Paul wanted to know "the fellowship of His sufferings" (Php 3:10). This was initiated when Christ told Ananias that Saul was "'a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name . . . [and] I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake'" (Ac 9:15-16). Paul later said, "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church" (Col 1:24). He saw it as "death working in us, but life in you" (2Co 4:12). "We who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" (:11). "If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation . . . which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer" (2Co 1:6). "Why are we also in danger every hour?" (1Co 15:30). "I affirm . . . I die daily" (:31). It is more than a lifestyle or mindset. It is an existence "being conformed to His death" (Php 3:10).
The "afflictions of Christ" (Col 1:24) happened when "Christ suffered for us in the flesh" (1Pe 4:1) "for sins" (3:18). "Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Heb 5:8). It was appropriate "in bringing many sons to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (2:10). "As you are partakers of the sufferings" (2Co 1:7) then "when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy" (1Pe 4:13). We are "heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him" (Ro 8:17). "The same sufferings are experienced by your brethren in the world" (2Pe 5:9) so "after you have suffered a while . . . [Christ] will strengthen and settle you" (:10).