a (dishonour)
|
2 Cor. 6.8
|
Qa,natoj (death)
|
2 Cor. 11.24; cf. 6.9
|
[Ubrij (mistreatment)
|
2 Cor. 12.10
|
Paideu,w (punish)
|
2 Cor. 6.9
|
Pa,qhma (suffering)
|
2 Tim. 3.11
|
In addition, Paul has been whipped, beaten
with a rod, stoned, and is also in danger of false brothers (2 Cor. 11.24-26).
Second, these lists describe Paul's
self-denial and hard labours in service of the mission. Note the words he uses to show this:
Peina,w (hunger)
|
1 Cor. 4.11; Phl. 4.12
|
Limo,j (hunger)
|
2 Cor. 11.27; cf. Rom.
8.35
|
Diya,w / Di,yoj (thirst)
|
1 Cor. 4.11; 2 Cor. 11.27
|
Gumniteu,w
Gumno,thj
(naked)
|
1 Cor. 4.11; 2 Cor. 11.27;
cf. Rom. 8.35
|
VAstate,w (homeless)
|
1 Cor. 4.11
|
Koria,w / Ko,roj (labour)
|
1 Cor. 4.12; 2 Cor. 6.5;
11.23
|
VAgrupni,a (sleepless)
|
2 Cor. 6.5; 11.27
|
Nhstei,a (hunger)
|
2 Cor. 6.5; 11.27
|
Mo,cqoj (exertion, strenuous labour)
|
2 Cor. 11.27
|
Yu/coj (cold)
|
2 Cor. 11.27
|
Tapeino,w (humble)
|
Phl. 4.12
|
Ptwco,j (poor)
|
2 Cor. 6.10
|
To these, Paul adds the daily pressure and
anxiety that he bears for all the churches (2 Cor. 11.28), times of uncertainty
(2 Cor. 4.8), as well as numerous travelling dangers (cf. especially 2 Cor.
11.25-26).
To be sure, the apostle's life is different
from the average believer: he, as an apostle, is engaged in the mission in
greater earnest. Apostles are those
condemned to die, to be or become a spectacle for angels and humans alike in
the contest between Gospel and world (1 Cor. 4.9). Paul's self-denial for the sake of the
mission is even greater than that of other apostles: not marrying and not
receiving financial assistance from his churches while ministering among them,
and in becoming a Jew to the Jews and a Gentile to the Gentiles for the sake of
the mission (1 Cor. 9.19-23). He can typify his life as that of the athlete
in earnest training and performance (1 Cor. 9.24-27; Phl. 3.13-14; 2 Tim.
4.7). This present life has purpose only
insofar as it involves fruitful labour (Phl. 1.20-26). Whereas the Philippian church's sacrifice is
their faith, Paul's is the very outpouring of his life upon their sacrifice
(Phl. 2.17).
This point is also made by Scott Hafemann,
who first insists that Paul’s weakness in Galatians 4 is not the circumstance
leading him to spend time in Galatia and so establish the church there but ‘the
very basis upon which Paul preached everywhere he was sent by God.' ‘Paul’s suffering was the divinely ordained
means by which the gospel itself was made clear to the Galatians.’ Paul must have taught the Galatians the OT
curse tradition found in Dt. 27.15-26; 28.16-19, which links sin and suffering,
as a way to understand Christ’s suffering for sin (Gal. 3.10, referring to Dt.
27.26; 28.15), but it also explains Paul’s ‘willingness to suffer for the
gospel as a display of the sufferings of Christ (4.13-14).’ ‘Paul’s suffering was the instrument by which
he ‘publicly portrayed’ the crucified Christ ‘before [the Galatians] eyes’
(Gal.3.1).’
