Perfection through Suffering

Jesus Christ requires
absolute perfection from those who follow Him. Jesus said:"Be
perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect."

He Himself was perfect in
every way. We read in Hebrews 5:8 to 9 "Although He was a Son,
He learned obedience from the things which He suffered, and having
been made perfect He became to all those who obey Him, the source of
eternal salvation." Jesus Christ learned perfection through
suffering and those who follow Him will suffer. That is how we are
formed and molded into His image to be perfect, as He requires of us.

We read in Acts 14:22
"Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."
If we follow Jesus Christ we will suffer tribulation, we will suffer
persecution, we will suffer according to the flesh, because that is
how Jesus works perfection in us. He himself suffered according to
the flesh and He learned obedience from the things that He suffered.
The very same we will also learn through what we suffer. We will
suffer pain, humiliation, rejection. When you start following Jesus
Christ you must be prepared for suffering because your faith will be
tested, your dedication will be tested, your endurance will be
tested, and only those who endure with Jesus until the end, those who
endure suffering, they will enter the kingdom of heaven.

We read in 1 Peter 4:1"
Therefore since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also
with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the place has
ceased from sin." If you are in pain, if you are in distress,
and in sickness, then you lose your appetite for food, you lose your
appetite for sin. Things that were pleasurable to you make no sense
to you anymore a that is why Jesus perfects us through suffering, but
we have to obey Him. Those who obey Him will suffer, because
obedience to Christ leads to suffering, but those who disobey Him
will also suffer. They will suffer His discipline and if they do not
correct themselves, then they will suffer damnation in hell, because
Jesus requires absolute perfection of us, and He works perfection in
us through suffering. That is His method of forming us into His
likeness, of making us as He is, perfect.

If we suffer with Jesus
and for Jesus and we endure then we will also be glorified with Him,
and we will receive the reward for our endurance. He will change us
and make us into His image. We will be like Him. Be prepared for
Jesus to work perfection in you and in me through suffering.

May Jesus bless you.