Philippians 3:10

Philippians 3:10

I. There is a fellowship of Christ's sufferings in relation to pain. The pains of life, inward and outward, are as varied as the bodies and souls on which they fasten. Our sensibilities to pain are very various: one thing hurts one person, and another another; that which is agony to me my neighbour scarcely feels. This is true of the roughnesses of life, and it is true of the calumnies of life, and it is true of the disappointments of life; it is true of those trials which come to us through the affections, and it is true of those trials which come to us through the ambitions of our nature. Thus much we may say with certainty: that no man, and therefore no Christian, passes through life untouched by distress. The cause may vary, and the kind may vary, and the degree may vary, all but infinitely; still the fact is there, the thing is there; the experience must be gained, as alone it can be gained, through suffering; and oftentimes the even tenor of an untroubled life, in its brightest and serenest day, is but the torrent's smoothness ere it dash below. But in all this there is lacking as yet the essential feature of a fellowship in Christ's sufferings. For this faith is needed, and devotion is needed, and submission is needed, and the support of a heavenly arm, and the expectation of a heavenly home.

II. There is a fellowship of Christ's sufferings in relation to sin. As He resisted unto blood, striving against sin, so must we. It is a life-and-death battle for each one of us. We shall never have done with it for long together while life lasts. Sometimes by craft and sometimes by assault, sometimes by ambush, sometimes by feigned flight, sometimes with parade of arms and trumpets, as though secure of intimidation and of triumph, the old enemy attacks again, the old sin rises from its fall, and there is nothing before us yet once more save hard-earned victory or shameful defeat. In the midst of all, let this be our stay: "Greater is He that is with us, than he that is in the world."

C. J. Vaughan, Lectures on Philippians, p. 229.

References: Philippians 3:10 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 552; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 329; R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth, p. 377; Church of England Pulpit, vol. v., p. 226; Homilist, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 341; Ibid., 3rd series, vol. iii., p. 159; H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 282; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iv., p. 87; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 384; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 240; T. M. Herbert, Sketches of Sermons, p. 32; Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 339; W. J. Knox-Little, The Mystery of Suffering, p. 29; S. Martin, Sermons, No. 15.