The Purpose of Suffering

The Misconception

As Jesus left the temple he went to a man that had been born blind. His disciples assumed that He was born blind because he or his parents had done something wrong.

There was and is an erroneous belief called karma that says if you do good then good things will happen to you and if you do bad things then bad things will happen to you. The problem with this belief is that the things you are receiving today are from things you did in a previous life. The problem with this belief is that we only have one life according to Hebrews 9:27

Hebrews 9:27 NASB95

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,

Another belief was that children suffer from the sins of their parents. They believed this based on the passage of scripture in Exodus 20:5

Exodus 20:5 NASB95

“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

This is true when it comes to natural consequences but not consequences of choice. For example, if a mother is an alcoholic and she drinks during the pregnancy, the natural consequences of her decision could be some birth defects. However, when it comes to matters of sin and personal choice it always falls to the individual based on Ezekiel 18:20

Ezekiel 18:20 NASB95

“The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.

This means that we cannot blame our suffering on the way our parents brought us up. We must take responsibility for our own choices. Parents this also means that you do not have to take responsibility for the sins of your kids, especially adult children.

The last misconception that the disciples had was that the blindness was an immediate pouring out of God’s wrath. Basically God is punishing this person because he has done something wrong. It is the same idea that Job’s friends had towards him. I find it interesting that Job was not suffering for something that he had done wrong, but for something he had done right. Suffering is not always attributed to something that we have done wrong.

So the misconceptions about suffering are:

1. You are having to pay for something you have done in a past life (karma)

2. You are paying for the sins of your parents

3. You are being punished for a sin that you have commited.

Reality of Suffering

Jesus corrected the misconceptions of his disciples by telling them that the man’s blindness was for the purpose of God’s glory. Everyone knew that this man had been born blind. No one could help restore his sight until Jesus came on the scene.

Jesus put clay on his eyes and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam and his sight would be restored. It would take faith for this man to do what Jesus told him. He did it and his sight was gained. This man was made whole because of his faith in Jesus. This is how suffering glorifies God.

The three realities of suffering are:

They are used for correcting.

They are used for developing

They are used for glorifying God.

Correction

The Lord will sometimes use suffering to correct a sinful behavior. He doesn’t do it strictly for punitive reasons, but as an act of mercy so we do not continue in our sin. Hebrews 12:6

Hebrews 12:6 NASB95

For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

Hebrews 12:11 NASB95

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Just as we punish our kids when they do something wrong. We do not do it out of meanness but out of love. The love behind the punishment is to limit the pain of the sin. The momentary pain of the spanking is far less than the pain they will experience if they continue doing the wrong thing. It is meant to correct a behavior.

Development

There are other times where God uses suffering to develop us for the calling that he has called us to. In the time that it is happening it doesn’t make sense, but we must have faith that God is using our suffering to develop us for a bigger calling. Also, understand that the suffering we endure will never be greater than the calling for which He is using it for.

The prime example of this is Joseph. God was preparing Joseph to save the world form a famine. In his younger years he was not mature enough for the task God had called him to. As a matter of fact he was a spoiled little brat.

He was favored by his father and flaunted a multicolored coat around his brothers to demonstrate that he was the favorite. He was the family snitch. He would tell his father all the bad things his brothers were doing. Then he had the audacity to tell his brothers that they would bow down to him one day. This caused such a great hatred towards him that his brothers sold him to people that would eventually take him to Egypt.

God blessed him when he got to Egypt and he was head of Potiphor’s household. There he was accused of a crime that he did not commit. This landed him in jail where God taught him how to properly interpret dreams.

God used this so that he could interpret Pharaoh’s dream. When he did this Pharaoh made Joseph second in command over the entire world. Joseph used the interpretation of the dream to save the world from the famine that God sent. It took a lifetime of suffering in order to accomplish the call of God on Joseph’s life. It was well worth it .

God may be using suffering in your life to develop you. I encourage you to have faith and look ahead to what God is going to do through you.

Glorifying God

The greatest means of suffering is for the sake of glorifying God. This mans blindness is a perfect example. This man was known as the blind man and suffered blindness for many years. He gained his sight by faith in Jesus.

This is a message that is being taught even today. His blindness was but for perhaps 18-19 years, but his story is changing millions of lives for over 2000 years and no telling how many more.

The question for us is are we willing to suffer for the glory of God? If their is no benefit to us in this life for our suffering other than we know that somehow God is going to use it for His glory, would we be willing to accept that. Is the glory of God worth our momentary suffering. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

2 Corinthians 4:17–18 NASB95

For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Response to Suffering

Jesus told the disciples that they must work the works of Him who sent Jesus while it is day. Jesus was basically telling the disciples that ministry is but for a season. He would only be there for a short time and that he had to minister to all the people God had called him to minister to.

You will find that Jesus is attracted to those who suffer. When he shows up, radical things happen. We too must be like Jesus. We must be attracted to those who suffer.

This is counter cultural and not what most people do. Many people have the attitude that they are not going to get involved in someone else suffering. They justify it by saying that they have enough problems on their own and that they don’t have the time to minister to someone who is suffering.

Jesus calls us to minister to the suffering. 2 Timothy 4:5

2 Timothy 4:5 NASB95

But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Understand that ministering to the suffering is difficult, but we are called to do it. God will honor your ministry.

John, Volumes 1 & 2 Working the Works of God

In a sermon on this theme, Jonathan Edwards pointed out that whenever a commodity is in short supply, it has a higher value. This is true of time. Edwards asks us to “consider how much time you have lost already.… You ought to mourn and lament over your lost time; … you must apply yourselves the more diligently to improve the remaining part,” since time is short and once it is past, it is gone forever.

The world is filled with needs, but none is greater than its need for salvation. God provided for this need by sending his own Son to die on the cross for our sins. And now he provides by sending his people as witnesses of that gospel, so that many may be saved by trusting in Jesus. Let none of us neglect this calling, through which God’s saving power is displayed in the turning of many hearts to the Lord.

Our world is passing away, and the judgment draws near. We live our lives on the threshold of eternity. Now is the time when our work most greatly counts. In all the millions of years of our eternal life, now is the time when eternal destinies are decided. These are the only years when we have the privilege of glorifying God with tears in our eyes and of ministering his grace to the suffering of others, especially as we preach and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus urges, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.”

Ministering to the suffering could be the gateway that God uses for someones salvation. Are you willing?