READING • HEBREWS 12
A difficult question
Suffering can touch anyone. Illness, disability, bereavement, violence, disaster and disappointment often raise the question, “Why does God allow this?” The Bible does not give one simple explanation for every individual case, but it gives principles that help us face suffering with faith rather than superstition or despair.
Why is there suffering?
The source lesson begins with the reality that human life is now mortal and difficult. Genesis 3 describes the consequences that followed human disobedience in Eden. From that point onward, pain, toil and death became part of ordinary human experience.
A SOURCE OF SUFFERING
WHAT THE BIBLE HELPS US TO SEE
Human mortality
We live in mortal bodies in a world where sickness, ageing and death occur. Not every illness is a special punishment for a particular sin.
Human cruelty and wrong choices
Much suffering is caused by violence, oppression, neglect, selfishness and the consequences of decisions made by individuals, communities or governments.
The natural world
Earthquakes, storms, droughts, floods and other physical events affect human beings without selecting only the wicked. Life takes place within an ordered creation governed by consistent natural processes.
Disaster is not proof of greater guilt
Jesus directly rejected the idea that people who suffer a disaster must therefore be worse sinners than those who escape it. When eighteen people died after the tower in Siloam fell, he did not tell his hearers to speculate about the victims. He turned the warning back upon everyone who was still alive.
“Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
Luke 13:4–5, KJV
Suffering is not always punishment
The same principle appears when Jesus met a man who had been blind from birth. The disciples asked whose sin had caused the blindness. Jesus refused the simple choice they offered him.
“Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”
John 9:3, KJV
Jesus was not saying that the man or his parents had never committed any sin. He was rejecting the assumption that this particular disability could be explained as the direct punishment of one particular person’s wrongdoing.
Do not turn suffering into accusation
When another person is ill, bereaved or in distress, a disciple should not assume, “God must be punishing you.” Jesus warns us against that kind of reasoning. Our first response should be compassion, practical help, prayer and humility.
Can God use trials to train us?
Yes. Hebrews 12 uses the language of a loving Father who disciplines His children. The purpose is not cruelty, but spiritual growth. The passage quotes Proverbs 3 and urges believers neither to despise the Lord’s chastening nor to give up under it.
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
Hebrews 12:11, KJV
We should, however, be careful with this teaching. Hebrews 12 shows that God can use hardship in the spiritual education of His children; it does not give us permission to label every illness, accident or bereavement as a direct act of punishment or chastening. Often we simply do not know why a particular event has happened.
Faith can be refined through trial
Peter compared tested faith with gold tried in fire. Trials are painful, but a disciple can emerge from them with deeper trust, clearer priorities and a stronger hope in the return of Jesus.
“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
1 Peter 1:7, KJV
Paul: strength discovered in weakness
Paul knew prolonged suffering. In 2 Corinthians 12 he describes a “thorn in the flesh”. The Bible does not tell us exactly what this was, so we should not pretend to know. It was distressing enough that Paul asked the Lord three times for it to depart.
The answer was not the removal of the problem. Instead Paul received a promise that changed the way he understood his weakness:
“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9, KJV
Paul did not pretend that weakness was pleasant. He learned that God’s purpose could continue even when the difficulty remained. The lesson for us is not that we should enjoy suffering, but that suffering does not make faithful service impossible.
WHEN TROUBLE COMES
A FAITHFUL RESPONSE
We do not understand why
Pray honestly. God does not require us to pretend that pain is easy or that we understand everything.
The problem does not quickly disappear
Remember Paul. An unanswered request is not proof that God has stopped caring.
We feel weak
Depend less upon our own strength and more upon God’s grace, His Word and the help of the brotherhood.
We become discouraged
Keep the future hope before us. Present suffering is not the whole story of a disciple’s life.
Someone else suffers
Listen, help and comfort. Do not make confident claims about God’s reason for another person’s pain.
