As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Believers suffer for Christ's and God's sake because they belong to Him, living under continual exposure to death, danger and persecution and treated as vulnerable and doomed to die like sheep headed to slaughter. This suffering stands among tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and sword, yet none of it can separate them from the love of Christ or mean that God has abandoned them. In all these sufferings they are more than conquerors through Him who loved them, with neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth able to separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Christ stays with them in it, having purchased them by His blood and watching them as His own valued sheep, so their grief touches Him and their pain wounds Him while trials refine them by consuming the dross without consuming them. They are therefore to endure without vengeance or complaint, denying self and carrying the cross in humble faith and trust, with suffering building patience, fortitude and character now and faith looking through the cross to the crown of life, the resurrection, immortality and home with the redeemed.
Words and Sense
Suffering is for thy sake because those who belong to Christ suffer for Christ's sake and for God's sake, and are put to death continually and treated as destined for slaughter because of their faith. Even believers put in prison for the truth suffer in this way for Christ's sake, yet can trust Him. Killed all the day long means living under continual exposure to death, with continual danger and persecution in serving Christ. Ministers who love their work may face just such continual danger even unto death.
Accounted as sheep for the slaughter means being treated as vulnerable and doomed to die, like sheep headed to slaughter and led to slaughter. For Christ's sake believers endure this continual exposure to death while regarded as sheep headed for slaughter and treated as doomed to die. The verse belongs together with tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword as the sufferings that surround believers. Being killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter comes through those very afflictions, for His sake and for God's sake.
History and Examples
The verse describes Paul's own life preaching Christ and Him crucified, hunted from place to place with no rest by bigoted opposers who stirred up both Jews and Gentiles to persecute him and to attempt his assassination. Being killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter means living under continual exposure to death through tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword. Yet he faced future trials and threatenings of suffering like a bold soldier of the cross. His manifold labors prove Christ's sustaining presence upholding in all these sufferings. He endured without complaint, confident that present suffering is not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
The verse was fulfilled when Christians under heathen persecution were killed by the thousands for Christ's sake. Their death did not separate them from Christ but secured them to Him as subjects of His kingdom. Suffering drove them closer to the Lord, led them to love one another, and caused them to fear more than ever to offend God. Although many were slain, others sprang up to supply the places of the slain.
The verse applies to ministers who love their work, who may face continual danger and even death like sheep led to slaughter. It applies to those who keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, who may expect the same spirit of malice and unreasonable opposition already tasted. It applies to believers put in prison for the truth, who suffer continually unto death for Christ's sake.
Unseparated Love and Victory
Continual exposure to death and being counted as sheep headed for slaughter for belonging to Christ does not separate from the love of Christ, and suffering, danger, and death cannot cut off from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Bearing burdens for Christ with the will surrendered to God tests and reveals love for Him, and difficulty, disappointment, and trial are to be met by faith rather than taken as proof that God has abandoned His people or that His purpose has failed. Persecution and continual peril for His sake leave believers still more than conquerors through Him who loved them.
That victory means being enabled by Christ to deny self, take up the cross, endure, fight on with perseverance, and remain strong in trust, so that even the weakest can conquer through divine grace. Ministers who love their work may face continual danger and even death like sheep led to slaughter, yet that suffering cannot separate them from Christ's love. Those who belong to Christ may face continual danger and death for His sake, but through Him they remain more than conquerors.
This confidence rests on the full persuasion that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature can separate from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword, with being killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter, cannot separate from the love of Christ, and in all these things believers are more than conquerors through Him who loved them. That assurance of belonging in suffering holds because believers are purchased by the blood of the only begotten Son of God, graven upon the palms of His hands, not their own, having committed the keeping of the soul to Him as a faithful Creator who will keep what is committed against that day.
God is for His people, having not spared His own Son but given all heaven in that one gift, and with Christ He will also freely give all things. Therefore there is no need to rest in a poor, weak, starved experience; it is possible to reach a high standard of deep, rich, abundant experience, to do a great work for the Master, and to be a living channel of light filled with all the fullness of God. That life is walked in humility, drawing with Christ in the salvation of souls and cooperating with the divine by persevering effort. It calls for faith, hope, courage, work, and patient waiting in trust amid tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword.
