What is the Christian life like?
The Christian life is like paddling a canoe upstream: one of the toughest jobs on earth, a constant battle against Satan and the world. It is not a rose-petaled pathway, and anyone promising easy roses teaches falsely. Yet God encourages and consoles believers through testing, supplying strength in Christ.
Les teaches that the Christian life is like paddling a canoe upstream, one of the toughest jobs on earth, because it is a constant battle against all the forces of Satan and the world. He warns that anyone who promises a rose-petaled pathway if you become a Christian is teaching falsely, since that has never been the theme of Scripture. Christians face times of testing and discouragement, but God Himself encourages them, and the same Lord who permits persecutions and testings provides the strength needed to go through them. Paul spoke from his own experience: as sufferings abound, consolation also abounds by Christ. Les also notes that early believers under the Roman yoke were immediately under persecution; they could not walk about glibly talking of their faith, for they were under constant surveillance, and the Roman Empire at one time tried to stamp out Christianity. Becoming a believer under Paul's preaching was an invitation to persecution, yet partakers of the sufferings would also be partakers of the consolation.