God’s Word for You
Philippians 1:29-30 suffer for his sake
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, March 4, 2026
29 For it has been granted to you for the sake of Christ that you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw and now hear to be mine.
Paul makes a clean break of his subject with these verses, because he is about to begin a new subject in what we call Chapter 2, which will be all about Christ as the example for our humble Christian lives. But here, he ends his thoughts about the Christian struggle and conflict in the world.
“It has been granted to you” to have such things, which means that our Christian struggles in this lifetime are a gift. How can such trouble he a gift? The trouble, which is really a cross we bear, is for our benefit. As we have already said, the cross strengthens faith and does many other good things for the one who carries the cross.
This is all “for the sake of Christ, that you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” Is Christ himself helped by our struggles? It doesn’t seem obvious that Christ the Son of God would be helped by the things we go through, the scorn, the arguments, the other troubles. But Christ gave everything for the church, he bled and died to make people free of the guilt of their sins. So when anything that we go through helps someone along with their faith or their struggle, or just firms up our own faith, this is to his benefit. Not that he needs our help, but he brings us along and works through us to give himself and his Father more and more glory, since he chose the lowly things of this world to nullify great things in the eyes of men. Our humble work does little pieces of his great work, while the seemingly great things that unbelievers and skeptics do, accomplish nothing at all for the sake of anyone’s eternal life.
Do not lose sight of the reassuring words here, “that you should not only believe in him.” If we remove the correlative conjunction “not only…” we are left with the dogmatic truth: “It has been granted that you believe in him.” Faith is a gift of God. Paul also says to the Ephesians, “You are saved by faith… and this is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
But it is also granted as a gift that you and I should suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that was Paul’s. So if we are to suffer, someone on earth must perform this task. If we are to be slandered for the Gospel, then someone has to slander us. If we are to be ridiculed, someone has to ridicule us. If we are to be mocked, someone has to mock us. Am I to be hurt? Someone has to hurt me. So “let it rain and snow slander.” “Every friend spreads slander” (Jeremiah 9:4). But God says, “Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put him to silence” (Psalm 101:5).
When we are slandered and ridiculed and mocked on account of Jesus, then Jesus is glorified in our suffering. “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). Such mockery and bullying makes our faith stronger and our salvation even more certain, and at the same time it makes the ones who do it subject to a terrible curse from God. They damn themselves, and Christ their Judge will not forget it. Or as Luther again says, “The more bitterly and violently they vilify us, the better they make it, not for themselves, but for us” (LW 41:191).
Is there something you should do about it, with the person who causes you such grief and pain? “As you allow a bird to escape from your hand, so let your neighbor go; you will not catch him again. Don’t go after him, for he is too far away.” But forgive your neighbor for the wrong he has done, and remember the Lord’s words, “as we forgive those who sin against us” (Matthew 6:12; Luke 11:4). For just as we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment, so we too will forgive from the heart and gladly do good to those who sin against us.
Jesus, Savior, wash away
All that I’ve done wrong today.
Make me ever more like you,
Good and gentle, kind and true.
Francis R. Havergal (1836-1879)
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.