Similarly, in 1 Cor. 4.6-16; 2 Cor. 1.3-11;
2.14-17; 4.7-12; 6.3-10 and 12.1-10, Paul
portrays his apostolic
suffering as the revelatory vehicle through which the knowledge of God as made
manifest in the cross of Christ and in the power of the Spirit is being disclosed…. In these passages Paul’s suffering, as the
corollary to his message of the cross, is the very instrument God uses to
display his resurrection power (cf. too 1 Cor. 2.2-5; 1 Th. 1.5). This revelation takes place either by God’s
rescuing Paul from adversity when it was too much to bear, as in 2 Corinthians
1.8-11 and Philippians 2.25-30, or by the even more glorious means of God’s
strengthening Paul in the midst of adversity that he may endure his suffering
with thanksgiving to the glory of God (cf. 2 Cor. 4.7-12; 5.3-10; 12.9; 2 Tim.
2.10).
Thus Paul’s life of suffering is an
embodiment of the Gospel. 2 Cor. 4.7:
the Gospel is carried about in his body, a jar of clay. Paul, like Christ in his suffering and dying
for others, dies every day (1 Cor. 15.31) ‘as a means by which the significance
of the cross is made real to those to whom the gospel is preached (Gal.
4.13-14).’ 1 Cor. 1.17-18 and 2.14-16 show Paul’s
suffering parallel’s the cross of Christ: the manner of Paul’s life parallels
the content of his message (the cross of Christ). Paul’s love in suffering for the Galatians,
and their love for him, is an example of Gal. 5.5f—faith working itself out in
love.
I.
The Churches' Suffering
The churches also know this life of suffering
and self-denial in their own experience; the distinction between the believer
and the apostle is not qualitative but quantitative. This can be shown in several ways.
A. First, the mission
catalogues not only typify Paul's mission; they also goad the believers into
imitating Paul's way in Christ. In 1
Cor. 4.1-13, Paul may speak of the extremes of the apostolic way of life, but
he does so to exhort the Corinthians to recognise that this is the way of life
for believers, over against their pretensions of already reigning. The same is true for 1 Cor. 9, where Paul's
mention of the extremes he endures for the Gospel function as an example for
the Corinthians in their treatment of one another (cf. 10.31-11.1). Two of the missionary catalogues in 2
Corinthians (11.23-33; 12.10) contrast the character of Paul's apostleship with
others in a way which suggests that two different understandings of the Gospel
are at stake (note 11.4), one glorying in oneself, the other glorying in God,
whose power is made perfect in weakness (12.9).
The Corinthians, awed by the super-apostles, are again exhorted to view
life in Christ as Paul does. Since
Paul's understanding of the Gospel defines the character of his mission, the
Corinthians too should see that the Gospel should define their way of
life. So, for example, Paul counters the
strength of the super-apostles with the meekness and gentleness of Christ
(10.1) and his own weaknesses. Finally,
in Phl. 4.9, Paul exhorts the Philippian believers to emulate all that they
have seen in and heard from him. In the
very next verse, which begins a new paragraph, Paul speaks of how he has
learned contentment in every situation, positive or negative, for in Christ, who
strengthens him, he can do all things.
This personal lesson for Paul is equally a truth of Christian life for
all.
B. Second, points that Paul
makes in these mission catalogues are elsewhere commended to believers. The mission is characterised by a concern to
respond to persecution with what is good (1 Cor. 4.12f): there is no place for
violence. Believers are exhorted along
the same lines in Rom. 12.14-21. The
mission entails a contrast between appearances and reality that rests on an
eschatological and spiritual conviction.
Thus it may be seen by some as entailing deception, insignificance,
death, punishment, sorrow, and poverty (2 Cor. 6.8-10). Yet, from a spiritual perspective, it entails
looking beyond appearances and to the time of the great reversal of this life, God's
final judgment. From the spiritual
perspective, the mission entails integrity, fame, life, survival, rejoicing,
making many 'wealthy,' and being 'wealthy' oneself. This view of life also underlies Paul's
ethical exhortation to the Philippians: those who live as enemies of the cross
of Christ have their minds set on earthly things, but the commonwealth of
believers is in heaven (3.18-21).
