One writer has suggested that we use the buffeting and temptations we encounter in the world as a way for toning-up the muscles of our faith (see Andree Seu, “What is the Victory?” World, June 7, 2003, 43). Toning-up the muscles of our faith is the theme of Hebrews 12:1-12. The “struggle against sin” in verse 4 has been taken by many to mean a struggle against one’s personal sins; however, if you take verse 3 into account (the opposition from sinful men), then verse 4 points more toward the meaning of overcoming the sins of the world or the sinful actions of men that seek to harm us, which press upon us as heavy weights. We can allow these weights to cause us to “grow weary and lose heart” (v. 3); or, we can use them as a means to tone-up our faith.
Some may think of God’s “discipline” as some form of punishment when, in reality, the writer of Hebrews is referring to the external problems or hardships (v. 7) which are particularly heavy, rather than the hardship of suffering under one’s own sin. God allows these hardships to come to us for our good just as a father would allow a child to go through hardship as a discipline to prepare them for life, which has its hardships. The bottom line of this argument is found in verse 12—“Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.” Use what comes your way as a way to strengthen your faith.
Richard Wurmbrand calls going through hardships and God’s discipline as “negative successes.” He observes:
“My brothers and sisters, you also must believe your lives are clay in the hands of a wonderful sculptor. He never makes a mistake. If He is sometimes hard on you it is because He sometimes has what we would call negative successes. He loses a pawn in order to win the chess game. He loses a battle in order to win a war. He causes His Son to endure suffering in order to save the world” (If Prison Walls could Speak, 18).
The idea of “negative successes” seems strange to our minds immersed as we are in the “success syndrome” of our society. It means that we may suffer temporal losses to gain a heavenly crown. The world comes close to the idea of “negative successes” by saying that we should “choose our battles.” There are some battles (hardships, pain, and persecution) that we won’t resist because we are preparing to win the final one. We will suffer the momentary pain or hurt to win the spiritual war through Christ over pain and death.
Losing a battle is not something we can easily accept in our minds. Mindy Belz, in an article titled “Wins and Losses,” observes that “Christianity after all, is the only religion that doesn’t play to win” (World, April 21, 2012, 34)—at least, not yet. She quotes G. K. Chesterton about the Christian faith: “It is a perpetually defeated thing which survives all conquerors.”
We can tone up our muscles by allowing God to discipline us through negative successes. It will be painful but it is not in vain. We win, although in the meantime we may take a beating or suffer persecution. We can use these negative successes to tone-up the muscles of our faith.
Roy Stults, PhD, is the Online Workshop Coordinator and Educational Services Coordinator for The Voice of the Martyrs. He graduated from Olivet Nazarene University (BA and MA), Nazarene Theological Seminary (M.Div.), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Doctor of Missiology), and The University of Manchester (England) with a PhD (theology). A Vietnam veteran, Dr. Stults served as a missionary for 19 years and pastored U.S. churches for eight years. Prior to joining VOM, he was a Professor of Religion at Oklahoma Wesleyan University.
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