If God Was Loving, There Wouldn't Be Suffering

James 1:12-16

Introduction

 When misfortune strikes, we tend to look for something or someone else to blame. Tragedy is often mindless and mind-numbing. When moments like these come, so too do tough questions. When those tough questions come, we must have answers and the correct ones. One question that comes often is if God is so loving why does suffering exist. If we don’t understand important issues like why suffering and evil exist or have an incorrect theology, then to the Lost our faith seems pointless. Internally, the fabric of our faith can unravel. We need to have faith and believe, but we also must understand our faith and why we believe.

Why is there suffering and evil? If God is loving, why is there suffering? It is a legitimate question that needs answers. Skeptics, critics, and even Christians wonder why suffering exists. What kind of God would allow senseless bombings, natural disasters, and loss of human life? Why would He allow seemingly pointless suffering? How loving is God to allow terrorism, murder, wild fires, and hurricanes? Did He really create terrorists, warmongers, and people who just seem evil? The question is, if God is so loving and such a wonderful God, did He create evil, and why does He allow suffering? In fact, how can God be loving and perfect as the Bible describes Him, yet there exists suffering and evil? Today we will examine the source of our suffering and what God has done in response.

James 1:12–16 ESV

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Scriptural Analysis

V12

The guiding principle of James' book is that obedience through love is the nature of a right relationship with God. Having the trial is not a blessing in itself, but those who stand firm find God's blessing. The crown of life did not refer to the ornament of a ruler but to a garland wreath given to the victor in an athletic contest. God’s reward to us for faithfully enduring trials is not a position of royalty over others. Rather, it is recognition from God. The crown is not a physical object but a spiritual privilege that gives a deeper, fuller life on earth and an unending, joyous life in the world to come. Enduring trials for his glory shows that we love God. When you face trials and temptations, if you stay close to the Lord, you will hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and you will receive the crown of life specifically reserved for those who don’t walk away from Him in trials or temptations.

V13-14

Now James intentionally moves from trials to temptations. James contributed one of the most penetrating discussions of the nature of temptation in the whole Bible. “Is God tempting me?” is a very real concern for every generation. The context of the word “tempt” connotes a provocation to sin.  People can view trials as a provocation to sin. What they have failed to understand is the truth about humanity. This is why the phrase “no one should say” is important for the problem James now addresses. 

James strongly denies that God is the origin of temptation, for “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” No evil can have its way with God. He is immune to any of its provocations. It is a flat error to regard any testing as a temptation to sin, and it is a flat error to think that temptations, like trials, can come from God. Temptation to sin is the operation of evil forces outside of God. 

The Gospel account of Jesus’ terrifying retort to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” starkly illuminates the source of temptation. Peter, whose assertion that Jesus did not allow himself to be attacked, was regarded by Jesus as an evil tempter. But then Jesus added a clarifying and stunning statement: “You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”  James knows the origin of temptation and is giving us a stern warning about blaming God with responsibility for temptation. It is not God, nor is it Satan alone.

It is instead a personal desire born of self-interest that renders us susceptible to sin. We may wrongly seek to blame others, Satan, or even God, but ultimately, we are morally responsible for our sins. 

James contrasts trials and temptations to sin by saying a trial of our faith is to prove the faithfulness of God. It is never a temptation or a test of sin. Sin is man's own doing. Israel had done this many times in the Old Testament. Every time they faced suffering, they blamed God, doubting his will and ability to help them. These Christians, James writes to, must not make the same mistakes Israel did. God does not tempt anyone. God does not wish evil on others; he does not cause evil; he does not test in the sense that he tries to trip someone up. The cause of one’s failure does not lie in God.  

We are our own cause of temptation. The source of all temptation is ourselves and our desires. We entice ourselves with the objects we desire. The blame for temptation then can never rest upon God but entirely upon us. All temptation and, therefore, all sin originates within us.

V15

James then uses the image of conception and birth to drive home the point that temptation and sin come from within. All sinful actions start as little embryos in the heart. What this is saying is very important if you think about it. All of your resentments, the internal clashes, and all of your anxieties come from within yourself. It started with an internal conception, which led to the birth of sin. Conception means something inside that’ll eventually come out. You might punch somebody in the mouth. You might harm them. You might kill them, but it starts with the conception of anger in your heart that will give birth later to the sin. And sin, when matured and fully functioning in the human heart, will lead to death. James has seen a truth that Jesus proclaimed in Mark 7, “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” 

V16

James wraps this up by saying, don't be deceived, my dear brothers. To be deceived about one of these items is to be deceived about them all. Yes, God will test you and allow trials to come your way, but the temptation to sin is completely the responsibility of you, each person. Don't doubt God's goodness, nor should you believe you're the innocent victim. God is good, and we are sinners.

TODAY'S KEY TRUTH

While Our sin is the root of all pain and brokenness, God's love is the remedy that restores.

Application

There’s only one cause of our sin, and that is we want to sin. Nobody makes you sin. No conditions make you sin. You only do it because you desire it. That’s very important in our modern day and in our culture to know that. James says you must not make the mistake of confusing the cause of your sin: it's you.

We live in a secular world. What does the secular worldview say? “This life is all there is. This world is all there is.” Do you know what that means? “If you lose love here, if you lose happiness here, if you lose anything here, there is no consolation.” In other words, if you lose something, it is gone for good. So our culture says in response, “If you suffer, you need to sue because suffering is not the way it should be. Somebody has messed up, and it can’t be you.” Our culture believes that life is only supposed to be good. Everything has to be good because this world is all there is. What it means is this culture does not prepare you for suffering at all. It “dis-equips” you for suffering. Therefore, hearing what James says about sin and suffering is vitally important.