Finally, if Paul works hard so as not to be dependent on the support of
those hearing the proclamation of the Gospel (1 Cor. 4.12), he also can exhort
the Thessalonian believers to work for a living and not be dependent on others
(1 Th. 3.11f; 2 Th. 3.6-12) and thieves to work with their own hands so that
they can give to those in need (Eph. 4.28).
C. Third, while the mission
catalogues characterise Paul's mission as entailing suffering and self-denial,
elsewhere in the epistles the churches are said to participate in this
experience of life. Some passages in
Paul suggest or explicitly state that tribulation is part of the normal
experience of believers: 1 Th. 1.6; 2.14; 2 Th. 1.4-6; 2 Cor. 1.3-11; Rom.
12.12; Phl. 1.27-30 2 Tim. 3.10-12. 1
Th. 3.1-5 shows Paul's concern for the newly begun church at Thessalonica, and
the reason for his great concern is that they are experiencing
persecution. This passage also reveals
that Paul understood that this was the lot of all Christians, so much so that
he used to prepare the new believers by telling them that life in Christ means
opposition from the world:
… that no one be moved by
these afflictions. You yourselves know
that this is to be our lot. For when we were with you, we told you beforehand
that we were to suffer affliction; just as it has come to pass, and as you know
(1 Th. 3.3f; RSV).
The
antecedent to 'we' in 'we were to suffer affliction' is not only Paul and his
fellow labourers but also all believers in Christ. Affliction characterizes the present time. Whether
or not there are periodic intensifications of tribulation or a final, major
period of tribulation, the time of tribulation is present and overlaps with the
time of the Church’s mission. As Wolfgang
Schrage says, the time between Christ's death and resurrection, on the one
hand, and His Parousia, on the other, is both a time of suffering and
service. Indeed, suffering derives
primarily from service in the mission in which the churches engaged until
Christ's Parousia.
II.
The Meaning of Suffering and
Self-Denial in Paul
Something further might be said about how
Paul interprets this suffering and self-denial for believers. The point just made, that believers will
suffer in this time of tribulation and mission, is supported theologically in
two ways. Eschatologically, as has been noted, the time of distress has
arrived. A second reason is that
believers really and truly enter the
Story of Jesus: believers experience persecution because their Lord
did. Paul has the same theology of Jn.
15.20 (NRSV):
Remember
the word that I said to you, 'Servants are not greater than their master.' If
they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will
keep yours also.
As we see from Col. 1.24; Phl. 3.10; Rom.
8.17 and Gal. 6.17, Paul believes that believers experience the same sufferings
of their Lord. Schrage concludes:
It is the Crucified One
himself who involves the Christians in following in the train of his sufferings
and includes them, whose subject he has become (according to Gal. 2.20) in his
fate. Thus Jesus’ suffering and dying is
not only a saving event that occurred extra
nos, but it is also realized through the Christians’ own ‘sufferings of
Christ,’ which thus becomes transparent to Jesus’ suffering and dying. Therefore, even down to the present time, a
constitutive reflection of the preaching of the cross is always the weakness
and folly, the lowliness and affliction of the community (cf. 1 Cor. 1.26ff; 2
Cor. 1.6, et passim) not only of the apostles (cf. 2 Cor. 11.23ff; 1 Cor. 2.2,
et passim).
James D. G. Dunn believes that Paul's
understanding of suffering is related to the process of salvation (with
reference in particular to 2 Cor. 4.11-12, 16-17). However, I would argue, these verses may more
naturally to be read as a reference to physical death versus spiritual
transformation, rather than 'the believer's divided state.' Dunn further avers that 'continuing human
weakness was an integral part of the process of salvation.’ If we ignore Dunn's dubitable arguments about
'divided states' and a 'process of salvation', we can nevertheless appreciate a
different spiritual interpretation of suffering to which he draws due attention
in Paul: suffering as part of life in Christ. With reference to 2 Cor. 12.9-10,
Dunn states that
To make too much of [out of
the body experiences and similar shows of power] actually constituted a
perversion of the gospel. The corollary
… is clear: it was precisely not
experiences of power leaving behind bodily weakness which Paul saw as the mark
of grace, but experiences of power in and through bodily weakness…. Human weakness was not a denial of divine
power, but an unavoidable and even necessary complement to divine power in the
overlap of the ages.
