God's Will and Suffering

This past week as we are teaching through the Epistle of First Peter we came across what I believe to be one of the most challenging verses for modern Western Christians because somehow we have been taught and believed that we can somehow live a Christian life that won't include suffering. And I know many Christians that when suffering came into their lives, that teaching/belief, led to the shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:19). Some of that has been the result of being Christians in the Western First World (be that North America, Western Europe and/or Australia/New Zealand). We haven't faced a lot of the suffering that is far more common in other parts of the world.

As to those that TEACH this idea, that has come from a radical misunderstanding of God's covenants, taking promises out of the Old Testament that were EXCLUSIVELY and ONLY for Israel as a NATION under the Mosaic Covenant (i.e. Deuteronomy 28:1-14). This is a false teaching and tragically has destroyed the faith of many who have been influenced by it. 

Another error, however, comes from those who teach that sickness is somehow God's perfect will in the life of believers. 

When the New Testament speaks of suffering that is God's will for us as faithful believers, I am not speaking of sickness and disease. Do sickness and disease cause suffering? Absolutely! Can God use that in our lives? 100%. I know many who in the midst of chronic suffering from an illness, disease or injury who have found incredible grace and have drawn near to God in remarkable ways. This reveals that God can redeem anything and bring good out of it. But it wasn't God who sent or willed the sickness/disease/injury in the first place. I know many well-meaning Christians believe this to be the case. I argue that the life of Jesus reveals exactly the opposite. Jesus HEALED the sicked. He RESTORED the crippled/disabled. Never once did He 'impart' a sickness to someone. He didn't 'give' anybody cancer. 

Why do I say, "faithful" believers? Because when we open doors in our lives sin, sickness can be one of the results. I say "can be" because sin doesn't always lead to sickness. However, God's Word teaches us that sickness can be a consequence of sin.

With that all being said, the Apostle Peter speaks however about suffering in the life of a believer being God's will. 

He writes in 1 Peter 3:17 - "For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil."

We live in a fallen world, full of fallen people and BY DEFINITION if we are living for Christ, as Christ lived we will experience suffering - we will be sinned against, we will be betrayed, we will be lied about and mistreated. Jesus was and so will we be. And even though none of the aforementioned "sins" are ever God's will for those people to be committing them, Peter suggests that it is God's will for us to live in the midst of it all.

The Apostle Paul teaches exactly the same thing. He writes in Philippians 1:29 - "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake"

If something has been "granted to" us by God, it means it is His will for us. And what exactly has been granted to us? Suffering for HIS sake!

These are not easy things to unpack and to think Biblically about in the right way. We don't want to attribute to God things that are not from Him (i.e. sickness). Let us not confuse things that are allowed in our lives as being things God has willed. I can think of no better example than the issue of a woman being raped. Does God allow rapes to happen? Obviously, they happen every day in the tens of thousands across the earth. Is rape ever God's will? NEVER. He can and does use even the most heinous evil to bring forth beauty? Yes. That is a testimony of God's incredible goodness and ability to redeem, rather than an expression of something He caused/willed.

To end this blog post, I think it is critical for us who are Christians living in the West to realize that suffering is a part of the Christian life. We are not going to live faithful Christian lives that are somehow "pain-free"! 

If you have been under the influence of the extreme teaching that somehow "if you have faith" you will only be living a life of opulent prosperity, that you will always "be the head and not the tail" (Deut. 28:13), know that you have been lied to! Doe God opulently prosper some of His children today? Undoubtedly. Are some of His disciples the head and never the tail in their endeavors? Sure. But are these guaranteed covenantal promises for New Covenant believers today? NO THEY ARE NOT! That covenant ENDED with the coming of the New Covenant in Christ. 

For such a time as this...