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Let the afflicted believer take comfort from the reference to the Lord Jesus Himself in
Luke 24: 46, where the same word is used:
"Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer" (Luke 24: 46).
And in Acts 17: we read:
"Christ must needs have suffered" (Acts 17: 3).
Such a "need be" was true also of the apostle Paul:
"He is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles . . . . . I will
shew him how great things he must (it behoveth, it is needful) suffer for My name's sake"
(Acts 9: 15, 16).
In Acts 14: 22, the writer, instead of continuing in narrative form and telling us in
his own way what Paul said, departs from this form to give a quotation, so important does
he consider the message to be:
"And when they had preached the gospel to that city . . . . . they returned . . . . .
confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that
we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14: 21, 22).
Take as an example the "need be" realized by the apostle Paul concerning himself. He
had some dreadful affliction that he called "a thorn, or stake, in the flesh", "a messenger
of Satan sent to buffet me". Three times he besought the Lord that this affliction might
leave him, and then he learned the "need be". It was apparently necessary for him to
have this continual thorn in the flesh, lest he should be unduly exalted by the fact that so
many wonderful revelations had been given to him. Spiritual pride is far worse than any
"messenger of Satan" can ever be. It was for Paul's good that the thorn remained.
Moreover, it was needful for Paul to have continual and increasing experimental
acquaintance with the main theme of his own doctrine, namely, the all-sufficiency of
grace and the utter inability of self. It was necessary for him to realize increasingly the
fact that while the Lord's strength is exhibited in deliverance, it is perfected in our
endurance, and the blessed fact that the words "if need be" and "for Christ's sake" may
be synonymous.
"And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made
perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the
power of Christ may rest upon me: Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am
weak, then am I strong" (II Cor. 12: 9-10).
God does not afflict His children without reason. If we can be assured, as we may,
that the unpleasant experiences of this life are necessary, either for our own discipline
and correction, as an example to others, or for the working out of the great purpose of
God, surely this will illuminate the darkness, and turn our weeping to joy--even as the