Christ Present With Sufferers
Even while killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter through tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword, belonging is assured because believers are purchased by the blood of the only begotten Son of God. They are graven upon the palms of His hands and are not their own. Having committed the keeping of the soul to Him as a faithful Creator, He will keep what is committed against that day.
They remain Christ's sheep under His tender watchcare even while exposed to continual suffering and death like sheep appointed to slaughter. As shepherd He highly values His sheep, loves every sheep and lamb, cares for them and shows them uttermost kindness, and calls each one by name. They are loved not only as sheep but still more as sons and daughters and children, as the gift of His Father and the reward of His work.
Their suffering is not separate from Him, for their grief touches Him and their pain wounds Him as pruning wounds the living Vine. His love for His followers is closer than a mother's, a lover's, or a friend's. He joins His interest to suffering humanity so that harm done to make His saints suffer is done to Christ Himself, and God is working in their behalf. They are therefore to endure with meekness whatever men do without using force, trusting Jesus who shed His blood as a kind, careful, merciful and tender shepherd every moment while others pray for their deliverance.
Trials refine by removing what is impure under His constant watchful care. God's refining power consumes the dross without consuming them, as the bush burned without being destroyed, even when they face a terrible, continuing conflict and may be killed for their faith.
When Christ leads into hard places like Rephidim, it is for their good and for His name's glory. Looked to in trusting faith, He in His own time turns the bitterness of Marah into sweetness and opens the flinty rock to cause cooling streams to flow. He is thus an ever-present help in trouble, known on former occasions and as willing to help now, with the word that He is with them always even unto the end of the world.
Those chosen for special work face concentrated temptations and attacks from Satan, especially in the perilous last days, but safety is in trusting and clinging to Jesus the mighty Helper, from whom nothing can separate them. This unbreakable union is the only safety as probation closes and the storm and last great battle come. It is kept by being one with Christ as He is one with the Father, by having Christ's character as individual character through a transformed and renewed heart, and by eating, digesting and living the Word as part of one's being.
Endurance and Final Hope
Being killed all the day long and counted as sheep for slaughter means enduring continual persecution and danger of death for faith without making the gospel a cause of bloodshed or taking vengeance, leaving judgment to God. Bearing the cross means remaining willing to suffer rather than shed the blood of others, for the spiritual struggle is not to be fought with weapons but with faith and prayer.
Following Christ leaves no room for self-gratification, display, and expensive habits of living, but calls for learning from Scripture what the Lord demands, denying self, carrying the cross, and bearing burdens and responsibilities in His strength with the will surrendered to God. Those who belong to God may face tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword, being put to death continually and treated as destined for slaughter, yet they are not to be dismayed by tribulation or turned aside from duty by reproach. Bearing burdens for Christ tests and shows love for Him, and difficulty, disappointment, and trial must be met by faith, with Christ enabling His followers to endure, fight with perseverance, and become more than conquerors through divine grace even when weakest.
Obedience is required from every son and daughter of Adam irrespective of consequences, even when obeying the truth costs a favorable position for this present life, for consequences belong to God. Persecution never drives a soul who is indeed a lover of Jesus away from Him, because His love in the soul is all-absorbing and becomes a ruling power in the heart through willingness to forsake all rather than forsake Christ and to suffer for His name. Reproach and persecution have separated many souls from heaven when they turn from the truth as the young ruler did, but never a soul from the love of Christ.
The helpless soul cast upon Jesus cannot be separated by the enemy, so nothing is to come between the soul and Christ, and constant loyalty is required with the Lord Jesus as a present help in every need. Trials do not mean God has abandoned His people, and though followers of Christ face trials from circumstances they cannot control, the love of God in Christ remains unbroken. Therefore unbelief and a murmuring, complaining spirit with selfish care for personal interests must give way to humble faith, prayer, and trust, looking to Him in trusting faith, remembering His past dealings and manifestations of power, praying for the Holy Spirit to bring those mercies to mind, helping those worse off and seeking light, lifting the voice in praise and thanksgiving, preserving peace without discord, distraction, or division, and continually cultivating supreme devotion in love for God and love for one another with hope of eternal life centered in Christ. Going forward with full assurance, believers trust an ever-present help in trouble who leads into strait places like Rephidim for their good and His name's glory, turns the bitterness of Marah into sweetness, opens the flinty rock to cause cooling streams to flow, and remains as willing to help now as on former occasions.
