<p>1:24 <i>W</i><i>ho now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh</i><i>- </i>It has been perceptively commented: &ldquo;The work of Christ in one sense is complete, but in another sense it is not complete until all men have known it and been reconciled to God by it. He is dependent on men and women to take it out and to make it known. He who accepts this task of bringing the message of the work of Christ to men may well be said to complete the sufferings of Christ&rdquo;. Every leaflet we distribute, every conversation we start, every banknote we put to the Lord&rsquo;s work... through all this we are extending the victory of the Lord in ways which would otherwise never occur. Thus Paul can say that in his work of preaching and upbuilding, he was filling up the sufferings of Christ (Col. 1:24). By the cross, all things were reconciled, but this is only made operative in practice <i>if </i>men &ldquo;continue in the faith&rdquo;, which Paul suffered in order to enable (Col. 1:20-23). This is the context in which Paul speaks of fulfilling the cross. Thus Paul speaks of filling up &ldquo;the afflictions of Christ&rdquo; in his life (Col. 1:24), but uses the very same word to describe the &ldquo;afflictions&rdquo; s.w. which he suffered for his brethren (Eph. 3:13). The sufferings of the Lord become powerful and continue to bring forth fruit in human lives- through our response to them.</p><p>We too are asked to fill up the Lord&rsquo;s sufferings in our lives. The idea is that by the end of our lives, we have fellowshipped His sufferings, and finally our death becomes His death, so that His resurrection shall become ours. This perhaps is why old age for believers often entails particular physical or mental affliction which enables us to fellowship aspects of His sufferings which previously we had not fellowshipped. This imparts meaning to the final part of our lives, whereas in secular terms we would be viewed as having daily experiences which have little significance attached to them.</p><p><i>For His body's sake, which is the church- </i>The way in practice we fellowship the Lord&rsquo;s personal sufferings is through our engagement with the sufferings of others in the church. Paul saw himself as filling up what was lacking in his share in the sufferings of Christ&rsquo;s body. He uses the idea of Christ&rsquo;s body in a double sense- the sufferings of Christ&rsquo;s body on the cross are being replicated in him in the course of his ministry to the body of Christ in the sense of the church. It could also be that Paul has the idea that Christ is suffering now, the cross is in a sense ongoing, and he is suffering with Christ right now for our redemption. All we suffer for the sake of the believers and the preaching of the Gospel in order to develop the body of Christ is in fact a sharing in the crucifixion sufferings of Jesus. The &ldquo;afflictions&rdquo; of Christ are inevitable. We were &ldquo;appointed&rdquo; to such afflictions (1 Thess. 3:3). The parable of the sower suggests that tribulation s.w. &ldquo;afflictions&rdquo; come inevitably to the believer in Christ (Mt. 13:21). We <i>must</i> pass through much affliction or tribulation s.w. to enter the Kingdom (Acts 14:22). We can therefore glory in such tribulation (Rom. 5:3). We experience &ldquo;affliction&rdquo; as Paul did in concern for our brethren (2 Cor. 2:4), in ostracism (Heb. 10:33) as well as physical deprivation in the generosity of spirit required in the preaching of the Gospel and care for the body of Christ, in which context Paul uses the word many times. There&rsquo;s a logic to all this, as the same word is used about the &ldquo;afflictions&rdquo; to be suffered by the rejected at the judgment seat (Rom. 2:9; Rev. 2:22). 2 Thess. 1:4,6 speaks of <i>our</i> afflictions now and then uses the same word to describe the afflictions of the rejected in that day. We must suffer- one way or another. Paul consciously sought to experience what Christ did on the cross. He was warned by the Holy Spirit that &ldquo;afflictions&rdquo; awaited him if he went up to Jerusalem (Acts 20:23), but he chose to go up there, he made a determined decision within his own spirit to do so (Acts 19). High challenge as this is, we too should seek to consciously experience the sufferings of Jesus.</p>