Patience in Suffering

Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

The Prayer of Faith

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.

inquiring about the time and circumstances that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings intended for Christ and the subsequent glory.

The Example of Christ’s Suffering

Slaves, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only those who are good and gentle but also those who are dishonest.

For it is a commendable thing if, being aware of God, a person endures pain while suffering unjustly.

Suffering for Doing Right

Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.

Suffering as a Christian

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.

Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust their lives to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.

Tending the Flock of God

Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you

Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.

For anyone who lacks these things is blind, suffering from eye disease, forgetful of the cleansing of past sins.

suffering the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.

For when in their suffering they became incensed at those creatures that they had thought to be gods, being punished by means of them, they saw and recognized as the true God the one whom they had before refused to know. Therefore the utmost condemnation came upon them.

in order that those people, when they desired food, might lose the least remnant of appetite because of the odious creatures sent to them, while your people, after suffering want a short time, might partake of delicacies.

the latter, having first received them with festal celebrations, afterward afflicted with terrible sufferings those who had already shared the same rights.

Any suffering, but not suffering from those who hate! And any vengeance, but not the vengeance of enemies!

When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned aloud and said: “It is clear to the Lord in his holy knowledge that, though I might have been saved from death, I am enduring terrible sufferings in my body under this beating, but in my soul I am glad to suffer these things because I fear him.”

As a result, the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man’s spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

After him they brought forward the sixth. And when he was about to die, he said, “Do not deceive yourself in vain. For we are suffering these things on our own account because of our sins against our own God.

For we are suffering because of our own sins.

For our brothers, after enduring a brief suffering for everlasting life, have fallen under God’s covenant, but you, by the judgment of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance.

But when his sufferings did not in any way abate, for the judgment of God had justly come upon him, he gave up all hope for himself and wrote to the Jews the following letter, in the form of a supplication. This was its content: