God Never Wastes Our Hurts--What God Wants You To Learn In Suffering

GOD'S PLAN FOR OUR SUFFERING
Part II

About 150 years after Christ, Christianity had grown to becoming the dominant force in the ancient Roman Empire. In fact the speed with which the Christians were martyred was only surpassed by the speed at which more people were coming to Christ. It led some to say that the blood of the martyrs had become the seed of the Church.

So there was considerable effort by the pagan Romans to analyze what was going on with this movement called "The Way" or Christianity or "Disciples" as they were called in Antioch in Acts chapter 11. One of the pagans that analyzed Christianity wrote a letter to the Roman Emperor at that time whose name was Hadrian. Hadrian is known as the great builder. Many of his edifices are still standing in the city of Rome today such as the Pantheon and the Villa d'Este in Italian countryside.

Hadrian received this letter and it has been recorded and preserved for us in Roman history. I think it is a fitting introduction to our study of the plan that God has for us as we suffer. That plan is that we are to see God more clearly.

Here is the letter:

"The Christians know and trust their God. They placate those who oppress them and make their enemies their friends. They do good to their enemies. Their wives are absolutely pure and their daughters are modest. Their men abstain from unlawful marriages, and all other impurity. If any of them have bondwomen or children, they persuade them to become Christians for the love they have toward them; and when they become so, they call them "brother" without distinction. They love one another. They rescue the orphan from him who does him violence. He who has gives ungrudging