What Are God’s Purposes In Allowing Suffering?

What is the purpose of God for allowing suffering and evil in the world?  Yes, God suffers with us and for us. Yes, on the cross, Jesus bore all of the sin of humanity. But, does God bring about positive benefits through suffering? In approaching this question, it is important to keep in mind that Christianity addresses this problem of suffering more comprehensively than any other belief system. As Tim Keller explain: 

For God has purposed to defeat evil so exhaustively on the cross that all the ravages of evil will someday be undone and we, despite participating in it so deeply, will be saved. God is accomplishing this not in spite of suffering, agony, and loss but through it—it is through the suffering of God that the suffering of humankind will eventually be overcome and undone.

The message of the Christian faith is that God is accomplishing his purposes through suffering. What could this be? There is an expression (turned into a popular song), “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” In this article, we will examine several ways God allows suffering and pain to bring about a greater good.

What Doesn’t Kill You…

How does suffering, then, make us stronger?  The Bible gives some clear answers to this. This understanding is born out repeatedly in scripture. Here are some notable examples:

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  

Romans 5:3-4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 

James 1:2-4

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 

2 Corinthians 4:17

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.

Psalm 119:67

The biblical witness is clear, pain and suffering can have a sanctifying process, shaping us more into the character of Christ. Charles Dickens once wrote, “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching…I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.”

No Pain, No Gain

Suffering Draws Us Near to God 

God permits pain and suffering because it challenges people to think about God, maybe for even the first time. For many people, the first prayers or thoughts of God came as the result of tragedy. C.S. Lewis described pain as God’s megaphone. “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains.  It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Pain is God’s way of getting the attention of people in a noncoercive way so that they might let go of the vanities or destructive habits of this life, consider spiritual things, and perhaps even repent of sin. Pain, in many cases, is a severe mercy which calls people away from destructive behaviors and toward God and his purposes.

Musician David Crowder in his song, How He Loves Us, speaks to this point:

All of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory. And I realize just how beautiful you are and great your affections are for me.

The Psalm writer expresses it this way:

“You changed my mourning into dancing; you took off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.”

Psalm 30:11

Suffering Draws Us to Maturity 

Jonathan Haidt, a prominent psychologist at New York University, maintains that there is clear psychological evidence for the view that “people need adversity, setbacks…to reach the highest levels of strength, fulfillment, and personal development.”  He points out why this is seen in two ways. First, people who endure and come out on the other side of suffering become more resilient. Once they have learned to cope, they know they can do it again and live life with less anxiety. Second, it strengthens relationships, usually bonding those who suffer and struggle together more tightly into deeper friendships or family ties that serve to nurture and strengthen for years.

In the face of pain and adversity, the best human characteristics are developed. Here are some examples:

• There is no courage without danger.
• There is no sympathy without suffering.
• There is no forgiveness without sin.
• There is no compassion without loss or hurt.
• There is no patience without adversity.

Suffering Draws Us Near to Each Other 

God may permit suffering because it provides humans with the motivation and opportunity to care for one another and build better societies and communities. A world such as ours requires human beings to cooperate and peacefully co-exist in order to successfully respond to its challenges. God has provided us with a world that provokes us to improve our situation and advance in our care for one another. One example is seen in the improvements of medicine and sanitation. The list of medical and technological breakthroughs which prolong life and enhance the quality of human existence is stunningly remarkable:

• antibiotics
• vaccines (e.g. Polio)
• organ transplants
• anesthetics
• insulin
• sewage disposal
• water treatment
• surgical technologies

Because of advances in areas like medicine and sanitation the life expectancy of people, in countries where these are provided, has nearly doubled over the last 200 years.

Why Even Have This Kind of World?

Why a world with evil?

We sought to answer this question in the previous article. Here is another way to think about this. Imagine if God intervened at every moment anyone was going to make a wrong choice. Free will would no longer exist. If God waved his magic wand every time we made a bad choice, we would merely be puppets controlled by a puppeteer who overruled our thoughts and actions. Would we want to live in such a world, even if it meant we were insulated from suffering? Could we even speak of concepts such as ‘love’ without it being something freely given, and freely rejected? At best, we would be reduced to pets where our choices and capabilities had very limited influence or meaning.

What about a world of suffering?

The critic of Christianity will be quick to reply, “That may be. But there is also much suffering that exists in the world which isn’t a result of our own actions.” This includes natural disasters, disease and illness. In answer to this, scientist-theologian John Polkinghorne suggests that God has created a universe with particular natural laws that make life on earth possible so that humans with free will can exist in the first place. As an example, the same weather systems that create tornadoes that kill humans also create thunderstorms that provide our environment with the water needed for human existence. The same plate tectonics that kill humans (in earthquakes) are necessary for regulation of soils and surface temperatures needed for human existence. Because of the Fall of humanity (Genesis 3), the natural laws that operate are both a blessing and a curse. Christian thinker, Justin Brierly writes,

Tectonic plate activity renews the surface of the earth with minerals, yet wreaks havoc when humans build cities on the fault lines. Cell replication allows our bodies to grow and develop, yet can result in cancer when natural processes misfire.

Death has been introduced into the life cycle, yet it is our “last enemy” which will be defeated. (1 Corinthians 15:26)

Final Thoughts

Exercise compassion in suffering.

In approaching this topic a word of caution is definitely needed. In the very personal face of pain and suffering, we do not want to exercise a hurtful insensitivity like Job experienced with his friends. That means avoiding simple conclusions to what is often very complex realities to which only God fully understands. The wisest course of action when someone is in pain or suffering is to “weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15)  We do not want to play God in people’s lives but to provide his compassion and grace.

Exercise humility with the limits of our knowledge.

The apostle Paul, with the unmatched revelation and knowledge he had been given into the mysteries revealed in Christ, expressed these words, showing our need for humility and worship when it comes to the limits of our knowledge:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36) 

Though there is much we can say on the issue of why God has allowed evil and suffering, as Paul said in another place: “All that I know now is partial and incomplete.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)