Bob Allen

A Brief Look at what the Bible teaches about Suffering

A Brief Look
at what the Bible teaches about
Suffering

I am not even sure how to begin this teaching but I have no doubt that it is needed in our church at this time.  As I look around and listen to the things we are being confronted with, I hear in the prayer request a great desire to understand what the Bible teaches about suffering. There are very few among us that don’t have people in our lives that are wrestling with this very issue.  It might be someone who is godly, which for me personally is among the most difficult to understand, or a new born or child – which is even harder to understand.  I thought I would approach this from the perspective of sharing some personal observations about suffering.  That could imply that this message might meet you exactly where you live or perhaps where you hurt.  It is very likely that I will not provide a complete treatment on suffering but perhaps what I will share can give you a glimpse at what I have discovered during my life about this issue of what the Bible teaches about suffering in the life of a Christian.

The first question that some might ask is “What gives this guy the right to talk about suffering to fellow believers?”  What does he know about what it means to suffer?  Honestly, that is a fair question to ask, so let me start out by addressing that question.

The first thing I would like to say to answer that question is that the Word of God addresses suffering.  All the truth you and I need for life has been contained within God’s word.  A person doesn’t have to have experience in every situation in life in order to address what God’s Word teaches about that topic.  I don’t have to have experience in the sin of murder before I can tell you that murder is wrong and I can clearly point out where the Bible teaches that.  John MacArthur once was asked to teach on the dangers of pornography.  He told them that he would teach directly from God’s word about the slavery and the evil of pornography, and he wouldn’t have to dive into the subject to learn what God’s Word teaches about it.  If you think deeper about this idea that you need to have experienced something in order to be able to teach about something, then Jesus could never have taught about sin or the need for redemption because Jesus never sinned.  We have come to believe that unless a person has lived through something, they have no authority to address an issue.  This is wrong thinking on our behalf.  The principles we need to live our lives here on this planet are provided by God and God has revealed those to us in the Bible.  The bigger struggle we have is when we refuse (or to say it in a gentler way, we resist) to trust what the Bible has to teach about life and how to live in obedience to God.  We miss out on the truth and the comfort that truth provides.  Now the Word of God is an authority to us believers because we know it to be from God, but for non-believers, they need something else.  That is the second part of this.

The next thing which I would like to mention is that there are things that people have dealt with that has driven them to search out the scriptures regarding that topic or issue. In their own personal confrontation of a particular topic because of the experiences of their life, they have been highly motivated to dive deeper in the Bible (or to find other believers that have walked that path before them) regarding the appropriate attitudes and reactions in order to respond in a godly manner to events in life, and that makes them more helpful to us to live for Christ when life has handed us less than perfect circumstances.  It doesn’t matter what the issue(s), but I am sure that there have been other godly men and women who have faced any issue you or I will ever face.

Whenever you have a struggle understanding anything, if you believe that God holds the key to understanding that trouble, you will begin to search for a solution and you must begin from some central point.  There will be a point of truth that you must set your compass to, your true North, if you hope to figure things out.  To think you can approach anything completely open minded is simply not realistic. So what are the beginning points for believers?  Where do we begin from?  What are the fundamentals to discovery with our most puzzling questions that we have about life?

God exists

I would begin with the most basic – that God exists.  I know that all of us here already are sure that He exists, but if you have ever spoken with someone going through some very difficult times in their life, this is one of the very most basic things that gets shattered by suffering.  Even strongest believers knees begin to buckle when the pain doesn’t quit, when the suffering seems to be without end.  One of the mistakes believers sometimes make is we equate God’s silence with God’s non-existence, or perhaps God’s apathy about our situation.  There are some who might begin to believe that because God has not acted in their lives as they had expected or even prayed, that God is at best, absent and at worst, no longer involved in their world.   I can rarely find the right words when someone, in their pain, questions if there is a God.  Few are brave enough to say it out loud, but what we find is that there is a growing anger towards God and His silence.  Let me tell you something Proverbs tells us: The heart knows its own bitterness, And a stranger does not share its joy.  Proverbs 14:10 People will want to say they know how you feel, but honestly how can they?  We tend to trust those who have been through the same fire, but even then we are alone in our suffering.  If your heart if courageous, you now that God is there with you.  But if your heart is faint, you feel completely alone.