Love for Jesus that accepts suffering and death for His sake cannot be hidden but is seen and felt, and a soul without this love is none of His. This love exerts wondrous power making the timid bold, the slothful diligent, the ignorant wise, the stammering tongue eloquent, rousing the dormant intellect to new life and vigor, and making the desponding hopeful and the gloomy joyous. Believing in Jesus and learning from Him fills the heart with glowing love that discouragement, despondency, affliction, and trial cannot quench, because He first loved and gave His life and draws out love in return, with grace acting mightily upon intellect and heart to give clearness of mental vision, compass of thought, satisfied soul hunger, a softened and subdued heart, and an opened mind's eye to His preciousness and fullness and to heavenly beauties and blessed promises.
Suffering endured by God's grace develops Christian character in patience, vigilance, fortitude, and abiding trust, enabling believers to suffer and remain strong, to submit and thereby conquer, and to remain spiritually alive and victorious through faith. Enemies may try to destroy character and influence through neglect, abuse, and persecution even unto death, but those who trust in God are not overcome, for Christ is sufficient, unfailing strength and help in trouble bringing hope through the darkest trials. Faith looks through bearing the cross to the crown of life and crown of glory and to gaining immortal glory, holding firm to seeing the King in His beauty, going home with the redeemed in the resurrection from the grave and the changing of the living from mortality to immortality to meet the Lord in the air, entering through the gates of the city of God, sitting with Christ on His throne, and casting every received crown at the feet of Jesus in praise and glory to the Redeemer, living a life that measures with the life of God as an overcomer partaking of His grace and salvation and glorifying His name.
Believers suffer for Christ's and God's sake because they belong to Him, living under continual exposure to death, danger and persecution and treated as vulnerable and doomed to die like sheep headed to slaughter. This suffering stands among tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and sword, yet none of it can separate them from the love of Christ or mean that God has abandoned them. In all these sufferings they are more than conquerors through Him who loved them, with neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth able to separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Christ stays with them in it, having purchased them by His blood and watching them as His own valued sheep, so their grief touches Him and their pain wounds Him while trials refine them by consuming the dross without consuming them. They are therefore to endure without vengeance or complaint, denying self and carrying the cross in humble faith and trust, with suffering building patience, fortitude and character now and faith looking through the cross to the crown of life, the resurrection, immortality and home with the redeemed.
Words and Sense
Suffering is for thy sake because those who belong to Christ suffer for Christ's sake and for God's sake, and are put to death continually and treated as destined for slaughter because of their faith. Even believers put in prison for the truth suffer in this way for Christ's sake, yet can trust Him. Killed all the day long means living under continual exposure to death, with continual danger and persecution in serving Christ. Ministers who love their work may face just such continual danger even unto death.
Accounted as sheep for the slaughter means being treated as vulnerable and doomed to die, like sheep headed to slaughter and led to slaughter. For Christ's sake believers endure this continual exposure to death while regarded as sheep headed for slaughter and treated as doomed to die. The verse belongs together with tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword as the sufferings that surround believers. Being killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter comes through those very afflictions, for His sake and for God's sake.
History and Examples
The verse describes Paul's own life preaching Christ and Him crucified, hunted from place to place with no rest by bigoted opposers who stirred up both Jews and Gentiles to persecute him and to attempt his assassination. Being killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter means living under continual exposure to death through tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword. Yet he faced future trials and threatenings of suffering like a bold soldier of the cross. His manifold labors prove Christ's sustaining presence upholding in all these sufferings. He endured without complaint, confident that present suffering is not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
The verse was fulfilled when Christians under heathen persecution were killed by the thousands for Christ's sake. Their death did not separate them from Christ but secured them to Him as subjects of His kingdom. Suffering drove them closer to the Lord, led them to love one another, and caused them to fear more than ever to offend God. Although many were slain, others sprang up to supply the places of the slain.
