After you have suffered a little while…
1 Peter 5:10
“In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.”
1 Peter 5:10 NLT
What? We have to suffer before we are called to God’s eternal glory?
According to Saint Peter, yes. That’s the plan. There is a reason for this, of course. God wants to perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle us prior to receiving his eternal glory, and the path entails suffering.
That suffering may come in many ways: a short painful death in an accident, a long lingering battle with cancer or dementia. Being a victim of senseless acts of abuse, violence or war, or a lifetime of living with a crippling disease. Maybe it’s suffering through a famine, or a plague much worse than a simple pandemic. Perhaps the suffering arrives and departs quickly after a long, fruitful, and happy life. We will all suffer in one way or another before our lives end.
Peter wants us to know that the reward for that suffering is worth it. Theologian and commentator David Guzik created a list of what that eternal glory is:
It is the glory of purified character.
It is the glory of perfected humanity.
It is the glory of complete victory.
It is the glory of being honored by a King.
It is the glory of reflecting the glory of God.
It is the glory of the immediate, constant presence of God.
It is the glory of the enjoyment of God Himself.
As Christians, most of us have already achieved justification through our faith in Jesus Christ. We should be working toward sanctification through our emulation of our Lord and Savior in loving, helping, and evangelizing others. Glorification is the ultimate goal, and we all need to realize that to achieve that goal, we will suffer at one point or another in our lives, whether for a short amount of time or an entire lifetime.
Seeing your way past the suffering and letting God restore, strengthen and support you places you on that firm foundation for eternal glory.