Thus Paul's understanding of the 'Gospel' and
his understanding of eschatology--the overlap of the ages--accounts for his
views on suffering.
Moreover, since the Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul's understanding of
the believer's life in Christ
accounts for his views on Christian suffering.
Dunn notes that 'both the death and the life to be experienced by the
believer are Christ's.' This point relates to the argument of Morna
Hooker that Paul's interpretation of Christ's work was more than that of a
substitutionary atonement for sin: it entails participation in the life, death,
resurrection and exaltation of Jesus. Morna Hooker's discussion of the Gospel in
Paul emphasises the idea of participation in Christ, that is, a reciprocity in
which Jesus stands in our place and we in His.
This goes beyond the idea of substitution (though there is no reason to
choose only one perspective): Christ does not simply die instead of us; His death means our death, His life our life. For example, 1 Th. 4.9-10 reads, ‘For God has destined us not for wrath but for
obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that
whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.’
Hooker finds this
notion of participation in the other Pauline letters. Her discussion of Galatians is over several
pages (31-34), but the following point illustrates her interpretation. She believes that Gal. 3.14 should be read
with respect to the thinking found in 1 Th. 5.10. In these passages we see that
Christ
died, in order that we might live with him; if blessing comes to us, it is
because we are in him; if we receive the Spirit, it is because we share in his
life--and [in Gal. 4] … the Spirit we receive is in fact the Spirit of the
Son. It is not, then, a case of Christ
and the believer changing places, but of the believer sharing in Christ's
life. If Christ has been vindicated and
raised from the dead, the same must be true of those who are united with him.
Morna Hooker points to
similar thinking in Gal. 2.20; 1 Cor. 1.30 with 6.11 (what Christ is we
become); 2 Cor. 5.14 (where the Greek 'hyper'
means 'as representative,' not 'instead of'); 5.21; 8.9; Rom. 5.6, 8, 12-21; 6;
8.1-17; Phl. 2.1-11; 3.7-11, 21. In
addition to these verses are those in which Paul describes his own suffering:
e.g., Gal. 6.17; 2 Cor. 1.3-7; 4.7-12; 6.4-10; etc.
James Dunn makes the same kind of point in
his reading of Rom. 6.5, which he paraphrases as follows:
For if we have become knit
together (symphytos) with the very
likeness (homoioma) of his death, we
shall certainly also [be knit together with the very likeness] of his resurrection.
He further emphasises the importance of the
Greek perfect tense in this verse:
The force of the perfect is
to indicate a past event establishing a state which continues to persist in the
present. What Paul means then, is that
the believer is and continues to be in a state of having been fused with the very
likeness of Christ's death.
Paul makes this point explicit in Rom.
8.17-18: 'and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ-- if, in fact, we suffer with him so
that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to
us.' Thus Paul understands his
sufferings as the 'overflow' of Christ's sufferings (2 Cor. 1.5a). One might compare 2 Cor. 4.10; 13.4; Col.
1.24. Dunn explains this last verse as
follows:
…it is
best understood simply as a spelling out of what was implicit in the perfect
tenses of Rom. 6.5 and Gal. 2.19 and 6.14 (also 2 Cor. 4.10). That is, there is a sense in which Christ's
passion is incomplete. Since Christ's
death is the means by which the sinful flesh is killed off, it is incomplete
till the whole entail of sinful flesh is brought to an end. Since Christ's death is the means by which
death is conquered, it is incomplete until the final destruction of the last
enemy (1 Cor. 15.26). Since believers
share in Christ's sufferings, in a sense Christ's sufferings are incomplete
until the last suffering of the last Christian.
