Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]

by J.C. Ryle

For one thing, he chose suffering and affliction. He left the ease and comfort of Pharaoh’s court and openly took part with the children of Israel. They were enslaved and persecuted, an object of distrust, suspicion, and hatred, and anyone who befriended them was sure to taste something of the bitter cup they were daily drinking. To the eye of sense there seemed no chance of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage without a long and doubtful struggle. A settled home and country for them must have appeared to be something never likely to be obtained, however much desired. In fact, if ever anyone seemed to be openly choosing pain, trials, poverty, need, distress, anxiety, and perhaps even death, Moses was that man. Let us think how wonderful this choice was. Flesh and blood naturally try to avoid pain. It is in us all to do so. We draw back from suffering by a kind of instinct, and we avoid it if we can. If two courses of action are set before us that both seem right, we generally take that which is the least disagreeable to flesh and blood. We spend our days in fear and anxiety when we think affliction is coming near us, and we use every means to escape it. When it does come, we often worry and complain under its burden, and if we do happen to bear it patiently, we consider it a great victory. But look here! Here is a man with the same emotions and feelings as we have, and he actually chose affliction! Moses saw the cup of suffering that was before him if he left Pharaoh’s ...

He chose to join those who were suffering