Questions and Answers: Suffering With Christ vs. Suffering for Christ?

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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QUESTION: Will you explain the difference between suffering with Christ, and suffering for Christ?
ANSWER: Suffering with Christ is what is necessarily involved in our being Christians. Every believer suffers with Christ simply because he is Christ's. Possessing Christ as his life and having His Spirit in him, he cannot evade the suffering that belongs to the Christian position. Christ suffered for being a righteous man in an unrighteous world. So do those who follow Him. It is what is spoken of in Rom. 8:1717And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:17), where the suffering and being glorified with Him go together. The one depends on the other, and cannot be separated from it.
Suffering for Christ is what comes upon us in connection with devotedness to Christ. Hence, the more devoted any are to Christ and His interests, the more they have to suffer for Him. This is privilege and not necessity being given to us. "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Phil. 1:2929For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; (Philippians 1:29). It is the kind of thing we read of in Acts 5:4141And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (Acts 5:41), where Peter and those with him "departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name."