The phrase “the fellowship of His sufferings” comes from Philippians 3:10, which says “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” This verse speaks of the believer’s desire to identify and connect with Christ’s sufferings. The background is that the apostle Paul is reflecting on his goal in life as a follower of Christ. He counts everything else as loss compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8). This “knowing” Christ involves both knowing Him relationally, and also knowing and experiencing the realities of Christ’s death, resurrection, and suffering.
Specifically, what does it mean to have fellowship with Christ’s sufferings? First, fellowship means sharing in, partaking of, partnering in. It is a joining together. To have fellowship with Christ’s sufferings is to, in some measure, identify with, share in, and know the sufferings of Christ. The sufferings being referred to are the sufferings Christ experienced during His earthly life, particularly in His death on the cross.
Second, this fellowship with suffering is a result of being united with Christ. When we are united to Christ by faith, we are identified with Him in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:5). We become one with Him, so that His experiences become ours. His righteousness is counted as our righteousness. His death becomes our death. And also, His sufferings become our sufferings. There is a profound union between Christ and His people.
Third, this fellowship means we follow Christ even through suffering. Just as Christ submitted to suffering in obedience to the Father, so too believers, in union with Christ, submit to suffering according to God’s will. Because of our shared life with Christ, we walk the same path of affliction He walked. To know Him means knowing Him in suffering.
Fourth, this fellowship with His sufferings also alludes to the suffering believers endure because of their identification with Christ. Because we bear His name, we share in His rejection and persecution. The world hated Him, so it will also hate His disciples (John 15:18-21). Sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings includes enduring hardship for the sake of following Him.
In summary, the fellowship of His sufferings refers to believers mystically sharing in Christ’s sufferings – both His atoning sufferings and His suffering at the hands of persecutors. This fellowship results from the believer’s union with Christ. Moreover, it implies the believer’s own path of suffering, as he or she follows the Suffering Servant. Just as Christ submitted to the Father’s will, so His disciples submit to suffering according to God’s purposes. The fellowship of His sufferings means both identifying with Christ’s sufferings, and joining Him on the sacrificial path of the cross.
1. Sharing in Christ’s sufferings through union with Him
The fellowship of His sufferings must be understood in connection with the believer’s union with Christ. There is a profound spiritual union between Christ and His people. When someone believes in Christ, he or she is joined to the Lord in a vital, intimate union. This union with Christ means that believers share in all that is Christ’s – both His death and resurrection. His experiences become their experiences.
Romans 6 explains this union. It says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:4-5). Notice the language of being united with Christ in both His death and resurrection. His death becomes our death; His resurrection becomes our resurrection. This profound union with Christ means sharing deeply in what He went through for us.
Likewise, when Paul speaks of the fellowship of His sufferings, he implies this union with Christ. Christ suffered, and we are now united to Him in a way that we share in the power of His sufferings. His sufferings become ours, because we have become one with Him. We are joined to the One who suffered, and therefore we enter into the benefits and experiences of His pain. The fellowship of His sufferings is the result of the believer’s profound union with the Suffering Savior.
2. Knowing Christ deeply through sharing His sufferings
For Paul, an important aspect of this union with Christ’s sufferings is that it enables Him to know Christ deeply. He says, “that I may know Him and…the fellowship of His sufferings.” The fellowship of suffering produces the knowledge of Christ. When believers share in Christ’s sufferings they come to understand Him and identify with Him in a profound way. They grasp something of the depth of His agony on the cross for sinners. His sufferings become real and personal to them.
Paul understood that deep intimacy is often forged through shared sufferings. Soldiers who endure battles together, families who walk through loss together, friends who undergo hard times together – these shared sufferings produce a profound connection and understanding. So too, when believers fellowship with Christ in His sufferings, they come to know the Lord Jesus on a profoundly personal level.
This was true in Paul’s life. Sharing in suffering helped him identify with the Savior. In 2 Corinthians 1:5 Paul writes, “as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” For Paul, tasting the fellowship of His sufferings meant receiving even more comfort and intimacy from Christ. Suffering produced greater knowledge of and closeness with the Lord.
