Daily Bible Reading 15th June 2025 // Colossians 1:24-29
24 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, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
We must say something about Paul's joy in suffering (v 24). This is an important but difficult verse and it raises a number of questions. What are Paul's sufferings and how can they be an occasion for rejoicing? In what sense can these sufferings be for the Body of Christ? What does Paul mean by the 'afflictions of Christ'? What is lacking in them and how can the servant of the Gospel fill this deficiency? The first thing to say is that the Apostle is not being masochistic; he is not rejoicing because he is enduring pain. He is rejoicing at the effect/the result of the suffering that he has been called upon to endure as a servant of the Gospel. He recognises realistically that servanthood, by its very nature, involves physical suffering but that it has untold benefits for the Body of Christ (see 2 Corinthians 1:3-11; 4:7-12). The normal life for the servant of the Gospel will involve a heavy weight of suffering as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives. As we live the servant life, dedicated to Christ, crucified with Christ, living sacrifices we die to self, we 'bear about in our body the death of our Lord Jesus' so we suffer and by so doing we reflect and communicate the message and comfort of the Cross to those around (whether within or without the body of Christ). It is not until the message of the Cross is embodied in our lives, not until we incarnate the truth of the Gospel, that there will be any real communication of the Gospel message of comfort and grace to our fellow believers or to the unbelieving world.