The verse applies to ministers who love their work, who may face continual danger and even death like sheep led to slaughter. It applies to those who keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, who may expect the same spirit of malice and unreasonable opposition already tasted. It applies to believers put in prison for the truth, who suffer continually unto death for Christ's sake.
Unseparated Love and Victory
Continual exposure to death and being counted as sheep headed for slaughter for belonging to Christ does not separate from the love of Christ, and suffering, danger, and death cannot cut off from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Bearing burdens for Christ with the will surrendered to God tests and reveals love for Him, and difficulty, disappointment, and trial are to be met by faith rather than taken as proof that God has abandoned His people or that His purpose has failed. Persecution and continual peril for His sake leave believers still more than conquerors through Him who loved them.
That victory means being enabled by Christ to deny self, take up the cross, endure, fight on with perseverance, and remain strong in trust, so that even the weakest can conquer through divine grace. Ministers who love their work may face continual danger and even death like sheep led to slaughter, yet that suffering cannot separate them from Christ's love. Those who belong to Christ may face continual danger and death for His sake, but through Him they remain more than conquerors.
This confidence rests on the full persuasion that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature can separate from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword, with being killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter, cannot separate from the love of Christ, and in all these things believers are more than conquerors through Him who loved them. That assurance of belonging in suffering holds because believers are purchased by the blood of the only begotten Son of God, graven upon the palms of His hands, not their own, having committed the keeping of the soul to Him as a faithful Creator who will keep what is committed against that day.
God is for His people, having not spared His own Son but given all heaven in that one gift, and with Christ He will also freely give all things. Therefore there is no need to rest in a poor, weak, starved experience; it is possible to reach a high standard of deep, rich, abundant experience, to do a great work for the Master, and to be a living channel of light filled with all the fullness of God. That life is walked in humility, drawing with Christ in the salvation of souls and cooperating with the divine by persevering effort. It calls for faith, hope, courage, work, and patient waiting in trust amid tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword.
Christ Present With Sufferers
Even while killed all the day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter through tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword, belonging is assured because believers are purchased by the blood of the only begotten Son of God. They are graven upon the palms of His hands and are not their own. Having committed the keeping of the soul to Him as a faithful Creator, He will keep what is committed against that day.
They remain Christ's sheep under His tender watchcare even while exposed to continual suffering and death like sheep appointed to slaughter. As shepherd He highly values His sheep, loves every sheep and lamb, cares for them and shows them uttermost kindness, and calls each one by name. They are loved not only as sheep but still more as sons and daughters and children, as the gift of His Father and the reward of His work.
Their suffering is not separate from Him, for their grief touches Him and their pain wounds Him as pruning wounds the living Vine. His love for His followers is closer than a mother's, a lover's, or a friend's. He joins His interest to suffering humanity so that harm done to make His saints suffer is done to Christ Himself, and God is working in their behalf. They are therefore to endure with meekness whatever men do without using force, trusting Jesus who shed His blood as a kind, careful, merciful and tender shepherd every moment while others pray for their deliverance.
Trials refine by removing what is impure under His constant watchful care. God's refining power consumes the dross without consuming them, as the bush burned without being destroyed, even when they face a terrible, continuing conflict and may be killed for their faith.
When Christ leads into hard places like Rephidim, it is for their good and for His name's glory. Looked to in trusting faith, He in His own time turns the bitterness of Marah into sweetness and opens the flinty rock to cause cooling streams to flow. He is thus an ever-present help in trouble, known on former occasions and as willing to help now, with the word that He is with them always even unto the end of the world.
Those chosen for special work face concentrated temptations and attacks from Satan, especially in the perilous last days, but safety is in trusting and clinging to Jesus the mighty Helper, from whom nothing can separate them. This unbreakable union is the only safety as probation closes and the storm and last great battle come. It is kept by being one with Christ as He is one with the Father, by having Christ's character as individual character through a transformed and renewed heart, and by eating, digesting and living the Word as part of one's being.
