“For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.” – 2 Corinthians 4:11
The Christian life is filled with so many mysteries and a paradox of opposite things. If we are truly in Christ, we will suffer and get rejected. However, if we live without Christ, we will have a life without spiritual hardships but will suffer eventually. So, we can really think that Christian life is indeed a life filled with opposites. Sometimes, we will just ask why can’t we have a perfect life? A life with no problems, and no struggles. Other people even thought that being in Christ means having a perfect life, but real Christians know the struggle.
Again, this is not to discourage us from not accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior, but this is to open our minds that Christian life is not easy. Just like the life of Paul, it is actually an example of the Christian life that is blessed by God, but also an example of how hard it is. It is hard because just as Paul said in our verse today, we are all alive to be always given over to the death of Christ. That is why the Christian life is full of opposites. We have life in Christ, we are fully given a life everlasting in Him, but we are also targets of the enemy. The enemy will always want our deaths and hates us. Just like Jesus, we will be hated by the world. Through the cost of the blood of Christ, we have been bought by the blood of Christ. We will live, but we will die and pass-through this temporary life.
So, we will really face all of these challenges because we are the bringers of light. The darkness of this world, the evil forces of this world will always try to take us away from the light. Then we will have to die in Christ so that His life will be revealed in us. After all, we died with Christ when He died, and we will also live and resurrect together with Him. So, we must expect to have a lot of struggles in this world. We will be rejected and persecuted, but we must not worry for we will have to be given into the death of Christ, we will have to die in Christ so that we will live in Him, and live through Him.
Therefore, we must always remember that our sufferings are not wasted. We suffer not because we are being persecuted by God, but we suffer because we are bringing the light of Christ. Let us be encouraged that we are suffering, we are weak here, but we are strengthened in Christ, and we are alive in Christ. May we always put in our minds that we are saved by grace through faith and that we are alive in Christ. We must live our lives in Christ, and offer our lives as living sacrifices to God.
