NOTHING IS HARDER TO BEAR THAN THE APPARENT AIMLESSNESS OF SUFFERING.
“That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested with fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7).
It doesn’t feel good when God has to chisel away at developing character and perseverance into our lives—but it is essential that it happens in order to enlarge our opportunities to mature and grow spiritually. God is not the author of evil suffering, or trials, but He has a wonderful capacity to use them for our good. There is a practical result of facing trials and willingly allowing the Lord to chisel away at what needs to be refined in our lives. When we love the Lord we must cheerfully go along with and encourage Him to fashion our lives to become like Jesus Christ.
According to Hannah Whitall Smith, “earthly cares” are a heavenly discipline. They are God’s chariots sent to take the soul to its high places of triumph. Our “earthly cares” do not look like chariots—instead they look like enemies, sufferings, trials, defeats, misunderstandings, disappointments, or unkindness. They look like juggernaut vehicles filled with misery and wretchedness that are only waiting to roll over us and crush us into the earth. But could we see them as they really are, we should recognize them as chariots of triumph in which we may ride to those very heights of victory for which our souls have been longing and praying. The juggernaut vehicle is the visible thing—the chariot of God is the invisible.
We suffer trials so that our faith may be proved genuine. The key word here is “faith.” Trials can and often do destroy the lives of those who have no faith in Christ. But for those who are trusting in Christ with vital faith, the trials of life will actually strengthen us. Peter uses the analogy of gold which is tested or refined with fire. That process removes all of the impurities and makes the gold more pure and precious. That is how God uses trials in our lives. He allows the trials to come so that the impurities of sin may be removed from us and so that our faith may become more precious. We grow to be more and more dependent upon our Lord, and less dependent upon ourselves. We become more and more like Jesus Christ, our Lord.
There are other benefits to trials and reasons why God has to keep chiseling away to conform us to His image. It is important that we may be found praising, honoring, and glorifying Jesus Christ. The suffering we go through is only temporary. It is an inconvenience that we must endure for the present. And God, in His grace, will use even that for our good. But our focus should not be upon our suffering, trials, and temptations. We should be looking forward to the ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ. The genuineness of our faith will bring praise, honor and glory to Christ when He comes again to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.
We see in Peter’s letters that he is fond of the word ‘precious.’ In both his letters he uses it as an epithet for diverse things. He speaks of Christ being precious to us; of precious promises; of Christ’s precious blood and precious faith. The ‘trial of your faith’ in this verse means the result of that trial. Peter pits against each other faith that has been tried, and ‘gold that perishes.’
We must be careful to always seek the highest things most. As we walk with the Lord we realize that our faith must be ‘tried’ and found to praise and honor the Lord. The fire carries away the dross; it makes the pure metal glow in its luster. It burns up the ‘wood, hay and stubble;’ it makes the gold gleam and the precious stones sparkle and flash.
Peter both contrasts and compares faith with gold. He contrasts it in that faith is more precious than gold because gold is perishable, but faith isn’t. Gold won’t gain heaven, but faith will. All the gold in the world is worthless the instant you die and stand before God. Only faith in Jesus Christ will do in that day. Peter compares faith with gold in that both are refined by fire. The words “proof” and “tested” have the nuance of testing with a view to approval. God does not test our faith to make it fail, but to burn off the dross and leave the pure gold. He does this by putting us in the furnace of affliction where we are forced to trust Him in ways we never would apart from such trials. We need to be clear that there is such a thing as false faith that does fail. In the parable of the sower, Jesus said that in the shallow, rocky soil, the seed sprouted, but when the sun came out, it withered and died because it had no root. He explained that this refers to those who first receive the word with joy, but when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, they fall away, thus showing that their faith was not genuine (Mark 4:5-6, 16-17). But genuine faith will grow stronger, not weaker, through trials.
Trials are temporary; salvation is eternal. In a short while, Jesus Christ is returning in glory and we will spend all eternity with Him. Our present trials, no matter how great, will pale in significance in the light of eternity. Thus, in the midst of our pain, we can have great joy if we will focus on the shortness of time and the eternal glory that awaits us when Jesus returns. Peter also adds perspective by saying that trials are necessary (“if necessary”). They are necessary, as we just saw, to refine our faith. Peter nudges us to remember that we aren’t home yet! Our trials are working for our good (Romans 8:28). We may not see the benefit today, but when we stand before the Lord in Heaven, and we are rewarded for our walk with Him and for the sufferings we endured below, it will be worth it all (2 Cor. 4:17).
A wonderful illustration of the young eagle will bring this all home—when it is time to leave the nest, the mother will literally throw the infant from the nest. As he plummets to earth vainly attempting to fly, he fears sure and certain death. At the last moment, his mother swoops down from above and catches him and carries him back to the safety of the nest. This is repeated several times over the next few days. Finally, the little eaglet will spread his wings and soar upward. Eventually, he will be able to fly above all the storms below, but only because he endured the fear of falling. Just like that mother eagle, God knows best. He will not let you crash and burn. He just allows what He does to strengthen your faith and to grow you up in Him. Let's face it, if the Lord never challenged us, we would never grow!