This is of a piece with the later idea of a total sum of suffering which
must be endured before the end comes [see note 106, p. 486: Mk. 13.8; Jn.
16.21; Rev. 6.9-11; 4 Ezra 4.33-43],
the birth pangs of the messianic age (an image which Paul already echoes in
Gal. 4.19). The transition from old age
to new age is long-drawn-out and those in transit from one to the other are
caught 'with Christ' in the overlap.
A final verse to which Dunn draws attention
is Phl. 3.10-11 ('fellowship of his sufferings'). Again, Dunn's interpretation is incisive:
What is particularly notable
is the way Paul speaks of Christ's sufferings after he speaks of his resurrection. The process of sanctification does not
consist in an initial dying with Christ followed in the course of that process
by an experience of Christ's resurrection power. Paul's doctrine of salvation is quite
different. The resurrection power of
Christ manifests itself, and inseparably so, as also a sharing in Christ's
sufferings. The process of salvation is
a process of growing conformity to Christ's death.
In this regard,
Dunn's argument demonstrates that Christ's death for Paul was more than a
salvific event; it became a metaphor or paradigm for Christian existence. But it is not so in any isolated way: Christ's
preexistence, incarnation, life, death, resurrection, exaltation, and second
coming link these events into a complete narrative, the Gospel or good news of
Jesus Christ. This narrative renders the
character, Jesus Christ, in a consistent way that becomes paradigmatic for
Christian existence and ministry. So,
for example, if we follow G. Hawthorne's argument on how to render the
participle in Phl. 2.6, we might see that Jesus'
preexistent character and
life were consistent with his
incarnation and
death--he is the paradigm for humility that willingly suffers. Hawthorne suggests that we translate the
adverbial participle as causal, not concessive: '
Because (not ‘although’) he was in the form of God….' He further argues that the passage states
that Jesus understood divine character to involve outpouring rather than
snatching, demonstrated in his incarnation and death.
Similarly, 2 Cor. 10.1 refers to Jesus'
meekness and gentleness. This may entail
a reference to the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, but it surely also entails
the fact that Paul was aware of Jesus’ character during his earthly ministry. The incarnation (a doctrine that assumes
Jesus’ preexistence) in 2 Cor. 8.9 also indicates Paul’s awareness of Jesus'
character showing forth in the Gospel itself: ‘For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by
his poverty you might become rich.’
Also, by virtue of participating in Christ,
believers are said to enter into the same experience of persecution that Paul
knows simply by virtue of having believed in Christ. For example, according to 1 Th. 2.14-16, the
Thessalonian believers experience the same persecution which Paul experienced
while at Thessalonica and which the Judean churches experienced from the Jews. The Philippian church also enters into Paul's
conflict with opponents to the Gospel, and therefore are said to suffer for
Christ (Phl. 1.29f). Similarly, the
Corinthians endure the same sufferings which Paul and Timothy endure, sharing
in the sufferings of Christ (2 Cor. 1.5f).
The idea that the suffering of believers can be equated with Christ's
suffering is also found in Acts (in 9.4, the risen Christ asks Paul, 'Why do
you persecute me?'), and in 1 Peter
(4.13: 'But rejoice insofar as you are
sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy
when his glory is revealed').
Wolfgang Schrage
outlines a similar understanding of sharing in Jesus' suffering after his
resurrection, describing this as 'Conformity to Christ’s Suffering'. Through Christ’s eschatological suffering and
dying he also places his followers in the ‘fellowship of his sufferings.’ The ‘sufferings of Christ’ of the Christians
signify not only their belonging to Him, but also 'the eschatological efficacy and
impact of his death.’ See 2 Cor. 4.8-9. Fellowship with Christ draws Christians to
participate in his sufferings (2 Cor. 1.5; Phl. 3.10) (182). Jesus’ death is not ‘a datum that has been
superseded by the resurrection, but a present, powerful reality (2 Cor. 4.12).' Schrage continues,
It is the Crucified One
himself who involves the Christians in following in the train of his sufferings
and includes them, whose subject he has become (according to Gal. 2.20) in his
fate. Thus Jesus’ suffering and dying is
not only a saving event that occurred extra
nos, but it is also realized through the Christians’ own ‘sufferings of
Christ,’ which thus becomes transparent to Jesus’ suffering and dying. Therefore, even down to the present time, a
constitutive reflection of the preaching of the cross is always the weakness
and folly, the lowliness and affliction of the community (cf. 1 Cor. 1.26ff; 2
Cor. 1.6, et passim) not only of the apostles (cf. 2 Cor. 11.23ff; 1 Cor. 2.2,
et passim).