3. Conforming to Christ’s death
Furthermore, the fellowship of His sufferings has a transforming effect. Paul writes that it involves “being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10). As believers identify with Christ’s sufferings, they are progressively being molded into His image. His death begins to shape their lives. The fellowship of suffering is an instrument God uses to form the believer into the likeness of the Crucified Savior.
This conforming happens as the sinful nature is put to death. On the cross, Christ put sin to death and inaugurated new life (Romans 6:10). Now His followers put sin to death in their own lives, through the power of His Spirit (Romans 8:13). The fellowship of His sufferings implies crucifying and renouncing everything sinful and fleshly. Christ suffered and died to destroy the power of sin; now His followers suffer in order to live out that freedom from sin.
Conforming to Christ’s death also means embracing a lifestyle of self-denial. Just as Christ utterly denied Himself to shoulder the cross, so His disciples are called to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Him (Luke 9:23). The fellowship of His sufferings is a radical identification with Christ in His self-giving obedience. It is death to self in order to fully follow Him.
4. Actual sufferings endured for Christ
The fellowship of His sufferings includes actual sufferings the believer endures for the sake of following Christ. Just as Jesus was rejected and persecuted by the world, so those who follow Him will endure the hatred of the world (John 15:18-21). Paul certainly knew firsthand what it was to suffer for the name of Christ. He was imprisoned, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and despised because He preached the gospel (2 Corinthians 11:23-28). Sharing Christ’s sufferings means identifying with Him in His rejection and shame.
Therefore, the fellowship of His sufferings encompasses the hardship and persecution believers face due to their allegiance to Christ. Peter says believers have been called to “suffer for doing good,” just as Christ suffered for doing good (1 Peter 2:20-21). Paul says it has been granted to us, on behalf of Christ, “not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29).
When believers suffer unjust treatment, they share in a small measure the injustice Christ endured. They enter into His sufferings. This fellowship with Christ can be a powerful witness to the world. When Christians endure persecution with grace and forgiveness, they show forth Christ and His love.
5. The fruit of sharing in His sufferings
The New Testament speaks of incredible blessings and promises attached to sharing in Christ’s sufferings. When believers are united with the Suffering Servant, they also share in the fruit His sufferings accomplished.
One blessing is mentioned above – a deeper knowledge of Christ that leads to greater comfort. When Paul says we share in Christ’s sufferings, He immediately follows this with the promise that we also abundantly share in Christ’s comfort (2 Corinthians 1:5). Fellowship in suffering produces sweet comfort from the Lord.
Another result is confidence of salvation. Paul says suffering leads to the experience of God’s sustaining grace, which drives out all fear and uncertainty (2 Corinthians 1:5-7). Sharing in Christ’s sufferings assures believers of God’s grace towards them.
In addition, partaking of His sufferings helps produce Christlike character in the believer. “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4). As believers endure hardship in union with Christ, God forms His Son’s character in them.
Furthermore, suffering leads to eternal glory. “If indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:17). Paul says his present sufferings are preparing an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). Suffering with Christ results in the amazing gift of sharing in His glory.
These blessings show why the fellowship of His sufferings is precious to the believer. Sharing in Christ’s suffering bears sweet fruit of deeper intimacy with Him, stronger faith, Christlike character, and the joyful hope of glory.
6. Examples of those who shared in His sufferings
Many heroes of the faith throughout church history can be cited as examples of those who entered into the fellowship of His sufferings. Here are a few:
- The apostles – After Jesus’ ascension, the disciples rejoiced “that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” of Christ (Acts 5:41). They shared in His sufferings through beatings, imprisonment, rejection, and martyrdom.
- Paul – As mentioned above, no one shared more extensively in Christ’s sufferings than Paul. He endured every kind of hardship for the sake of knowing Christ and making Him known (2 Corinthians 11:23-29).
- Early Christian martyrs – Countless believers in the early centuries of the church followed Christ even unto death. They drank the cup their Lord drank and were baptized with His baptism of blood.
