I recently preached a sermon about how God lovingly allows us to suffer for his glory and our good. The text was John 11:1-16, the focal point on suffering arising from the stunning conjunction connecting verses 5 and 6:
- “[5] Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. [6] So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” (John 11:5-6)
Jesus loved them, so he didn’t go for two more days. He didn’t heal Lazarus on the spot. He let Mary and Martha watch their brother Lazarus get sicker and sicker. He allowed Lazarus to die. All out of love.
Why would Jesus do this? He doesn’t leave us to doubt. “This illness is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:4). And later: “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe” (John 11:14-15). Glory and faith. Or more specifically, so that through the death happening he could be displayed as who he truly is, and so that his disciples may grow more in trusting him because of it. For his glory. For their good.
10 Ways God Lovingly Allows Us to Suffer for Our Good
This is a theme we see throughout the Bible: God lovingly allow his people to suffer for his glory and for our good. In my sermon I listed 10 instances I found for this in the New Testament. They are written below. The list is not by any means exhaustive. When I made it, I merely set out to see where I could find in the New Testament the apostles talk about suffering in a way that was for their/our good. Here’s what I found. (Each begins with “God loves you enough…” because of John 11:5-6 where Jesus allowed the suffering because of his love.)
1. God loves you enough to let your body waste away, even with chronic pains and illnesses, in order to lovingly remind you that this is not your home.
Passage: 2 Corinthians 4:16—5:5.
Our outer bodies waste away with illness and disease. And one day, they will fail us and we will die. But this serves to contrast how our inner selves are being renewed day by day, and it points to the day when we will no longer live in this fallen “tent” of a body, but instead in our better heavenly “house” bodies.
2. God loves you enough to allow you to suffer difficult trials in your life, so that your faith in him might be refined and become even more precious.
Passage: 1 Peter 1:6-7
God allows us to undergo trials so that our faith, which is more precious than gold, may be further refined.
3. God loves you enough to sometimes permit you to suffer danger, in order that your self-security may be broken and you may hope more in him.
Passage: 2 Corinthians 1:8-10
Paul says they underwent such affliction that they really believed they were going to die. But “that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God…On him we have set our hope.”
4. God loves you enough to have you suffer his discipline, in order that you may have more righteousness and peace in your life.
Passage: Hebrews 12:3-11
God is our Father and we are his children through Christ. So out of his fatherly love, he disciplines us for our good. Specifically, so that we may have more righteousness and peace.
5. God loves you enough to let you be brought low in difficult circumstances, in order that you may have more contentment in Christ—so that you can learn that in your suffering it is Christ who gives you strength.
Passage: Philippians 4:11-13
The famous “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” is written by Paul in the context of suffering. In whatever situation he found himself, even being brought low, he learned that he could be content in Christ his strengthener.
6. God loves you enough to use suffering to break down your idols, in order that you might not forsake him and instead trust him alone again as your God.
Passage: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Many of the Israelites forsook the Lord in the wilderness. They chose idolatry instead. They complained. They didn’t trust the Lord. God disciplined them because of it. Paul then says that these things took place as an example for us as Christians. (And it’s in this context of temptation to idolatry that the oft-quoted 1 Corinthians 10:13 verse occurs).
7. God loves you enough to let you suffer loneliness, in order that you might sense that when there’s no one else, he stands beside you and strengthens you.
Passage: 2 Timothy 4:9-18
Toward the end of his life, many people had left or deserted Paul. He could even say that at one point “all deserted me.” But because this happened, Paul was able to declare in his loneliness, “But the Lord stood by me to strengthen me.”
8. God loves you enough to cause you to suffer loss—all different types of loss—in order that you may see that Jesus is truly better than anything in the world.
Passage: Philippians 3:2-11
Paul had a lot going for him in his previous life in Judaism. He had a lot of “gain” (“whatever gain I had…”). But at conversion, these insignificant gains merely served to contrast the true gain he found in Christ; they comparatively were losses. But this didn’t merely happen at his conversion. Paul also said such a loss-gain contrast continually happened to him as well: “Indeed, I count [present tense verb] everything as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” and, “I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”
9. God loves you enough to have you suffer weakness, with personal thorns in your flesh, in order that you might see that he is sufficiently strong and gracious in your weakness.
Passage: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
This is perhaps the most famous passage about sufferings directly leading us to trust in Christ’s grace and sufficiency. Paul was given a weakness, a thorn in the flesh (what exactly it was, we don’t know). And despite praying for it to go away, the Lord left it there specifically so that Paul might see that Christ’s grace was sufficient for him in his weakness.
10. God loves you enough, so that one day he’ll let you die—he’ll let you suffer death—so you may be with Christ, which is far better.
Passage: Philippians 1:19-23
Paul is uncertain what will happen in his immediate future. God may let him die, or he may yet live. But if he does die, he knows it will be his departure to Christ, which is “far better.”
Out of all ten of these, this last point particularly makes me well up with tears. I love the idea that God lovingly lets us die so that we may be with him forever. In this way, God letting us die—although truly suffering—is due to his love. (For more on this, see my post “Why Do Christians Die? Because Jesus Loves Us” and my other post “Christian, You Will Never See Death”.)
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