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New Testament Reading - Suffering as a Christian

¹²Dear friends, don’t be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this is no strange, unusual thing that is going to happen to you. ¹³Instead, be really glad—because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterwards you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory in that coming day when it will be displayed.

¹⁴Be happy if you are cursed and insulted for being a Christian, for when that happens the Spirit of God will come upon you with great glory.^{a 15}Don’t let me hear of your suffering for murdering or stealing or making trouble or being a busybody and prying into other people’s affairs. ¹⁶But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being in Christ’s family and being called by his wonderful name! ¹⁷For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin first among God’s own children. And if even we who are Christians must be judged, what terrible fate awaits those who have never believed in the Lord? ¹⁸If the righteous are barely saved, what chance will the godless have?

¹⁹So if you are suffering according to God’s will, keep on doing what is right and trust yourself to the God who made you, for he will never fail you.

1. Or “the glory of the Spirit of God is being seen in you.”