The best I can hope to try and explain to you who might be living there is that although He is not making His presence known, He is always present.  He is present when your best friend, someone who is close to your entire family, decides he doesn’t want to be married any longer to his wife of 20 years.   He is present when you get the news that your Dad passed away during the night and your Mom is in such shock all she can say is at least she’ll have more closet room.  Or your one of your oldest friends tells you that his wife served him divorce papers and there is nothing you can do about it.  Or even if your wife informs you that she has cancerous tumors in her bladder.  He is present when you wake in the middle of the night with a pain that feels like something is trying to pull the lining of your stomach out through a small tube that has been hooked up to your belly through the night, more commonly called peritoneal dialysis.  God exists whether you are beside the cool meadows or in the valley of the shadow of death, He is there, to quote Francis Schaffer. Don’t let God’s silence draw your theology into error.  Know that simple point without any reluctance, without any hesitation, God exists.

God exists and that He acts purposefully

The next point that is critical to remember when you are confronting suffering builds on the first.  God exists and God acts purposefully.  If people can get past the point that God is absent, they might stumble over the argument that things are happening that God has no power over.  They might convince themselves that God is powerless to stop the suffering and the pain that they are experiencing.  This is a hard question because they can’t believe that their Loving God would want anyone to face true suffering.  If there is a purpose in all that we are to endure in this life, then it is certain we need God’s help to discern what it is all about.  Short of God’s revelation to provide us a purpose for our suffering, we will not be able to sort this out.  It is odd to me, that when our oven breaks, we go out on the internet looking for information about how to fix that oven.  I impressed myself by doing just that, took out the controls for the oven, ordered the new part, and then put in the new.  And yes, it works now.  So I know there is a solution to fixing my oven.  But that same person, who would seek out instruction to fix their broken oven by checking out the owner’s manual and the manufacturer’s website, would probably not think to stop and turn to the Creator for information about how to fix their own life.  They might even ask other broken parts what to do – rather than go to someone who can provide true answers.

Ask for Wisdom

The first place I believe we should turn when seeking to understand what God is doing in our lives is to God.  James 1:5.  “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” Finding wisdom means you have to approach the right source.  You will never get good water from a rotten well.  Even doctors, as well trained and excellent as they might be, won’t be able to help you with this.  They might be able to offer some degree of help, but all doctors are just practicing.  I hear that is true for lawyers too, they are practicing Law.  Every once in a while, I’d like to tell doctors to practice on someone else and when they are sure they have right, come back to me.  The principle of getting good water from a good well, implies that you must go the right source.  The right source is God.  Good wisdom comes from God.  Doesn’t mean the world doesn’t have some comfort or help, but it is often mixed in with other things that are not helpful.  I have known people who spend more time wondering what God is doing than praying for wisdom to understand what He is doing.  Trying to figure this out on your own is like swimming to Hawaii.  What does it mean to ask in faith, as mentioned here in James 1?  Hebrews 11:6 has a pretty clear definition of that.  For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Remember the first point.  You must believe God is there.  You must believe God exists. And what is the reward we seek when we come to God when we are suffering?  It is the wisdom to understand the ‘what’ and ‘why’ behind our suffering.  Look also at the image that James brings up when you are seeking knowledge – is it one of sitting by the campfire when all the marshmallows are perfectly toasted? No, it’s one of a storm, standing off to the side, waiting to be drive you and toss you around.  Suffering is that storm, and some storms you really wonder if you will make it through the voyage.

 

What is the Wisdom that God’s Word provides about Suffering?

There are a lot of verses about this, and I am going to look at just a few and if I run out of time, which is bound to happen, I’ll leave you with some other verses to look up.