Endurance and Final Hope
Being killed all the day long and counted as sheep for slaughter means enduring continual persecution and danger of death for faith without making the gospel a cause of bloodshed or taking vengeance, leaving judgment to God. Bearing the cross means remaining willing to suffer rather than shed the blood of others, for the spiritual struggle is not to be fought with weapons but with faith and prayer.
Following Christ leaves no room for self-gratification, display, and expensive habits of living, but calls for learning from Scripture what the Lord demands, denying self, carrying the cross, and bearing burdens and responsibilities in His strength with the will surrendered to God. Those who belong to God may face tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword, being put to death continually and treated as destined for slaughter, yet they are not to be dismayed by tribulation or turned aside from duty by reproach. Bearing burdens for Christ tests and shows love for Him, and difficulty, disappointment, and trial must be met by faith, with Christ enabling His followers to endure, fight with perseverance, and become more than conquerors through divine grace even when weakest.
Obedience is required from every son and daughter of Adam irrespective of consequences, even when obeying the truth costs a favorable position for this present life, for consequences belong to God. Persecution never drives a soul who is indeed a lover of Jesus away from Him, because His love in the soul is all-absorbing and becomes a ruling power in the heart through willingness to forsake all rather than forsake Christ and to suffer for His name. Reproach and persecution have separated many souls from heaven when they turn from the truth as the young ruler did, but never a soul from the love of Christ.
The helpless soul cast upon Jesus cannot be separated by the enemy, so nothing is to come between the soul and Christ, and constant loyalty is required with the Lord Jesus as a present help in every need. Trials do not mean God has abandoned His people, and though followers of Christ face trials from circumstances they cannot control, the love of God in Christ remains unbroken. Therefore unbelief and a murmuring, complaining spirit with selfish care for personal interests must give way to humble faith, prayer, and trust, looking to Him in trusting faith, remembering His past dealings and manifestations of power, praying for the Holy Spirit to bring those mercies to mind, helping those worse off and seeking light, lifting the voice in praise and thanksgiving, preserving peace without discord, distraction, or division, and continually cultivating supreme devotion in love for God and love for one another with hope of eternal life centered in Christ. Going forward with full assurance, believers trust an ever-present help in trouble who leads into strait places like Rephidim for their good and His name's glory, turns the bitterness of Marah into sweetness, opens the flinty rock to cause cooling streams to flow, and remains as willing to help now as on former occasions.
Love for Jesus that accepts suffering and death for His sake cannot be hidden but is seen and felt, and a soul without this love is none of His. This love exerts wondrous power making the timid bold, the slothful diligent, the ignorant wise, the stammering tongue eloquent, rousing the dormant intellect to new life and vigor, and making the desponding hopeful and the gloomy joyous. Believing in Jesus and learning from Him fills the heart with glowing love that discouragement, despondency, affliction, and trial cannot quench, because He first loved and gave His life and draws out love in return, with grace acting mightily upon intellect and heart to give clearness of mental vision, compass of thought, satisfied soul hunger, a softened and subdued heart, and an opened mind's eye to His preciousness and fullness and to heavenly beauties and blessed promises.
Suffering endured by God's grace develops Christian character in patience, vigilance, fortitude, and abiding trust, enabling believers to suffer and remain strong, to submit and thereby conquer, and to remain spiritually alive and victorious through faith. Enemies may try to destroy character and influence through neglect, abuse, and persecution even unto death, but those who trust in God are not overcome, for Christ is sufficient, unfailing strength and help in trouble bringing hope through the darkest trials. Faith looks through bearing the cross to the crown of life and crown of glory and to gaining immortal glory, holding firm to seeing the King in His beauty, going home with the redeemed in the resurrection from the grave and the changing of the living from mortality to immortality to meet the Lord in the air, entering through the gates of the city of God, sitting with Christ on His throne, and casting every received crown at the feet of Jesus in praise and glory to the Redeemer, living a life that measures with the life of God as an overcomer partaking of His grace and salvation and glorifying His name.