2. If We Suffer, We Shall Also Reign With Him. 2 Tim. 2:12

Moral character, relationship, and external manifestation hang together naturally and necessarily before God, whether in good or in evil. He that has usurped power in this world has a character (as of a liar and a murderer from the beginning), and all that is opposed to God may cluster round him and be under his sway. In man's day He may make darkness to pass for light, and light to pass for darkness; but a day is coming, even the day of the Lord and of God, when all shall be seen in its true color, and be manifested accordingly. The Prince of Life, on the other hand, has a moral character of His own-in the perfection of sympathy with, and subjection to, all the good pleasure of God, He has relationships of the most blessed kind; and a time is coming in which not only shall He be owned, as now, on the Father's throne, though hidden there, but shall stand forth confessed as the Champion and the Victor, whom God delights to honor. His taking His power and reigning will be still in Servant-character. It is well, with such hearts as we have, to recall this to mind; for many a one looks forward to the day of power, without remembering that in that day the gift of power to us will not be the letting of self loose, but the expression of perfect exemption from all selfishness and self-seeking. The power of that day is the power of God and of the Lamb.
As in the Epistle to the Romans, the being glorified together with Christ brings out the blessedness of our association with Him, in all with which He will stand connected in that coming day; so, this passage (2 Tim. 2:12) brings out the truth, most important in its place, that, if now we are associates of Christ's, realizing our weakness, and suffering from a rude rough world around, as was Timothy, that the time draws near when power, and power of dominion, shall be ours. " We shall reign together with Him." For He that has loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, has made us unto God and His Father kings and priests; and we shall reign together with Him (Rev. 1:6). When He comes to put down His enemies, He will bring us with Him (Rev. 2:26,27). While He is putting them down, we shall be with Him (1 Cor. 15).
And when He reigns, we shall reign together with Him (Rev. 1:6, and 21). As a stimulant to patient endurance under suffering, and to hardy, courageous warfare, nothing is better than for the soul, amid its sufferings, to bethink itself of the glory and power which awaits it. Only, as has been said before, let the thought of its being fellowship together with the Christ, whether in the suffering or in the glory, be that on which we are set. If we be in association with Him, no burden of sorrow, weakness, anguish, or suffering will be found too much for us, for He bears the burden of our load; and if our prospect is association with Him in glory and dominion, there is no fear of the heart's getting elated or puffed up. The glory is His, and our share of it, though it be an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, is His free gift to us; and the very greatness of it will, even in anticipation, if His person and presence is borne in mind, only humble our souls. Who or what am I, or what have I, or what can I do or be, that the Lord of all glory should have told me plainly, that when He takes His dominion and glory, and reigns, He means me to be there, as a sharer of that dominion and that glory together with Him?