This further means that Jesus' suffering and
dying are a moral example that can be imitated (Rom. 15.3; 8.17; Phl. 3.10),
even though Jesus' death is more than ethical and more than exemplary in its
salvific efficacy.
Therefore, suffering is
a characteristic of life in Christ, but not any kind of suffering is
intended. To be sure, believers
experience the suffering and trials of this world just as anyone else does, for
creation itself groans as in the pains of childbirth until the day of liberation
comes (Rom. 8.18-27). Yet there is a
specific suffering that believers experience, namely suffering with Christ the
persecution of the world. This point has
also been made by Wolfgang Schrage, who finds six meanings or interpretations
of suffering in Paul's letters. We have
already noted the first: (1) fellowship with Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 4.10; Phl.
3.10). As believers are baptised into Christ, they
become participants in His death and resurrection, knowing His suffering and
triumph. This is no story by which
everyone's existence may be described; for Paul, this is a result of living and
believing the apocalyptic Story of the Gospel, suffering for his witnessing
about Jesus and hoping to partake of His Lord's resurrection life both now
(Rom. 6.10f) and more literally in the future resurrection (1 Cor. 15.17-19).
Schrage’s other meanings
of suffering are as follows:
(1) 'This conjunction of
affliction and comfort in fellowship with Christ means a constant dependence upon
God and looking away from one's
self' (2 Cor. 1.9, 11; 4.15; Rom. 8.37; Phl. 4.13) (my italics);
(2) suffering is a sign of this present age and points the
believer to the future (Rom. 8.18; 1 Cor. 4.8);
(3)
suffering is seen as a testing which
exercises faith (Rom. 5.3f; 8.25; 12.12; 2
Tim. 2.12; 1 Th. 1.6; 5.16);
(4)
suffering points believers to the future end of suffering in the world, Christian
hope being grounded in Christ's
triumph over death (2 Cor. 4.10, 14; 13.4; Phl. 3.10, 21; Rom. 8.17, 23);
(5)
suffering becomes a witness to
others. It is a witness in that as Paul
experiences
suffering for the Corinthians, they experience life at work in them (2 Cor.
4.12; 6.10). It is a witness in that others are encouraged to proclaim the
Gospel through Paul's imprisonment (Phl. 1.12).
It is a witness in that it directs attention away from one's self to
Christ's power (2 Cor. 12.9). It is a
witness in that it confirms the trustworthiness of Paul's mission (Gal.
6.17). And it is a witness in that in
following this hard way of having fellowship in the sufferings of Christ,
believers become examples for each other (1 Th. 1.6f; 2.14f; 2 Th. 1.4).
Some additional
comments, based on Schrage's excellent observations just noted, can be offered
to show how missional suffering and ethics are related. First, from Schrage's second point, all that
is accomplished in the mission is the
Lord's doing. This calls for complete dependence upon Him and leaves no room for boasting. Indeed, everything in the believer's life must
be seen as from God (1 Cor. 4.7). This
view distinguishes Paul from the error of certain Corinthian believers, who
already think themselves to be reigning with Christ (1 Cor. 4.8), and from
those false apostles who boast in themselves (2 Cor. 11.12ff). The missionary's struggles continually put him
or her in touch with the fact that any advancement in the task is due to the
Lord's sovereign work (cf. 2 Cor. 1.9; 4.9).
