Hebrews 12:2 “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
As with everything, we always look to Jesus as our example to imitate. The above-quoted passage of scripture states that it was for the joy that was set before Him that our Lord Jesus endured the cross. In other words Jesus knew what God had promised Him, i.e. that He would become heir of all things, and that inheritance included the children of God that would dwell with Him and God the Father for all eternity. And so our Lord Jesus focused His attention on the reward and not on the suffering, and thus He was able to endure the cross despising the shame. And so if we are going to endure our suffering in this life, then we too are going to have to focus our attention on the eternal rewards that have been placed before us. None of us have yet seen the rewards that have been laid up for us in heaven, and so it is by faith that we look to the rewards that have been promised to us by God.
Philippians 3:8-14 “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ (9) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; (10) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, (11) if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (12) Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. (13) Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, (14) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
As did our Lord Jesus, so the apostle Paul had also learnt take his eyes off of the suffering and to focus his attention on the prize. In the above-quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul clearly tells us that he gladly suffered the loss of all things, and that he had left everything behind him so that he could focus his full attention to gaining the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. More than most, the apostle Paul knew the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, and he would not have been able to endure those sufferings had he taken his eyes off of the prize. Other than the degree of suffering incurred, we are no different to our brother Paul, and so we too must learn, as he did, to take our eyes off of the suffering and place them firmly on Jesus our Lord.
Michael E.B. Maher
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