On the 16th April 1858 John Gibson Paton and his wife Mary sailed from Scotland for the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. He was thirty-three years old. In March 1859, four months after arriving, both his wife and his newborn son died from a fever. He spent nights sleeping on their grave to protect their bodies from cannibals. He then served alone on the island for the next four years under constant danger until he was driven off.[1] What is it that enabled him to embrace such suffering? What is it that motivates anybody to embrace any suffering in life and ministry?
Christ’s Afflictions Are Lacking
In Colossians 1:24, Paul writes: “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”. How can Christ’s afflictions be lacking?
When Jesus confronted Saul on the Damascus road, he said: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? … I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5). But Paul wasn’t persecuting Jesus, he was persecuting Christians. However, Jesus so identifies with his people that to persecute his people is to persecute Jesus. What is lacking in Christ’s afflictions is not his atoning sacrifice but the ongoing suffering of his people.
Paul’s Apostolic Afflictions and Great Commission
Paul fills up in his flesh what is still lacking in Christ’s afflictions as the unique suffering apostle to the nations. (Acts 9:15–16). His suffering does not bring about their salvation but it is “an indispensable link in the chain of their salvation.”[2]
What he longs for is “to make the word of God fully known” among the nations. In Colossians 1, his message to the nations is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:25–27). What you hope for drives your action. Your eschatology drives your ethics—your way of life, your purposeful behaviour. “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col 1:28). By “everyone” he means Jews and Gentiles, those near and far. Here is Paul’s great commission. He embraced hardship and persecution for the sake of global mission, the hope of glory.
Losing Heart?
In this ministry, Paul suffered far beyond his ability to endure (2 Cor 1:8–9). His gospel appeared to be veiled because Satan had blinded the minds of unbelievers (2 Cor 4:4). Through the influence of the “super-apostles” in Corinth (2 Cor 11:5), it felt like the only thing that united the Corinthian church at times was a common contempt for Paul. What tempted Paul to lose heart was not an intellectual doubt, or a particular temptation to sin. Rather, it was the accumulated experiences of things just not working out. I wonder whether you’ve felt like Paul at some stage in your life and ministry?
In the face of all these afflictions, Paul says we should not lose heart. Why not? Because the new covenant ministry of proclaiming Christ is as powerful as God creating light out of nothing (2 Cor 4:5–6). Even if we feel like jars of clay we can embody the treasure of the gospel (2 Cor 4:7). That’s why Paul writes:
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:8–12)
The power of Christ’s death and resurrection in him enables him to speak the gospel even in the face of suffering.
Eternal Glory
Ultimately, Paul embraces suffering because of glory.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Corinthians 4:16–17)
Our inner self is what remains when the outer self is completely wasted away. He says that it is being renewed daily by the life of Jesus in us. So don’t lose heart! Paul says that we don’t lose heart because our afflictions are light and momentary. Now, if you reflect on Paul’s life, his afflictions were not light and momentary at all. But they are when compared to eternity.
Our afflictions are preparing for us an “eternal glory that far outweighs them all”. The glory in the age to come is the glory that God achieves through gospel preaching. As people hear the gospel it brings life, thanksgiving, and glory to God. Glory is what fortifies Paul’s motivation to embrace hardship in life and ministry. It is the glory of seeing people come to life as he preaches Jesus Christ as Lord.
Before John Paton set sail for Vanuatu in 1858 an elderly Christian man warned him: “You will be eaten by Cannibals”. Some missionaries already had been. But Paton replied:
Mr Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you, that if I can live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.[3]
Why would you embrace hardship in life and ministry? The eternal weight of glory.
Karen Watson was an American missionary whose heart broke for the suffering of the Iraqi people. So she resigned from her job, sold her house and car, gave away most of her belongings, and went into the middle of the war to minister to them. Knowing the risk, she wrote a letter to be left with her pastor and only to be opened if she did not return. In 2004 Karen was killed by a terrorist attack. The two-page handwritten letter began, “If something happens and I do not return, there are no regrets, for I am with Jesus.” She went on to say, “My call is to obedience, suffering is expected, his glory is my reward.” Karen repeated and underlined twice: “His glory is my reward.”
An earlier version of this material was presented for Moore Theological College’s Centre for Global Mission’s (CGM) Embracing Hard Ministry conference.
[1] John Piper, 21 Servants of Sovereign Joy: Faithful, Flawed, and Fruitful, Crossway, 2018, p. 533.
[2] John Stott, The Cross of Christ, IVP, 1986, p. 322.
[3] Piper, 21 Servants of Sovereign Joy, Crossway, 2018, p . 535.
