J.A. Matteson
How we perceive suffering determines our response to it and our progress in sanctification. "Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered" (Heb. 5:8). Unless the test comes righteous virtues remain academic, and God's aim is to make the intellectual intensely practical. The Lord calls disciples to pray for their enemies, to return good for evil. It is in the midst of rejection and persecution that the command is codified in our thinking and behavior. Suffering is our tutor unto righteousness, infusing our faith into tangible good works. The Lord declared that His disciples would be known by their fruit, grace softens the redeemed soul undergoing suffering, making it increasingly pliable to the hands of the Potter. The apostle Paul observed that he had learned to be content in all things; the process of suffering he experienced is no different for you. Every godly virtue displayed in a mans life is learned in the furnace of suffering. It is in the heat of suffering your will affirms its love for Christ, choosing obedience over disobedience. The Lord moves you from grace to grace and from faith to faith through suffering, culminating in the transformation of your outlook whereby God's perspective becomes yours. When at first in the midst of suffering you obeyed hesitantly, you now joyfully endure the trial with great patience, knowing that your Father is conforming you more and more into the image of His Son.
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