In our world of pain avoidance, letters like 1 Peter are just odd to read. We are so much into “blessing” that we have missed the true nuance of “being blessed.” Blessedness is not the absence of pain, necessarily. We don’t go looking for pain. Yet, when pain comes, there is probably a message to heed. We don’t need to “rebuke it” so fast.

What good is anything that isn’t tested? If we buy an automobile it does us a lot of good to know the safety record of that vehicle. It is not really wise to look at a vehicle, decide to buy it, get it in it to drive it off the lot and then ask, “What is the safety record of this vehicle?”

Imagine getting into a car, asking that question, and the dealer says, “Well, we think it will do well on the road. We haven’t actually tested this model. On the draft board it looked great!”

Wisdom would tell us to get right back out of that car.

So why do we want a faith that hasn’t been tested? We will go through tough spots in our lives. Does our faith hold in those circumstances?

There will be times when we are tested by outside forces. There can be times when our faith could be tested severely. Peter suggests that maybe you don’t want to “rebuke” those times. Instead, you may want to give thanks in those times.

¹² Dear friends, don’t be surprised about the fiery trials that have come among you to test you. These are not strange happenings. ¹³ Instead, rejoice as you share Christ’s suffering. You share his suffering now so that you may also have overwhelming joy when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are mocked because of Christ’s name, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory—indeed, the Spirit of God—rests on you. (1 Peter 4:12-14, CEB)

There may be some who reject a theology of suffering thinking it’s just not “of God” and they live the “blessed” life. The apostles would say that the “blessed” life includes the fire to test the faith that comes out like gold. We may just need to expand our very small definition of “blessed.”