The way sin works is not that we want bad things. The way sin works, the essence of sin, is not that we want bad things, but we want things too badly. Sin finds its roots in our over-desire. James tells us it’s your over-desires that seduce you. This is powerful theological imagery. In the Old Testament, God tells us he never sees sin as just breaking the rules. He sees it as spiritual adultery, not just breaking the rules. He says people sin because they are enticed away into the arms of other "lovers." According to James, that’s what an over-desire is; it's a fatal attraction. Our desire for something "more" than we want Jesus is where we go off the rails.

Sin begins when something becomes your love rather than God. Something else becomes the author of your self-esteem. Something else becomes the source of your value. It’s okay to want to work or have a career, but when the career becomes the way you feel good about yourself and the way you feel happy about life, it becomes a fatal attraction. You go after it. You need to have it. You have to have it. The Bible says that’s spiritual adultery. That’s how sin starts. What’s wrong with career? Nothing but an over-desire for a career is seduction to sin. The Bible says sin always begins like that, it's something you add to Jesus as a requirement for being joyful.

Your over-desires entice you, seduce you, then what happens? Conception, which leads to the birth of sin, sin produces suffering, which eventually grows to be death. What this is saying is very important if you think about it. All of your resentments, the internal anger, and all of your anxieties come from your over-desires.

Why are you so bitter about certain things? Because something you think you have to have has been taken from you. That’s why you’re so angry about it. Why are you so anxious? Why are you so afraid? Why are you tempted to lie? Because you crave for something else more than you do Jesus, and it's being denied to you, and so you sin in an attempt to fulfill your desire. Then that sin leads to destruction and death, which also leads to evil and suffering—starting to see how this works?

While our sin is the root of all pain and brokenness, God's love is the remedy that restores.

Conclusion

To trace the origin of evil and suffering, we have to go back to the creation of the universe. In the book of Genesis, when God finished His creation, including humanity, He said it was …good. The act of creation was complete in every way. So God has finished with creation, yet no suffering or evil exists. Where did it come from? God did not create evil. Evil, sin is the perversion of something good.

God said that we, humanity, were good and complete. For our creation to be complete, one thing that God had to include in us was the ability to choose what we desire. That is what is meant by image bearing. God desired a true and full love relationship with us. For that type of true love relationship to exist, then choice had to be a part of the equation. We were designed to desire God above all else. True love is based upon choice, not coercion. If God made us love Him, it would not be a genuine love relationship. For a relationship to be complete, both parties must be free to choose to love or reject each other. God gave us a choice so that our relationship with Him would be complete and a true love relationship.

Well, with that ability to choose which desires to pursue comes the possibility of true love and good, but also the possibility of hate and evil. If we had the choice of love, acceptance, and goodness, then we could choose hatred, rejection, and evil. God made evil possible when He gave us a choice. But we make evil actual by our choices and selfish desires. The difference is God is righteous and desires a relationship with us, but we choose to reject God, act selfishly, and cause suffering. Though God made the possibility, we made it a reality.

While our sin is the root of all pain and brokenness, God's love is the remedy that restores.

Now, if I had landed and ended here, we would have felt like Isaiah did when he dressed in sackcloth, sat in ashes, and mourned over his sin. And truthfully, we should mourn our sins. We don't mourn our sins enough. But even when we mourn our sin, we can still land and end in the joy, hope, and excitement of God's grace as God took Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf. The beauty of God’s love is that God’s love is LIMITLESS. There is no chance of God’s love running out. There is enough to go around for everyone.

Remember a few years ago, when gas was not so plentiful, and we had to go to the gas station all over town to find gas? That will never happen with God’s love. God’s love tanks are always full and ready to be dispensed to those who will accept it, and we don’t have to take turns getting into it. The beauty of God’s love is that God’s grace is available to all. No one is left out. God doesn’t issue grace to only a select few. Grace and love are for us all.

C.S. Lewis: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” So, why does God allow bad things to happen? Is it because he is not loving? We know and can see at least some of why he allows it. He’s given us the ability to choose, and we, more often than not, choose sin. He allows it because we are created in His image, and we can choose.

But what does he do about it? He works through it, and He loves us through it. God has taken steps to keep evil from completely taking over. He has put some things in place, such as government, moral standards, marriage, the traditional family, and the church in the world, to help stem the tide of our sin and evil.

Yet the more those things, He loved us by sending Jesus to restore us. Who knew the price of sin more than Jesus himself? Was it not loving that God sent him to pay the price for us? Of course, it was loving! It was the greatest act of love ever known. He is there with us in our lowest places because He went to the lowest place to love us.

British Pastor John R.W. Stott admitted that suffering and bad things happening is “the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith.” Struggling with this, Stott reached his own conclusion, saying,

“I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross…. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha. His legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing around his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time, after a while, I have to turn away. And in imagination, I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through his hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our suffering becomes more manageable in light of his.”

While our sin is the root of all pain and brokenness, God's love is the remedy that restores.

God’s love is unfailing, even in the midst of our sin and suffering. Though we fall short, His mercy surpasses our failures, offering grace and love through Christ. In our pain, He is our comfort; in our brokenness, He brings healing. His love is not earned but freely given, demonstrated on the cross where Jesus bore our sins. No suffering is too great for His compassion, and no sin is too big for His forgiveness. No matter what, God’s love is greater than your past or present sin. His love endures forever, and His love is the remedy that restores.

While our sin is the root of all pain and brokenness, God's love is the remedy that restores.