Dr. J. Vernon McGee :: Reasons for Suffering

Why Do God’s Children Suffer?

Reasons for Suffering

Now I want to suggest to you seven reasons why God’s children suffer. You may discover others, but I do think these are comprehensive and cover the field fairly well. But first let me put down another axiom of Scripture: God can prevent His child from suffering. I don’t think anyone would argue that point. The question is, of course, why doesn’t He? Why has not God kept His children from suffering — especially the severe suffering that a great many saints have had to go through?

The First Reason — STUPIDITY

The first reason God’s children suffer is for our own stupidity, our own willfulness, our own selfishness, and our willful ignorance. Many times we try to blame God for this kind of suffering, but it is our fault.

For what glory is it if, when ye are buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. (1 Peter 2:20)

Now the word here for “faults” is the Greek word hamartano, which means to miss the mark. It is a picture of a man with a bow and arrow who is shooting at a target. He comes short of that target, which simply means he misses the mark. Many of us today, because of our willfulness and our stupidity, miss the mark in many judgments that we make. I could enlarge on this, but let me cite a couple of illustrations. Did you ever invest in a wildcat oil well in Texas? If you did, you were stupid! Anyone who would do a thing like that is stupid. Somebody says, “But I knew a man who invested and made a fortune.” Yes, one out of perhaps a million has that happen to him, it’s true. But what chance do you have of being that one? I know a young man who inherited quite a sum of money. He and his wife could have lived comfortably the rest of their lives on what he inherited. But he invested in oil wells and they were all dry holes. He lost a fortune. I have heard his wife say several times, “Why did God let this happen to us?” Well, I don’t think God let it happen to them. I think they were stupid. They missed the mark in their judgments.

Also there are those who get out of the will of God. When I was a pastor in downtown Los Angeles, a man came to me with a real problem. In fact, he had a wife who proved unfaithful to him. He was going to get a divorce. As I was expressing my sympathy to him for his very unfortunate state in life, he said, “It’s my own fault.” And he used the term stupid. He said, “I was stupid. I was a Christian, and at that time I thought I wanted to do God’s will. But before long I drifted out of the will of God. I got into sin and I met this girl who was unsaved. I married her, and I’ve lived in a hell ever since.” Well, he understood. He didn’t blame God for it. Many of us suffer because of our own stupidity.

The Second Reason — A STAND FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

The second reason God’s children suffer is for taking a stand for truth and righteousness. Again I turn to 1 Peter:

But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye; and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. (1 Peter 3:14, 15)

In other words, Peter is saying here that when trouble comes to you because you have taken a stand for righteousness, first be sure you are right and that you have a right relationship with Jesus Christ. Then when you are sure of that, you can take your stand knowing that God will see you through. I know a man who was an official in a very large corporation — its headquarters were in Chicago and he was the western representative. They wanted to give him a promotion and make him one of the vice-presidents. But in that office he would have had to entertain customers by cocktail parties and procuring other forms of entertainment for them. So he refused it. He said, “I am a Christian. I won’t do that.” It cost him the promotion, and he was actually demoted. But he was willing to make that sacrifice. It cost him something to take a stand for righteousness. And I believe, friend, that any Christian who takes a stand for God today will somewhere along the line have to pay a price for it.

The Third Reason — SIN

There is a third reason God’s children suffer. We suffer for sin in our lives. If a child of God commits sin, does he get by with it? The answer, of course, is no. But God says that He will give us an opportunity to judge sin in our lives.

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. (1 Corinthians 11:31)

In other words, when we sin God gives us an opportunity to confess that sin and make it right. If we do that, God will not judge us. But God says in effect, “You are My child and if you commit that sin, I’ll take you to the woodshed — if you won’t deal with it yourself.” And, friend, if He doesn’t take you to the woodshed, you are not His child because He never whips the devil’s children, only His own. If we don’t judge ourselves, then God says, “I will judge you.” And I think that is what John meant when he said there is a sin “unto death” (1 John 5:16), meaning physical death for a child of God. In other words, a child of God can go just so far, he can commit certain sins for which God will take him home, remove him from this life. A child of God cannot get by with sin.

