The depth of a disciple’s joy in the Lord may well be measured by the degree of his participation in the sufferings of the Lord.  It is still true that those who pay a great price in suffering to remain true to Christ know a deep measure of this Spirit-wrought joy in their lives.  Perhaps our Christian lives are so lacking in this joy because our Christian profession costs us so little.

D. Edmond Hiebert, The Thessalonian Epistles (Chicago: Moody Press, 1982), 60.