Suffering With One Another
Part 11

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“Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”  Romans 12:15

“Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also your comfort is abundant through Christ.”  II Corinthians 1:3-5

Church - when you read that word, what do you think? Do you think of a building? Maybe you think of attending a worship service or Sunday school? God says the church is the body of Christ, which is made up of all believers. So the church is us, not a building. One of the functions of the church is to suffer together, weep together. Then we may also comfort one another and rejoice together. So when we talk about suffering, we can’t talk about it without talking about suffering together.

I have written for several months on the role of suffering in the Christian life. It would not be complete without looking at it within the context of the church. I strongly believe in our dependence on the Lord. But He never intended for that to be the only relationship of the Christian life. He intended for us to give to each other out of the overflow of what He has given to us. Out of the giving, we become interdependent in the body of Christ. Paul Tournier said “there are two things we cannot do alone, one is to be married and the other is to be a Christian.”

Just as in a family, what happens to one member affects the others. Oswald Chambers wrote in My Utmost for His Highest, “For instance, if I allow any turning away from God in my private life, everyone around me suffers. If you allow physical selfishness, mental carelessness, moral insensitivity, or spiritual weakness, everyone in contact with you will suffer.” So our choices can cause suffering within the body of Christ. But also when we are suffering, the whole body adapts to our pain. Just as in your body, when you have an injury or pain happens in one part of your body, the rest of your body adapts to nurture and protect the part that is hurting. That is God’s design for the members of His body, the Church. His desire is for us to come alongside of each other in those times of suffering and the times of rejoicing. The passage in II Corinthians 1:3-5 talks about us comforting others with the comfort God has given us. The word comfort here comes from the root word, “paraclete” in the Greek. It is the same word that is translated “the comforter” or “counselor” when speaking of the Holy Spirit in John 14. It is a word that means “to come alongside.”

God has called each of us to be a comforter to those around us. How do we do that? It has to start with our relationship with God. Charles Stanley expresses it this way “a passion for God and a compassion for people.” Out of our relationship with the Lord, we have a new compassion for others; we have His heart for them.

Does it take special skills to be a comforter to others? I believe that Paul shared in II Corinthians what we need to do. We are to comfort others with the comfort we have received from God. How has God comforted you, how has He come to you, ministered to you? Share with those who need comfort what God has done in you. Show the same comfort to them, which you have experienced.

In this relationship, God wants to do something in the heart of the hurting but also in the one who is showing the comfort. He wants to do a special work in the one who is doing the giving, not just the receiver. Philip Yancey shares a story in his book Church: Why Bother? He tells about a pediatrician in East Germany who devoted himself to severely mentally handicapped children. He kept asking himself the questions “What is the point of their lives? Do their lives have any meaning?” He started a training course for new, young helpers at the center. At the end of the year, he asked the helpers what had changed in them. They had answers such as “it gave them meaning in life, etc.”

“As Dr. Trogisch read their responses, he realized with a start the answer to his question. The meaning of the suffering of those children was being worked out in the lives of others, his helpers, who were learning lessons that no sophisticated educational system, could teach. Where else could teenagers and college students learn such inestimable lessons as these?

Dr. Trogisch had put his finger on a by-product of the church’s mission that often gets overlooked. We tend to focus on the objects of ministry: the souls led to Christ, the marriages rescued, the poor fed and housed, the homebound elderly visited, the teenagers challenged. Yet as I read the New Testament, Jesus seems equally interested in what effect ministry is having on the people who are doing the work of ministry themselves.”

Are you open to what God wants to do in you through ministering to those who are suffering, those who are in pain? That is what the church is about.

Philip Yancey continues to speak about the role of the church “Paradoxically, when a church avoids ministry because of the pain and complications it may bring, the church itself suffers. It remains stunted, and does not mature.”

You are the church. How do you respond to the pain or suffering of others?

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