There are two good Bible illustrations of God’s dealing with the sins of His children. In the Old Testament it is David. Now David committed two awful sins; he broke two of the Ten Commandments. Did he, as God’s man, get by with it? Well, he thought he had, and how long he concealed it we do not know. David, I think, came in, sat down on his throne, looked about him at his court, and thought, I wonder if anyone knows. He came to the conclusion that no one knew, so he went on with the state business. There was brought before him the different ones who represented other governments, those with complaints, and so forth. One day there slipped into the group a man who actually was a very fine friend of David’s. He was Nathan the prophet. I think David said, “Hello, Nathan,” not thinking that Nathan knew anything about his hidden sin. And when there was a lull in the business of the court, Nathan said, “I have a little story I’d like to tell you.” You will find this incident recorded in 2 Samuel 12. Nathan told him about two men in his kingdom. One was a very rich man with flocks and herds. The other was a poor man with just one little ewe lamb. He loved that little lamb and had raised it with his children. Then a visitor came to see the rich man and, instead of reaching into his own flock and taking a lamb for the visitor’s dinner, the rich man went over and took the pet lamb that belonged to the poor man and killed it. David, who was redheaded, stood up in anger. (It is interesting how we can always see the fault in the other fellow. We can clearly see the other person’s sin, but it is difficult to see our own!)

David said, “As the LORD liveth, the man who hath done this thing shall surely die” (2 Samuel 12:5). I tell you, that’s righteous indignation on the part of David.

But Nathan, who is the bravest man in the Bible in my opinion, pointed the finger and said, “Thou art the man” (2 Samuel 12:7).

Now David could very easily have denied that he was guilty. He could have just lifted his scepter, and his servants would have taken this man Nathan out and executed him. Nobody would have been the wiser. But that’s not what David did. He bowed his head and confessed, “I have sinned.” You see, David had tried to conceal his sin. Instead of confessing it to God after he had done it, he went on to commit a far greater sin and was attempting to rationalize that. So God took him to the woodshed, and He never took the lash off his back. Very frankly, when I read the story of David, I feel like saying to the Lord, “You’ve whipped him enough!” But David never said that. He went through it without complaining because he wanted the joy of his salvation restored to him (see Psalm 51:12). He wanted to be back in fellowship with God. So David learned that God judges sin in the lives of His children.

Then in the New Testament, in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira illustrate the sin unto death. I believe they were children of God. They lied, but in the early church they could not get by with a lie. Death isn’t the immediate result today, by the way, but because the early church was a holy church, they couldn’t get by with it. God judged them. They committed a sin unto death, and God took them home because God will deal with His own children.

The Fourth Reason — PAST SINS

The fourth way in which God’s children suffer is that we suffer for our past life of sin — sin committed even before we were saved. Now I want to be very careful here because a great many people will say, “But since I came to Christ, doesn’t that mean all my sins are forgiven?” Yes. If you’ve accepted Christ, you will never come before Him for judgment which will affect your salvation. Never! “Well, if I committed a sin before I was saved, do you mean to tell me that I suffer for that?” You surely will. Listen to Paul as he writes to the Galatians:

Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)

What kind of a man is he referring to? A Christian man. Paul is writing to believers. We reap what we sow. This is, I think, applicable to people in any walk of life, whether they are believers or nonbelievers. But Paul is writing to believers, and he says we are going to reap what we sow.

That principle is at work everywhere in the physical world. You sow corn and you reap corn. You sow peanuts; you reap peanuts. You sow cotton and you reap cotton. You plant an orange tree, and you’re going to pick oranges someday. “Whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Saul of Tarsus, a brilliant young Pharisee who hated Jesus and hated Christians, stood one day while men brought their outer garments and put them at his feet. Then he gave the signal to begin the stoning of Stephen. “But,” you say, “Paul was converted on the Damascus Road. God has forgiven him.” He certainly has. Paul is on the way to heaven, you can be sure of that. But, you see, he committed an awful sin. And so on his first missionary journey in Lystra, they dragged him outside of the city, stoned him, and left him for dead. (I believe he was dead, and God raised him from the dead.) But you never hear Paul complain about the stoning. Paul knew that whatever you sow, you reap — he’s the one who wrote these words to the Galatians (see Galatians 6:7-9).

Mel Trotter, who was one of the great evangelists in my generation, held meetings for us when I was a pastor in Nashville, Tennessee. After a service one night, a group of us went over to Candyland. Everyone else ordered a big malt or milkshake, but he ordered a little glass of water. That was all.

