Suffering for Christ can impart meaning to unjust criticism and persecution. Those who have no point of reference (e.g. racism) for their suffering can only wonder why it is happening to them. This adds hurt to wounds inflicted by physical aggression and unjust criticisms.
Christians, however, are able to identify unfounded criticism and religious persecution with the sufferings of Jesus on their behalf and so are able to share in what the Apostle Paul calls “the fellowship of his sufferings”. Words can whiplash! Those who have been the target of unjust criticisms identify to a small degree the whipping their Lord received in Pilate’s judgement hall and the awful pain and shameful exposure of public crucifixion.
When we are helpless to defend ourselves, whatever happens to us will only add weight when the scales of justice are brought out and Jesus judges the world with righteousness in the Resurrection. Until then, “the fellowship of his sufferings” draws those who experience it into deeper devotion.
Knowing the Lord and “the power of his resurrection” is incomplete without “the fellowship of his sufferings”; however, being made “conformable unto his death” is entry into a state where they are ‘dead’ to all that this world can do to them and ‘alive’ only to the will of God. What next? A sudden rise to the prize at the Lord’s return, when all unjust criticism and suffering will prove God’s purpose to have been well worth it all!