The Price of Tested Faith

1 Peter 1:6-7

INTRODUCTION

A couple at our church lost a dear little daughter to cancer a few years ago. Although they are faithful believers, they have never stopped wondering “why?”

They are sure that if they could understand why God let their little die so early in life, her loss would be more bearable.

Maybe you’ve experienced such a tragic loss—the death of a loved one at an early age, the birth of a defective child, a crippling illness, a natural disaster, a severe financial setback—something that makes you wonder just what God is thinking.

You know that if someone could just tell you why the tragedy had happened, it would be easier for you to believe that God is your loving heavenly Father.

We search the Bible in vain to find the “why?” answer.

One of the reasons the book of Psalms in our Bible is so helpful to us is because those ancient believers also asked “why?” just as we do—and yet they kept on believing.

The Bible has so much about suffering because people in Bible times suffered just like we do—and probably more than most of us—because we know so much more about the causes and cure of diseases than they did. Our government is more stable; we are unlikely to face invasions from hostile countries, and we never face starvation from droughts or floods.

In ancient times, and even until fairly recently, many women died giving birth. Many—maybe most—babies didn’t survive to adulthood, and adults typically lived only 35 or 40 years.

Although the Bible doesn’t give us the answers about why so many people endure more than their share of trouble and afflictions and calamities, the writers who wrote the books of our Bible give us many helpful ways to look at the disappointments and troubles of our lives.

These godly saints of long ago constantly reflected on the human condition and how we can live faithfully and usefully in a world that doesn’t make sense and in which sorrow touches every life.

The text:

1 Peter 1:6-7: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

This verse comes just after Peter has reminded the believers of the wonderful, living hope they have of resurrection, to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for them who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

And then he adds the verse I read: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials…”

I. How can believers in Christ rejoice in sufferings? We all avoid suffering and it is right that we should. But Peter is telling us that we can rejoice because even our troubles can have a good result.

A. One of the world’s great psychiatrists wrote in a famous book: “We learn nothing from our pleasures. We learn only from our sufferings.”

Not long ago I heard a radio program about raising tomatoes. The horticulturist who was being interviewed told why hothouse tomatoes never taste as good as tomatoes raised in a garden.

You would think that hothouse tomatoes would be the best because all their needs are perfectly provided for. The temperatures are always right. There is good air circulation but no strong winds. They are watered whenever they need it. What more could a tomato ask?

And yet tomatoes raised in a garden are much tastier.

The horticulturist said that tomatoes need stress to bring out the flavor. They need dry spells and wet spells and windy spells and variations in temperature—in other words, they need a certain amount of hardship to bring out the best flavor.

We Christians are like tomatoes in this way. We need struggle in our life to mature us and make us sweet and good.

If you look back on your life and consider the troubles you have faced and overcome, you realize that those difficulties have made you the person you are.

Someone said, “Whatever doesn’t destroy us makes us stronger.”

For many of us the accomplishments we get the most satisfaction in recalling are the struggles we faced and overcame with the help of God.

Those are the times we proved that our faith was real.

B. When gold is dug up it is mixed with rock in the form of gold ore. The goldsmith heats the ore to a high temperature and the gold melts out our and sinks to the bottom of the vessel, and the rock and impurities float to the top.

Peter is telling us that the fire of suffering in our lives is what proves that our faith is genuine.

Suppose that you could live your life with no sickness, no loss, no failure—good health, plenty of money, in a family with no disappointments, basking in the love of everyone.

Such a life would be pleasurable. You might be thankful to God for such a good life.

But how would you know that you really loved and trusted God or that you were just enjoying his gifts?

It is interesting that Peter compares faith to gold.

We think of gold as about the most permanent thing there is.

Gold lasts forever.

Gold doesn’t tarnish or rust or decay.

No one throws gold away.

Some of the gold in your wedding ring may have been in a pharaoh’s tomb, and then it may have been melted down to make into the crown of a queen. It may have been in a statue of a saint, and finally a coin before it was melted down and made into your ring.

A few months ago Charlotte sold a couple of gold fillings from her teeth. I wonder what they have been made into by now.

But compared to true faith, Peter says gold is perishable—because tested faith lasts forever.

When our faith is tested and proved to be real, it glorifies God—it will “redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

II. In the middle of your Bible, just before the book of Psalms, is the story of Job.

A. Job was a good man. If fact, we read that he was the most righteous man in the world.

He was upright and truthful. He was kind to the poor, the widows and the orphans and strangers. He was a good father. He was admired by the people who knew him.

But trouble was on the way.

Raiders attacked his servants, killed them and stole his camels and donkeys.

Next all of his children died in when a great wind collapsed the house in which they were celebrating in the oldest brother’s house.

But Job’s faith seemed to be unshaken by the loss of all his property and his children.

He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

But then Job was afflicted with a disgusting skin disease.

We read that he was afflicted with loathsome sores from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head.

In his despair he sat on an ask heap and scraped his itching sores with a potsherd.

The people who had admired him now scorned him.

They said that he surely must be a wicked man to be punished so severely.

Even his wife turned against him.

She said, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die.”

But Job did not curse God. He argued with God.

He questioned God. He complained to God.

He clung to God and would not let go.

Although the Hebrew religion of Job’s time did not include the truth of resurrection and eternal life, he expressed the faith that someday, somehow, he would be vindicated.

He said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has thus been destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God” (19:25-26).

At the end of the story, God speaks to Job and shows him his power. He shows Job the limitations of Job’s knowledge.

God never explains to Job why he suffered so—although the reader of the book knows.

We who are readers of the story know much more than Job did about the purpose of Job’s sufferings.

As long as life was easy—in health and prosperity—it was easy for Job to believe in God and live for God.

But at the end of the story, Job proved to himself that he really did love and trust God—even when a time came when he enjoyed none of god’s gifts and blessings.

So what did Job gain from all his troubles?

He learned one great thing: He learned—and he proved to the world—that his faith was genuine.

This is what Peter is telling the suffering believers of his day.

He is telling them that by remaining faithful in suffering, they are proving that their faith is genuine—and that faith that is tested and proved is more precious than gold.

CONCLUSION

A few weeks ago, one of you shared with Charlotte and me something of her health struggles. But then she added something like this: “But I know that others suffer even more. And when I think of what Jesus suffered on the cross for me, my troubles don’t seem so great after all.”

We all know people who have been embittered by suffering.

I have known people who have actually turned against God because of their troubles.

It’s not automatic that suffering strengthens our faith and our character.

It depends on the attitude we take.

Peter urges his readers to take the attitude that the persecutions they are facing are actually an opportunity to put their faith to work…to be a witness of God’s power in a life…to prove that God is real.

We will not face persecution for our faith, but, like these people, we will experience suffering.

A few years ago there was a woman named Hazel who came always to our services.

Before she died she had to go to a nursing home.

We visited her there. She told us that she knew she wouldn’t get better.

I said, “And then you’ll be in glory with Jesus.”

Her face lit up and she pumped her fist and said, “Yess!”

Hazel proved the reality of her faith.

She was a witness to the reality of God in a life.