The Real Tests

My friend pointed out a scripture to me today that I really like: “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God” (1 Peter 2:20).  In other words, if you are patient through suffering that you brought upon yourself, that’s simply expected because you caused it in the first place.  It’s relatively easy to patiently endure chastisement when you know you are guilty.  But if you are patient through suffering that you received only because you did “well”, that is what takes real power.  Enduring patiently that which you did not deserve is what will really bring upon you the acceptation of heaven.  This idea seems to be related to what the Savior told His disciples about living the higher law: “For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.  And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same” (Luke 6:32-33).  True greatness comes from loving and serving those who are difficult to love and serve—even the “sinners” can love those that love them back.  The test of a Christian is to love those who are your enemies.   

                In a broader sense, I think the principle here is that we don’t really know who we are until face tests that are truly difficult.  For example, I was sure that I was a really patient person until I had children who really tried my patience—suddenly when it was hard to be patient I found that I had much less of this virtue than I thought.  In the scriptures Abraham really learned who he was when he was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac.  It probably had been relatively easy to be obedient to the commandment to leave Ur, for example, because the people there wanted to kill him.  So obeying that commandment was not a true test of how obedient he was; but being willing to sacrifice Isaac—one of the most difficult things we can imagine—showed just how obedient he really was.  This reminds me of the quote from C.S. Lewis about resisting temptation: “A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie.  Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in.  You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down.  A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.  That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.  We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means” (see here).  We find out our real level of devotion to the principles taught by the Savior when it is really hard to live them.  It is only in our struggles that we really find out what we believe deep down.  Each of us must be “chastened and tried, even as Abraham” (D&C 101:4).

                Christ of course was the perfect example.  As Peter explained, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not” (1 Peter 2:21-23).  Christ had never committed any sin and yet He suffered more than any.  He was reviled but didn’t revile back; He suffered without threatening those who caused Him to suffer.  And He accepted His suffering with perfect patience, giving us the example to follow as we struggle to live the life of a Christian.