- Perpetua and Felicity – These young wives and mothers in 3rd century Carthage were imprisoned and finally martyred for their faith, exemplifying fellowship with Christ’s sufferings.
- Jim Elliot and other missionary martyrs – When Elliot and four other missionaries were killed by the Waodani tribe in Ecuador, their deaths as witnesses for Christ echoed His sacrificial death.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer – This German pastor was executed for resisting the Nazis. His sacrificial life modeled identifying with the Suffering Servant.
- Richard Wurmbrand – Persecuted for his outspoken faith in communist Romania, Wurmbrand was imprisoned and tortured for 14 years, joining in Christ’s sufferings.
- The persecuted church today – Currently, countless Christians suffer imprisonment, torture, and death because they bear the name of Christ. Their fellowship with His sufferings is very real.
These examples from history give just a sampling of the great cloud of witnesses who have identified with Christ is His sufferings. Their lives vividly display this profound fellowship with the crucified Lord.
7. How believers today share in His sufferings
For most Christians today, the call to fellowship with Christ’s sufferings does not mean physical persecution or martyrdom. Yet Paul’s words in Philippians 3 present the fellowship of His sufferings as a worthy goal for all believers. We demonstrate the reality of our union with Christ through identifying with Him in practical ways.
Here are some examples of how modern believers enter into the fellowship of His sufferings:
- Rejecting sinful desires for the sake of following Christ
- Bearing unjust criticism or ostracism with grace
- Persevering through chronic illness or disability
- Letting go of dreams and ambitions that conflict with God’s will
- Loving others sacrificially
- Giving generously at cost to oneself
- Pouring out time and energy to serve those in need
- Grieving the loss of a loved one
- Walking through anxiety, doubt, or depression with endurance
- Offering forgiveness to someone who hurt you
In all these ways, believers can share in fellowship with Christ’s sufferings. When life is painful and difficult, yet we respond with trust in God, we identify in our own small way with the Suffering Servant. His death and resurrection become real to us. We know Him in those moments in life when following Him means taking up our cross. We join with Christ in His sufferings.
8. The cross and godly suffering
The cross of Jesus Christ puts suffering in its proper perspective for the believer. The cross reminds us that God can use suffering powerfully for His glorious purposes. Christ submitted to the cross according to God’s will, and God brought amazing redemption through His voluntary sufferings. When believers are called to suffer, they share in that same path of submission and redemption.
The cross also reassures believers that God is with them in suffering, that He cares, understands, and will bring good from it. Christ doesn’t ask His followers to endure anything He wasn’t willing to endure Himself. The Savior who bore the enormous weight of the cross now comes alongside His people to uphold them in their suffering. The fellowship of His sufferings means we do not suffer alone.
Furthermore, the cross gives meaning to suffering. Without the cross, pain seems pointless and cruel. With the cross, suffering for Christ becomes a privilege, a means to glorify God, grow spiritually, and extend His Kingdom. Suffering is given significance and purpose through the sufferings of Christ.
Finally, the cross reminds us suffering in this life is temporary. Christ’s resurrection proved that death, the worst enemy, is defeated. No suffering, no matter how intense, can separate believers from the eternal joy and glory that is theirs in Christ (Romans 8:18). The cross points to resurrection hope, assuring the children of God that suffering will one day give way to everlasting joy in His presence.
9. Conclusion
In Philippians 3:10, Paul expresses his longing to know Christ through sharing deeply in His sufferings. All believers who are united to the Suffering Servant Jesus will taste something of the fellowship of His sufferings. This fellowship means identifying with Christ’s sufferings, walking the same path of affliction He walked, letting His death conform our lives, and enduring hardship for His name’s sake. Although suffering is painful and difficult, God uses it to produce Christlike character in us and to assure us of eternal glory. The cross of Christ puts suffering in perspective, reminding us God is with us in it and will work it for good. Entering in the fellowship of His sufferings produces sweet fruit of deeper intimacy with Christ, stronger faith, and the joy of anticipating the glory to come.