Psalms 119: 71 – We enlarge out understanding of how God works

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.  There is a deeper understanding of God’s sufficiency that comes to a person who is suffering. I have personally prayed that I could acquire all I can without suffering but I have always known that there are some things that are only learned through the furnaces of life.   When we have been bankrupted of hope, we learn where hope truly lives.  When we are ready to abandon life, we learn how little we control.  And when we feel as though we’re all alone, we realize we are never truly alone.  Some of you have been there and I know this, in fact there could be some of you who are there this morning.   The other night, my son was showing me a verse while we out celebrating our three year anniversary of the operation that prolonged my life – a kidney transplant – and he showed me an interesting passage in Amos.  In chapter 4 of that minor prophet, God declares that He did all kinds of things which included lack of food, lack of water, random rains to one and not another, hot winds and pestilence, and many other things.  And after each difficult event, God states that “Yet, you have not returned to me”.  Refusing to turn to God in the middle of trouble is the response of a cold heart towards God. We are not all inflicted because of sin as was the case in this Old Testament passage.  That is very important to understand.  But we must realize that God has and will continue to use suffering (both internal and external) to mold and guide hearts.  Remember that Jesus Christ suffered but never knew sin.

One of those remarkable things about the believer who walks in God’s grace is that the grace God provides to those who are suffering seems to lighten the load in a remarkable way.  The problems that they are experiencing don’t seem to weigh them down, and often those around them feel them even deeper than the person who is actually going through the suffering.   We actually do carry one another’s burden and this brothers and sisters, is how we do that.  God seems to spread that burden out among many – don’t ask me how.  And as we join in by prayer and concern, we seem to carry one another through these things.  This is one reason why it is so critical that when we are suffering we don’t retreat away from the body of believers.  Can you see now why you cannot pull away in solitude when you are suffering?  If while you are living this Christian life, God has chosen to put through a season of suffering, you need the body of believers to help you carry this burden you are living through.  Even Jesus as He struggled with what was about to arrive to Him, requested that some of His closest friends come away and pray with Him.  Should we try to deal with our own test of faith without one another?  Of course not!  So that is one thing that happens with suffering, you will enlarge your understanding of how God works.  You will enlarge your understand of some of the more mysterious things of the Lord.

 

2 Corinthians 2:3-7 – We have the ability to comfort others.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

This comfort that God provides in my mind, I see two directions that this can be used.  One, is the obvious statement here in the text that there are times we have gone through things so that we can comfort others.  How many us have been comforted by another person’s strength as they confront suffering?  When I watch all that the members of our church live through, I know we have several people who have gone through life’s trouble.  I can look over the church gathered this morning and point them out, but truthfully you all know who they are.  They have walked into that valley of the shadow of death, and in fact might be walking through it now, and have learned to trust our God with all their tomorrows.  They would shrug it off, but all of us are watching.  We are scared that we might not fair as well as they have.  Scared that in our pain we might say or do something that would embarrass us or our God.  Someone is drawing strength from your stand, even if you think no one is noticing.  They are.  And maybe they might come to you and ask you about it, and maybe they might not.  But we know it isn’t easy – and you might think that you are not showing grace in suffering, but I assure you that you are being used of the Lord in your suffering.

The other direction that comes to mind as I read this passage relates to what I shared at the beginning of this message.  I mentioned that as believers, we have an authority that is the Word of God?  And for every believer, that should be the final authority.  The Bible should be our final source of truth.  If the Word of God says it, it is true.  Not a question about it.  There might be some question about the application of any truth, but there is no question about the source of truth.

Have you ever wondered where do people who do not know Christ go to find the answers to life’s difficult questions?  Who are the people who don’t Christ going to look to when they need some example to follow?  They look to those whose lives have already held up under pressure.  They will look to people who lived through anything close to their suffering and will find a possible source of hope for their troubles.  We think we fail because we know what we could be.  We have the example of Christ and living for others and hope that we would live for a higher calling.  I believe just by being aware of how to live, our lives are a better example for it.  When we think we have failed, others see us as succeeding in life’s struggles because they have no idea what to aim for, who to be like, how to live when life gets so very hard.   This is where your testimony becomes so much more powerful than you would ever imagine.  To believers, they are encouraged.  To non-believers, their path towards leaning on God all of a sudden becomes much clearer.  So your suffering becomes a source of comfort to all who what you, as you learn to lean on God and His mercy in times of trouble.

 

 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 – We have the opportunity to learn about the importance of Christ.

