Suffering: A Sign of God's Favor

For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him,
but also to suffer for His sake (Philippians 1:29).

You may want to reread the title because it’s baffling. We don’t really think of suffering as ever being a good or beneficial thing. Suffering is suffering. Suffering is bad. Pain is bad, right? And yet we read from the apostle Paul about his own suffering and, specifically, that he was able to ask and get a direct answer from God:

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).

The writer of Hebrews makes a similar assessment about suffering:

Consider [Jesus] who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? (Hebrews 12:3–7, quoting Proverbs 3:11)

I believe we’re generally stuck in our thinking about suffering, like Job’s three friends who essentially believed that when we suffer it’s our fault—that only bad things happen to bad people. Job proves otherwise (Job 1:1, 8), as does Jesus, God’s Son. So, we’re adding to suffering unnecessarily by assigning a different motive than what God has assigned.

In his commentary on Philippians 1:29, Ralph P. Martin writes: “There is no accident in [the Philippians’] suffering, nor is it a mark of divine punishment as though God were angry with them. On the contrary, it is a sign of His favour … Not only does suffering for Christ’s sake fulfil the purpose of God for His people in the world, it comes as a gift of His grace” (p. 89). Let’s briefly consider a few passages:

When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:21–22).

We sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain (1 Thessalonians 3:2–5).

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12).

See again that Paul tells us that desiring to live godly is going to elicit persecution! As a Christian living in twenty-first century America, I struggle with these biblical revelations about suffering and glory. I’d simply rather not suffer. There’s the popular sentiment expressed by people who like exercising: “No pain, no gain.” I much prefer the sentiment expressed by people who don’t like exercising: “No pain, no pain.”

By the direction of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul reminds us that:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:16–18).

Growing in Christ is going to necessitate pain in suffering. Again, the word God has given us makes it very clear that there is no glory without suffering. And suffering isn’t punishment from God, but as we read from Philippians 1:29, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”