Acts 14:19-28: The Necessary Hardships of Christian Life

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples. - Acts 14:19-28

In Acts, chapter 11, Barnabas brought Paul to the attention of the church in Antioch and went with him to Jerusalem to bring a gift supporting the believers there during a time of famine. In Acts, chapter 13, that same church recognized the Spirit's assignment to go out to other cities of the eastern Roman empire and tell about Jesus. In Acts 14, they returned to Antioch and reported everything that had happened. Their message to encourage and strengthen the new churches and the new church leaders in their journey? "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God" 

When I look at this, I do not read it as "We must go through many hardships in order to enter the kingdom of God." but rather "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God." That is: the hardships are a natural and necessary part of the journey, not a means of causing success on the journey. 

What I learned from this is not to undersell the difficulty of living the life in Christ. There are parts of it that are hard and confusing. Those parts are natural and necessary. But we don't go run out and seek them, saying "I need to find how to make my life harder so that I can fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." But we don't avoid them and we aren't surprised by them.