“But let us remember that it is a costly thing to follow Jesus.” If a man (or woman) wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, he will be persecuted, wrote the apostle Paul. My wife and I may soon be housing a Christian refugee from Iraq who fled after she converted and her family threatened to kill her. A Christian knows that to trade away Jesus for a life of comfort is a terrible trade. Such people who have born the burden teach us who have known little.
Signing up to be a Christian is signing up for suffering. That is the primary motif.