November 2. Rejoicing in pain. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and

utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad

for your reward is great in heaven. Matthew 5, 11, and 12.

Christian hedonism says that there are different ways to rejoice in suffering as a Christian.

All of them are to be pursued as an expression of the all-sufficient, all-satisfying grace of God.

One way of rejoicing in suffering comes from fixing our minds firmly on the greatness of the reward

that will come to us in the resurrection. The effect of this kind of focus is to make our present

pain seem small in comparison to what is coming. I consider that the sufferings of this present time

are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us Romans 8, 18. See 2 Corinthians 4, 16 to

18. In making the suffering tolerable, rejoicing over our reward will also make love possible. Love

your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great.

8. Luke 6. 35. Be generous with the poor and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you

for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Luke 14, 14. Confidence in this promised

reward cuts the cord of worldliness and frees us for the costs of love.

Another way of rejoicing in suffering comes from the effects of suffering on our assurance of hope.

Joy in affliction is rooted not only in the hope of resurrection and reward,

but also in the way suffering itself works to deepen that hope. For example, Paul says we rejoice in our

sufferings knowing that the suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character

produces hope, Romans 5, 3 and 4. In other words, Paul's joy is not merely rooted in his great reward,

but in the effect of suffering which solidifies the hope of that reward. Affliction produces

endurance and endurance produces a sense that our faith is real and genuine and that strengthens our

hope that we will indeed gain Christ. So whether we focus on the riches of the reward

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