NOTES for Pe1 1:6-7

The call of the apostle "to suffer a bit" sounds, at first sight, a little bit strange. Of course, the fact that sufferings are inevitable, Jesus Himself warned His followers, and in the time before the Christian era it was known that the way of righteousness, in general, if it is strewed by something, in any cases, not roses. But the inevitability of suffering is one thing, and joy received from it – is another. The first one is inevitable; we could consider the second as a kind of manifestation of religious masochism confirming the opinion rather widely spread about Christianity, as a religion of suffering. However, Christianity is not at all a religion; it is life with Christ in His Kingdom. And the faithfulness to Christ is the base of this life, without which, it is impossible and inconceivable.

But how to understand, if we are really faithful to Christ, or do we consider as faithfulness our own intellectual conviction, emotional lift and religious exaltation? The best control here, turn out exactly the persecutions and the other trials connected to our faith. And the problem is not in a certain heroic romanticism, either in a desire of martyr's or confessional crown, but rather in the fact that in the moments of trials, generally, in the place of the emotional ascent comes the decline, the religious ecstasy runs out, and even the intellectual conviction turns out often powerless.

And here is, the relationships of the Kingdom remain a reality in any circumstance, if, of course, it is about real relationships, and not imaginary. And that is why faithfulness kept and carried through the trials, is, according to the word of the apostle, more precious than the cleaned gold. For, one can say with certainty of such faithfulness that is the true. Not because the man, who possesses it, withstood everything, but because he belongs to the Kingdom.