Believers will suffer if they do what God says
1You know that Christ suffered a lot when He was on earth and He died on the cross. You must remember this so that your faith can grow strong, because someone who has suffered does not want to sin anymore. 2Yes, your faith must be strong so that you, while you are alive, don't do the things that sinful people want to do. You must do what God wants people to do. 3Before you turned to God, there was a long time when you did what the Gentiles want to do. You did any bad thing that you wanted to do. You became drunk, you had wild drinking parties and you worshipped_idols. The things that you did were very bad.
4Now the Gentiles are surprised that you no longer want to do those bad things with them and they say bad things about you. 5The Gentiles will stand before God when He judges them and they will have to answer to Him. He will judge the people who are alive and those who are dead, and He is ready to do it. 6This is why the Good_News was preached to people who have already died. They heard it while they were living. God judged them, and that is why their bodies died like all people, but they are alive again as new people. Now they can live as He lives.
Believers must serve each other
7It will not be long before all the things that are happening now will stop. That is why you must be wise and think before you do something so that you can pray like you should pray. 8The most important of all is that you must love each other because love covers lots of sins. 9You must welcome each other into your homes and not complain about it.
10God has given each one of you some gifts and He has blessed you in different ways. You are God's managers of your gifts and that is why you must serve each other. Use the gifts that He gave you. 11When someone starts talking in the congregation, it must be like when God speaks to people. When someone serves other believers, he must serve them with the strength that God gives him. It is Jesus who makes these believers do this so that people can praise God. We praise God who is very strong. We will praise Him forever and ever. Amen.
When believers suffer
12Dear friends, do not be surprised when you suffer a lot. These things are testing you to see if you stop serving God. You must know that you will suffer. 13You must rejoice when you are suffering like Christ has suffered. Then you will also rejoice even more on the day when Christ comes and everyone will see that He is the King.
14God is blessing you when other people say bad things about you because you belong to Christ. When this happens, it shows that the Spirit of the King, that is the Spirit of God, is with you. 15When you suffer, it should not be because you are a murderer or a thief or because you are doing something bad or because you want to know too much about other people's lives. 16But if anyone suffers because he believes in Christ, then he must not be ashamed. No, he must praise God because he belongs to Christ. 17God will start to judge people very soon and He will start with us, who are the temple of God. But if God begins with us when He judges people, what will then happen to the people who did not want to listen to the good message that comes from God? God will punish them even more. We read in the Old_Testament:
18‘It is not easy to save someone
who lives in the right way and is righteous,
but it is much more difficult to save people
who do not serve God,
and people who are sinners.’
19All of this means that there are people who suffer because God has decided it, but they must keep on doing good things and they must give themselves to God. It is God who has made us and we can trust in Him.
