A Unique Fellowship with God

1 Peter 3:17-18 KJV

For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

When we suffer for well doing we enter into a unique fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone could suffer for sins and bring us to God. But we, who suffer for well doing share in that work of Christ.

·       When we suffer rather than recant

·       When we suffer rather than return to the old life

·       When we suffer rather than compromising truth to make it palatable to the world

then we share in bringing others to God. Compromisers claim to bring people to God, but I contest it is not the God of the Bible. Friendship with the world is enmity with God so to come to find a god who is comfortable with worldliness is to find a god other than the one of God's Word.

There is a sort of suffering the just do on behalf of the unjust when we choose to reject the gods of worldly Christians to stand with the God who calls us to come out of this world and be separate. It is only when we make this stand that the unjust have hope of finding the God of the Bible.

There is a kind of death in the flesh that the believer experiences when he chooses this God over the comforts of worldly popularity and friendships.

But there is also a kind of quickening by the Spirit that happens when a separation from worldliness happens. There is a joy in fellowship with the Lord. There is a hope in the return of Christ and there is a filling of the Spirit of God that energizes and enlivens the life of the believer who is walking is such fellowship with the Lord.