The examples of faithful men and women
The source lesson points to Job, Abraham, Joseph, Elijah, Daniel and Jeremiah. Their trials were very different, but each learned that faith is not proved only when life is easy. Hebrews 11 records believers who trusted God without receiving every promised blessing in their lifetime.
Faith is not denial
Biblical faith does not mean calling pain pleasant, hiding grief, or refusing help. It means continuing to trust God when circumstances are painful and when some questions remain unanswered.
Jesus learned obedience through suffering
The strongest example is the Lord Jesus Christ. He shared mortal human experience, knew hunger, weariness, rejection, grief, temptation and pain, and finally suffered death. The writer to the Hebrews says that his experience qualified him perfectly for the work God gave him to do.
“For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
Hebrews 2:10, KJV
The words “perfect through sufferings” do not mean that Jesus had been morally imperfect. He was sinless. The point is that his experience was brought to completion: by faithfully enduring suffering he became fully fitted for his saving work and for his role as a merciful High Priest.
“For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.”
Hebrews 2:18, KJV
Hebrews also says that although Jesus was God’s Son, “yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). He never learned obedience by first being disobedient; rather, obedience was lived out and proved under increasingly severe tests.
God is not indifferent to suffering
The Bible does not present God as distant from human pain. His saving purpose centres upon His giving of His Son. Jesus was not rescued from every hardship; he was strengthened to remain obedient through them. The resurrection then showed that suffering and death would not have the final word.
For a disciple, this changes the question. We may still ask, “Why has this happened?” but we also learn to ask, “How can I remain faithful in it? What can this teach me? How can I help someone else? How does the hope of resurrection change the way I face this?”
Suffering and the hope of the Kingdom
Christian hope is not that every present difficulty will disappear immediately. The Bible points forward to the return of Jesus, resurrection, judgement and the final removal of death and sorrow from God’s completed purpose. That future does not make present pain unreal, but it gives suffering a limit and gives the disciple a reason not to despair.
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Romans 8:18, KJV
How should we live when suffering comes?
A DISCIPLE CAN…
WHY IT MATTERS
Pray
Bring fear, grief, confusion and need honestly before God. Prayer is not limited to moments when we already know the answer.
Read and remember
Let Scripture steady the mind, especially passages that reveal God’s character, Christ’s example and the hope of the Kingdom.
Accept help
God often cares for His children through other people. Receiving help is not failure.
Remain compassionate
Our own trials can make us more understanding and more ready to comfort others.
Avoid superstition
Do not assume that every accident, illness or disaster identifies who is good or bad in God’s sight.
Keep the future in view
The disciple’s hope reaches beyond present circumstances to resurrection and life in God’s Kingdom.
When someone else is suffering
The most useful response is usually not a theory about why the suffering happened. Job’s friends became less helpful when they insisted that they knew the explanation for his troubles. A disciple should be ready to listen, pray, visit, give practical help and remain present when the difficulty lasts longer than expected.
What have we learned?
1. Suffering is part of mortal human life, and much suffering is also caused by human sin, cruelty, neglect and wrong choices.
2. Jesus rejected the idea that every disaster or disability proves greater personal guilt.
3. God can use trials in the spiritual training of His children, but Scripture does not allow us to explain every individual hardship as direct punishment.
4. Paul learned that God’s grace could sustain him even when his “thorn in the flesh” was not removed.
5. Jesus himself suffered and was perfectly fitted through that experience to help those who are tempted and tried.
6. The disciple responds to suffering with prayer, faith, compassion, endurance and the hope of resurrection and God’s Kingdom.
Passages to read
Luke 13:1–5 • John 9:1–7 • Hebrews 12:1–13 • 2 Corinthians 12:7–10 • 1 Peter 1:3–9 • Romans 8:18–39
VERSE TO LEARN • 2 CORINTHIANS 12:9
“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
CHRISTADELPHIAN BIBLE MISSION • 5
CHRISTADELPHIAN BIBLE MISSION • 1