After preaching the Good News in Derbe and making many disciples, Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia, where they strengthened the believers. They encouraged them to continue in the faith, reminding them that we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God. [Acts 14.21-22 NLT]
I checked different translations of this passage and found that most presented it as found in the New King James Version:
And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”
The NLT seems to be alone in making it sound like the hardships were necessary to enter God's Kingdom. Those I compared (KJV, AMP, NIV, NASB, YLT, others) all were worded in such a way that the necessity was to enter the Kingdom through (and in spite of) the hardships.
The point I am making is this: Jesus told us the Kingdom is already among us, or, in us (Luke 17.21). So, I cannot believe we must suffer to enter the Kingdom, but that in entering the Kingdom, we will suffer hardships.
The thing is, when we consider that the Kingdom is about people, and if we are to put people first in order to achieve Kingdom work, then we will suffer hardships (if in nothing else but "going to the back of the line"). We don't take on this suffering in order to be saved, but because we are saved. True love will, in most cases, be painful at one time or another. Jesus said, "Greater love has no man than this: to lay one's life down for a friend." [my wording]
Father, help me to better understand Your Kingdom on a daily basis.
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