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

It has been said that suffering bankrupts us.  Takes away all our reserves and empties our hands to lift them up to God.  It creates in us a greater reliance on God than upon any of our own resources.  However not everyone responses as God would like.  You can take for example the story of the 10 plagues on Egypt as a very clear illustration of God breaking down a culture that had leaned on all gods but the True God.  And when God shattered their belief in those other gods, they still refused to acknowledge Him as the True God.  I have seen lives that have had all the personal strength knocked out of them and they still didn’t want to learn to lean on God.  And I have seen some who have lived through more than I think any person should, and remain steadfast in their faith.  Prior to struggling with my own personal things, I had not really thought about this verse but like many, quoted to myself.  I used to think that God’s grace would get me through anything this world could attack with and I would come out smiling on the other side.  When the thoughts that perhaps my own life might end because of sickness, I came to realize that this verse was telling me, No matter what happens on this earth, all that matters is that I am alive and well in God’s grace.  Rejoice that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  I heard Chuck Swindoll say once, it’s a 100%,  If you are born, you will die.  You don’t know when, but you know you will. However there comes a point where you come to realize that even if you die, you’ll be with God.  Much like our beloved friends in Daniel commented as they were about to be thrown in the fiery furnace.  “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us, but even if He does not, we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image.“   So what suffering does to us is it empties our hands and opens our hearts to the reality of life’s end and the incomparable riches that are ours in Christ.  It helps us to get our priorities in order.   On a milder note, this was the psalmist view about life in Ps 90, when Moses wrote:  “Teach us to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.”

 

2: Corinthians 4:17-18 – We have the opportunity to increase our esteem of heaven and in heaven.

17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

There are many mysteries in God’s kingdom.  Some have been explained to us but not all have.  This verse seems to lay out one of those things I don’t quite understand yet, but I this is another thing that I will have to learn to accept by faith until everything is revealed when the Lord returns.   As Paul writes this passage, there is a clear relationship between the ‘light affliction’ we know here and the glory we will some day know.  Notice how Paul uses the contract between ‘light’ affliction and weight of glory?  Is as if he is able to put them side by side, and compare and even find a role in the suffering we know here.  That God is not only using suffering in this life to mold us and shape us, but He is also using it to prepare us for the glory that will be beyond all comparison.  Have you ever heard the phrase “new money”?  Or the new rich?  There are some who are rich and have no appreciation for what they have – and that might be because their family before them inherited their money.  They have never known poverty, never known hunger, and never been without all the comforts this world can offer.  I don’t want to spend too much trying to help us capture a picture of those people but they are at their very core, ungrateful.

God is raising you and me to carry an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison and the last thing we would want to do is to be ungrateful as He calls on us to do what we will do for all eternity.  So God uses the trouble of this world to shape us for our future role where we will have remarkable things, things we cannot hope to imagine.  Things too marvelous for eyes to see – and in fact, in scripture when others saw what was in heaven, they were often told not to speak of such things.  Because we are aware of the things to come, we try to focus on those things, keeping our hope in Jesus Christ and not on the comfort that this world has to offer.  And there are times when God uses suffering to assist us in our focus.

I have a really stupid garage door.  The reason is simple – my next door neighbor gave me some panels and I hired somebody who I really couldn’t speak to because my Spanish is so poor, to install the thing.   But it doesn’t always go high enough, but rather than pull it down again, I tell myself – remember you will hit your head on the door if you don’t duck going in and out.  Going in I am about 100%, but coming out I’m pretty close to 70% good about remembering.  Because I’m looking for something in that small room, I tend to forget, I tend to lose my focus, and then wham!  You all think I lost my hair, I am pretty sure that I scraped some of it off with the chunks of skin left on that stupid garage door.  The pain of hitting my head reminds me to keep my focus.  God has used pain and difficulty in my life the same way but for more important, more spiritual things than just whacking my head.

So the next time you have been torn apart, tell yourself to remember this so that when you are heaven, you will retain the lessons from this life that shaped you to carry the weight of glory God will give you when you get there.  Even Jesus, suffered.  Hebrews 11 tells us that Jesus endured the cross.  There was no pleasure in the cross for Jesus except the joy of doing the Father’s will.  But He endured the cross, He despised the shame, and then He sat down in glory next to His Father.

