Q. ~ What does this mean that when Paul suffers for the church he is "filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions"? How can any man fill up what is surely as full as any suffering could be?
A. ~ It is full and lacking in nothing—except one thing, a personal presentation by Christ himself to the nations of the world and the people you know. God's answer to this lack is to call the people of Christ to present the afflictions of Christ to the world—to carry them from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
In doing this we "fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ." We finish what they were designed for, namely, a personal presentation to the world of people who do not know about their infinite worth.
Huh. I didn't know that. That is one verse I never understood before. It makes a bit more sense now.
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