At the very end of John 16, we get the sobering reminder from Christ that we will have trouble in the world. This life of walking with God will not be easy and it will put us at odds with the world around us. Consider just the thoughts from yesterday, that we must be open doors even while the world around us erects more walls. But Jesus doesn't end that thought with the warning of coming trials. That there will be trouble is part of a sandwich of encouragement, as He says that "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33 NASB).

Paul understood this well when he told the Corinthians in chapter 16 of his first letter to them that he will be staying in Ephesus until Pentecost because of an opportunity that had arisen that was accompanied by adversity. He does not offer the adversity as a counter-point, but as part of his explanation for why he had to remain.

What drives this? Joy. If our hearts are fixed on Christ and take their pleasure from Him, we can face troubles in this life with peace and courage, and view them as a part of our joy rather than a hindrance. Paul reminds Timothy of this very idea twice in rapid succession.

In the first, he is contrasting our joy and contentment with controversy and the arrogance of opposing the gospel. In the latter, he is commanding Timothy to remind people to look beyond their Earthly circumstances to find their joy in service to Christ. Isaiah, on the other hand, offers warning to those who do rely on their own circumstances to give them meaning and hope and joy.

Over and over again, scripture warns us that looking to anything of this world to bring us joy will end in misery, placing our hope in Earthly things and circumstances will bring terror. We must learn to look beyond this life to the giver of all life, the One who is Life itself. In Him we may find our true joy. But while we dwell in this flesh and look with these fallen eyes, we can expect to struggle against despair. We must continually go to God in prayer and in His word, and ask Him to renew the joy in our lives. He who is our joy, who made us to find our joy in Him, surely knows how to deliver joy to us.

If I had a dollar for every person who I've seen hurt by the church, or who told me about how a similar hurt drove them out of Christianity, I could likely begin my future missions work today with little, if any, fundraising.

Now, there is a certain degree to which the severity of pains suffered at church are inflated simply because of the nature of the church. This is a place that people invest deeply in, where we are encouraged to consider each other family, where we look at the love described of Christ and then find our fellows to fall so short of that mark. But rather than belittling these concerns, this should highlight the fact that the blows do happen, and they stand in stark contrast to Jesus' description that "by this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35 NASB). But what can we do?

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul is explaining that there are some things the mature Christian can do and environments they can enter because they have come to know Christ well enough to discern a healthy way to do so, but there are other Christians who may, even if mature in other ways, struggle with those particular things and environments. Now, this is not the specific nature of the examples I gave above, but the principle he then describes still applies: we, as Christians, need to consider the spiritual well-being of those around us as more important than ourselves.

Neither I, nor Paul, argue that we should let sin reign in the church just so we can hopefully keep the people comfortable with that sin around long enough that they might catch religion. But when someone who needs a word of advice or correction is approached in a painful way because the one approaching is not comfortable doing it in a way that is healthy for the recipient, that is a problem. When the deacon puts the goals and expectations of their own little area of ministry over the needs of the body or even the needs of an individual within that body, that is a problem. When we drive someone out and openly condemn them because they, while holding sound doctrine and a visibly growing relationship with Christ, don't practice Christianity in the exact way we want it practiced, that is a problem. We have this understanding, that I've heard attributed to a number of church fathers, that withholding resources that we have in abundance is the same as stealing from those who need those resources; is that not true also of withholding a word of comfort or an apology or a promise to correct errors, when we have the full power to do so and a brother or sister is in need of it?

Paul tells us to put others in the body before ourselves, to the point that we may even have to give up things that we know we don't do in sin, if it helps someone else not fall into sin. And he tells us in Romans that this is done in line with the example set by Christ. Consider:

Christ gave up Heaven, He gave up all status and glory and authority to accept us. In the end He regained all of it, but Christ gave up everything that was rightfully His in order to accept us. If we are to accept our brothers and sisters in Christ just as Christ has accepted us, then we need to set aside our preferences and our desires and our comforts whenever they would hinder the spiritual health of those around us. But the example Christ gave isn't even limited to those in our family of faith. After all, everyone Christ died for was an enemy of God when He died. Following the example of Christ means spreading this love even to those who are not in the church, even to those who would oppose the church, even to those who would kill us given the chance, just as Jesus loved those who mocked Him as He hung on their cross. Jesus, having just told His followers to love even their enemies, observes:

It is not enough to simply try to do these things, however. We cannot love each other perfectly, but Christ can love perfectly through us. We cannot build the perfect church through our own efforts, for "unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1a NASB). We must allow God to change our hearts, guide our relationships, love those around us with our hands and our mouths and our feet and our resources.