From Schrage's fourth point, note Rom. 5.3f,
which correlates suffering with certain
virtues:
3 And
not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering
produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces
hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (NRSV).
This involves no
rejoicing in suffering per se (Paul
is no ascetic) but in the results that suffering might work in the believer, as
well as in the fact that the happy ending of suffering is already known by
those who have peace with God through Christ Jesus. Thus Christian character can find joy in
suffering. Christians can also have joy
because of they find hope in the midst of suffering for their faith: their
participation in the story or Good News of Jesus allows them to stand full of
hope in the face of suffering. They
experience joy also because they discover another virtue that leads to this
hope, namely the virtues of endurance (or patience: u`pomonh,). Thus suffering works Christian
character. Endurance is of great value
in Paul's ethic, since he again and again calls believers to stand fast in
their faith and to watch. Precisely this
virtue is commended to the Philippians in Paul's own example in Phl. 3.12ff,
and they are told how to stand firm in 4.1-7 by being in agreement with each
other (vv. 2-3), and by rejoicing, forbearing (evpiei,keia, Phl.
4.5; cf. 2 Cor. 10.1; 1 Tim. 3.3; Tit. 3.2), and making their needs known to
God with thanksgiving. Confident in the
Lord's nearness and aware that God's peace will keep them, they can rejoice in
the Lord.
Paul's word for
'character' in Rom. 5.4 is dokimh,, and
it may mean 'testing' or 'the quality of being approved,' hence 'character'. Suffering is itself a testing that calls for
forbearance and leads to approval for those who pass the test. Such a person is said to have character. The one who stands in the time of testing is
a person of hope. This statement leads
Paul back to the Gospel Story once again.
The foundation of hope for the believer is in God's outpouring of love
into their hearing through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given them, and this
is so because, while they were yet weak and in sin, Christ died on their behalf
(Rom. 5.5ff).
These virtues of
boasting only in the Lord, of cheer, endurance, character, and hope in the face
of suffering, are virtues for every believer generally. Yet they are given specific application by
Paul to suffering and self-denial in service of the mission. These virtues associated with the suffering
and self-denial in the mission are related to still other virtues: the mission
is, of course, more than suffering and self-denial. But the above discussion demonstrates how it
is that Paul was able to locate Christian suffering in a larger narrative that
could offer accounts of what otherwise would have seen and experienced as
tragedy and catastrophe.
Conclusion
To sum up, Paul
understands his own apostolic calling to involve a suffering that might be
termed a 'performance' of the Gospel that is consistent with the content of the
Gospel. Yet suffering is not alone apostolic. The churches Paul founded suffer and are
persecuted just as is he. The reason can
be stated succinctly by means of Paul's phrase 'in Christ': to be in Christ
does not mean simply that we receive the benefits of His work but that we
further participate in His narrative, which includes suffering. There is an end to this, as we learn in
Paul's mini-Apocalypse in 1 Cor. 15.24-28, when Christ's Lordship extends over
even death. Suffering, then, remains a
characteristic of this evil age, not some ascetic tool to achieve spiritual
depth. It is tied primarily to the
mission in a wicked world: whether by proclamation or a challenging and
witnessing lifestyle, the mission of the Church will be opposed. Amazingly, however, Christian witness is strengthened
in such situations, since the content of the Gospel is all about redemptive
suffering and provides an occasion for Christian virtues to develop and further
bear witness to the Gospel. This being
so, suffering service is rather the means of Christian mission than, as is so
often thought, strong leadership or well-crafted rhetoric.
Cf. 2 Tim. 2.10: 10: 'Therefore I endure everything for the sake
of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ
Jesus, with eternal glory' (NRSV).
Scott Hafemann, ‘The
Role of Suffering in the Mission of Paul,’ in The Gospel to the Nations:Perspectives on
Paul’s Mission, eds. Peter Bolt and Mark Thompson (Leicester: IVP Apollos Press, 2000), p. 131ff.