 

 

My final word in closing to you who are suffering and struggling at this time.  It comes from a short devotional that I receive daily from John Piper.  In the book of Isaiah, God writes – I have put my Spirit upon him . . . a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench. (Isaiah 42:1–3)  It may between a spark and a fire, but they are related. But there is an infinite difference between a spark and no spark! A mustard seed (of faith) is infinitely closer to moving that mountain than it would be if there is no seed at all.  Open the window of God’s promises and let the Spirit blow into every room of your heart. The Holy Wind of God will not break or quench. He will lift up your head and fan your spark into a flame. He is the Spirit of encouragement.

Some additional resources on this topic

 

  1. Suffering is used to increase our awareness of the sustaining power of God to whom we owe our sustenance (Ps 68:19).
  2. God uses suffering to refine, perfect, strengthen, and keep us from falling (Ps 66:8-9; Heb 2:10).
  3. Suffering allows the life of Christ to be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Cor 4:7-11).
  4. Suffering bankrupts us, making us dependent upon God (2 Cor 12:9).
  5. Suffering teaches us humility (2 Cor 12:7).
  6. Suffering imparts the mind of Christ (Phil 2:1-11).
  7. Suffering teaches us that God is more concerned about character than comfort (Rom 5:3-4; Heb 12:10-11).
  8. Suffering teaches us that the greatest good of the Christian life is not absence of pain, but Christlikeness (2 Cor 4:8-10; Rom 8:28-29).
  9. Suffering can be a chastisement from God for sin and rebellion (Ps 107:17).
  10. Obedience and self-control are from suffering (Heb 5:8; Ps 119:67; Rom 5:1-5; James 1:2-8; Phil 3:10).
  11. Voluntary suffering is one way to demonstrate the love of God (2 Cor 8:1-2, 9).
  12. Suffering is part of the struggle against sin (Heb 12:4-13).
  13. Suffering is part of the struggle against evil men (Ps 27:12; 37:14-15).
  14. Suffering is part of the struggle for the kingdom of God (2 Thess 1:5).
  15. Suffering is part of the struggle for the gospel (2 Tim 2:8-9).
  16. Suffering is part of the struggle against injustice (1 Pet 2:19).
  17. Suffering is part of the struggle for the name of Christ (Acts 5:41; 1 Pet 4:14).
  18. Suffering indicates how the righteous become sharers in Christ’s suffering (2 Cor 1:5; 1 Pet 4:12-13).
  19. Endurance of suffering is given as a cause for reward (2 Cor 4:17; 2 Tim 2:12).
  20. Suffering forces community and the administration of the gifts for the common good (Phil 4:12-15).
  21. Suffering binds Christians together into a common or joint purpose (Rev 1:9).
  22. Suffering produces discernment, knowledge, and teaches us God’s statutes (Ps 119:66-67, 71).
  23. Through suffering God is able to obtain our broken and contrite spirit which He desires (Ps 51:16-17).
  24. Suffering causes us to discipline our minds by making us focus our hope on the grace to be revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 1:6, 13).
  25. God uses suffering to humble us so He can exalt us at the proper time (1 Pet 5:6-7).
  26. Suffering teaches us to number our days so we can present to God a heart of wisdom (Ps 90:7-12).
  27. Suffering is sometimes necessary to win the lost (2 Tim 2:8-10; 4:5-6).
  28. Suffering strengthens and allows us to comfort others who are weak (2 Cor 1:3-11).
  29. Suffering is small compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ (Phil 3:8).
  30. God desires truth in our innermost being and one way He does it is through suffering (Ps 51:6; 119:17).
  31. The equity for suffering will be found in the next life (Ps 58:10-11).
  32. Suffering is always coupled with a greater source of grace (2 Tim 1:7-8; 4:16-18).
  33. Suffering teaches us to give thanks in times of sorrow (1 Thess 5:17; 2 Cor 1:11).
  34. Suffering increases faith (Jer 29:11).
  35. Suffering allows God to manifest His care (Ps 56:8).
  36. Suffering stretches our hope (Job 13:14-15).