What the Bible Teaches About Suffering

No matter our age, gender, socioeconomic status, level of education, religious background, or ethnicity, we all find commonality in the human experience of suffering. Many of us have found ourselves sitting in a counseling room because we’ve inevitably faced some sort of trial in our lives. And yet this isn’t by happenstance that we all experience difficulties from time to time. The very Word of God teaches us to expect suffering in this life. But God doesn’t leave us helpless in our suffering; He sent His Son before us to suffer in our place that we may have hope in our own suffering. The Bible teaches us three points about suffering: 1) We can expect it; 2) It’s not happenstance, it’s orderly and for our good; and 3) We must know what the Bible teaches about suffering to be refined by it.

We can expect to face suffering in this life. 

At times we, even as believers, may be surprised by the trials we face, but Scripture makes clear that we should expect suffering. The Apostle Peter prepares us: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12, ESV, emphasis added). How many of us experience our suffering as “strange” or unusual? When we are not prepared for suffering, it can catch us off guard and feel chaotic. If we are going to suffer well for Christ’s sake, we must learn to expect trials when they come.

Suffering isn’t happenstance; it’s orderly and necessary.

Not only can we expect suffering, but we can also expect it to be purposeful and for our good. The Apostle Peter says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith . . . may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7, ESV). We don’t face trials in our lives simply because we live in a fallen world; they happen because God knows we need them. God hates the brokenness in our lives, but He uses it to teach us about ourselves so that we may become more holy.

We must know what the Bible teaches about suffering to be refined by it.

Suffering produces two different effects on people: either it hardens a person’s heart and makes them callous toward life and others, or it softens their heart and makes them more deeply compassionate. When we don’t believe or seek to understand what the Bible teaches about suffering, we are left ill-prepared and vulnerable to trials; our sufferings consume us rather than refine us. 

For suffering to refine us, we must not only expect suffering and know that God has deemed it necessary and for our good, but we must also remind ourselves that our sufferings are only temporary and to rejoice in the face of them because we hope in the glory to come. 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:13

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5

In his sermon, “How to Handle Trouble,” Tim Keller challenges his listeners that we often want the prosperity Gospel more than we’re willing to admit. We want God to protect us from suffering rather than trust Him in His order of it. Elisabeth Elliot demonstrates to us through her book, Suffering is Never For Nothing, the posture of trust and submission to hold when we face trials: “Whatever is in the cup that God is offering to me, whether it be pain and sorrow and suffering and grief along with the many more joys, I’m willing to take because I trust Him. Because I know that what God wants for me is the very best.” What is our attitude toward suffering? Are we bitter and refuse the cup of suffering that Jesus willingly drank on our behalf? Or will we humbly accept it and trust that it is for our spiritual wholeness?

As we prepare to celebrate Easter, let’s remember that Jesus’s suffering was the cup of the wrath of God, a cup that we fully deserved and yet were mercifully spared from. Through his death, we have the perspective that our own temporary sufferings pale in comparison, and through his resurrection, we as believers have the assurance of our salvation and his future glory.

Written by Brooke Thrasher, Therapist

Resources to check out:

“How to Handle Trouble,” a sermon given by Tim Keller

Suffering is Never for Nothing, a book written by Elisabeth Elliot