Mel Trotter was a converted drunkard and probably sunk as low as any man could sink. He’d even stolen the shoes off the feet of his little dead daughter when she was in her coffin — took them out and hawked them to buy liquor in order to get enough courage to go to the funeral. You just don’t go any lower than that! Yet God saved him, and he had become an outstanding evangelist. So as we were enjoying our malts we began to kid him because he had only a little glass of water. I never shall forget his answer. He said, “When the Lord gave me a new heart, He did not give me a new stomach. I still have the same old stomach that liquor ruined.” May I say to you, “…For whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

This is the reason I feel so sorry for many of these kids who have been on drugs. Many of them are turning to Christ. I have received literally hundreds of letters from ex-hippies who have changed lives. But, as I told one up in the Bay area, “It’s wonderful that you have come to Christ now, but when you begin to get around fifty years of age, you’re going to find out that your body will have to pay for what you went through.” You don’t escape. You cannot escape. God says, “Whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

The Fifth Reason — A HIGH PURPOSE OF GOD

There is a fifth reason why God’s children suffer, and that seems to be some lofty purpose of God that He does not always reveal to the believer. Job is an example of this. I am inclined to believe that Job wrote the book that bears his name, and I wonder if Job was made to suffer, not because there was anything wrong in his life, but because Satan had made a spurious remark, an accusation against him and God. In substance, Satan’s charge was, “Job is serving You only for what he can get out of it. If You let me get to him, I’ll show You. He’ll turn against You. He’ll curse You to Your face!” So God then took down the hedge He had around Job and let Satan move in. And, as this man suffered, he demonstrated that he was no paid lover — Job didn’t love God for what he could get out of it. He was really genuine.

Also God said a strange thing about Paul the apostle when he was converted. He said He was going to make him a missionary to the Gentiles, then He said, “For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). While it is true that Paul suffered for sins in his life before his conversion and he reaped what he had sown, he also suffered immeasurably in his life as a missionary. He details this in his second letter to the Corinthians:

…In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)

He suffered so that no one can say, “Well, nobody has ever suffered as I’ve suffered.” Paul has experienced the limit, friend. You and I never have suffered as much as he has. He is to stand as a witness to that for every child of God.

The Sixth Reason — FAITH

Now we come to the sixth reason Christians suffer. Some believers suffer for their faith in a heroic manner. This is something I noticed for the first time in Hebrews, chapter 11, as I was going through it this time. Notice the following verses:

Who, through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.… (Hebrews 11:33-35)

Here is a group of people who, by faith, gained great victories for God. This is wonderful. And, friend, it is wonderful to be able to say, “I’ve been healed.” No one knows how happy I’ve been to be able to say that. But there are some who haven’t been able to say that. In the middle of verse 35 we are introduced to another company. Notice what we are told about them.

… And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tested, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:35-38)

Now this is a strange thing. We first saw a group of people who by faith escaped the edge of the sword. Then here is another group of people who were slain by the sword, and both acted by faith. Frankly, I don’t even propose to reconcile the two. There are some folk whom God permits to suffer — you have known saints like this. I rather think they are His choice saints. James and Peter, you recall, were arrested by old Herod. Herod took James and put him to death. Peter he put in prison, but God got him out. Is the Lord playing favorites? No, He is not. James could endure martyrdom; Peter could not at that time. Later on he was a martyr also, but not then. He was growing in grace. It is my opinion that God does not permit some Christians to suffer for the simple reason that they can’t take it. God lets one group escape the edge of the sword, and they do it by faith. But I don’t think they had quite as much faith as the other group. I think of the French Huguenots (and when France destroyed the Huguenots, that’s the day the nation started down to become a second-rate nation). The Huguenots went into battle, knowing they would be slain, saying, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” I don’t know that I could have joined their army. I’m a little too flabby for that army. But they were able to do it.

The Seventh Reason — DISCIPLINE

As we come now to the seventh and last reason God’s children suffer, let us read Hebrews 12:6.

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:6)

The word “chasten” is a bit misunderstood because it is interpreted as meaning punishment. Actually it is not that at all. It belongs in an altogether different category. It literally means child training. Our word today for it would be discipline. In other words, God does not have undisciplined children. He disciplines His own, and there are certain lessons He gets through to us by suffering. Therefore we have this matter of discipline. The Judge punishes; the Father chastens. Punishment is for breaking the rules of the Father, as we have seen. God deals that way with His children. But when He chastises, or child trains, He is doing that in love. It does not have the same background as does punishment. However, this does not mean it is not severe and that it does not hurt.

It’s rather like the old chestnut about the father who took his son out to the woodshed for a little discipline. But before the father whipped the boy, he sat down and wept. As he looked up at the boy, he said, “Son, this hurts me more than it does you.” And the son said, “Yes, Dad, but not in the same place.”

Our heavenly Father, I’m confident, is not severe because He takes delight in disciplining us, but He does it for our benefit. Therefore, the writers of Scripture did not show us, as God’s children, how to escape suffering but how to endure suffering. That is the most important thing. There is a worthy purpose and a productive goal to be gained in the chastening or the discipline of the Lord. God uses that method.