The problem of pain, it has been called. There are some people who refuse to believe in Jesus, who refuse to believe in God because of the problem of pain, or maybe a better word is “suffering”. The thought goes, if there is God, and He is good, then how can there be suffering? How can a good God allow people to suffer? Either God is not good, or He is not powerful, or He does not exist. And what is the point of believing in a God who is not good, or one that is not powerful, so some folks refuse to believe in God because of suffering, either their own or a general view of watching good people starve in Africa, or be shot in the inner city or whatever. Americans, in general, have a tendency to deny suffering and pain. People suffering are to either be avoided or to be solved.
There is another way to look at the situation. I think God understands suffering, and He is with us as we suffer, as we go through pain. God uses suffering. This was never an issue for ancient Israelites; people suffer. It was a fact of life. It really has only been the last several hundred years that suffering has become a theological issue. Suffering just always has been. When the world is fallen, and people are evil; others suffer. There is no easy answer; just that people have always suffered. Since Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, life has been hard. Now suffering is never fun, but it does, as much as I hate to say it, have some positive aspects.
In fact, I have a feeling of unease when I am around people who I know haven’t suffered at all; like they really don’t understand the world, they don’t understand how God is with us in suffering, like they haven’t matured. I was chatting with a friend recently who said they hadn’t had to struggle, hadn’t had to suffer. Never had to look for a job, never had to struggle for a grade, never had to experience being dumped romantically. And for some reason that made me nervous; like they don’t really understand how the world is, and at the first sign of pain or the first roadblock they will stop doing what they know to be right.
The text today is about suffering and the problem of pain, and our attitude toward suffering. 1 Philippians 1:12-20
Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, 13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, 14 and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. 15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; 16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice. 19 For I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
As you remember, we are going through Philippians. This is perhaps Paul’s most enthusiastic letter to a congregation he has planted. He encourages them, rather than berating them. They are on the right track, rejoicing in Christ, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to their friends and neighbors rather than being distracted by theological misunderstandings or distracted by situations in the church that should not be tolerated. Paul is writing this letter as he sits in jail, in chains, awaiting an audience before Caesar that will either vindicate him, or end his life. Paul has struggled in his life, struggled to communicate the gospel to his own people, the Jews, and struggled in a multicultural society to proclaim the singular truth that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God, and only through Him does anyone have salvation. The people back then weren’t interested in truth necessarily, they were interested in experiences or new thoughts. That someone would claim to have the truth was fascinating, and often off-putting. I am reminded of Pilate when he asked Jesus, “What is truth?” without expecting an answer.
It is fascinating to read Paul, the great man of God, the evangelist who took the gospel out of the Jews and to the rest of us. It is fascinating to read his words knowing his circumstances. And I think his words can give us a good grasp on how to view suffering. You know, in Eastern religions like Bhuddism or Hinduism, suffering is only viewed negatively. Suffering is only evil, something to be avoided at all costs. And I would agree with that a little, I don’t like suffering either. I don’t think anyone likes suffering. It was no fun sitting there in chains, in a jail cell with other prisoners, awaiting the pleasure of the Caesar to hear one’s case. But Paul writes this:
Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, 13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, 14 and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.
Paul sees the good in his suffering first of all. His suffering is of secondary importance to the furtherance of the gospel. Paul’s purpose in life, telling people about Jesus, comes first. His own circumstances are less important. His imprisonment has spread the gospel to both the praetorian guard and to everyone else; the other prisoners and so forth. They know Paul was not imprisoned for committing a crime; but rather because of his teachings. Curious, I’m sure, everyone wants to know what this teaching is that can get someone thrown in jail. So what was intended, to silence Paul, to get him to stop his teachings, completely failed. In fact, the Roman guards were being exposed to the gospel, which must have been a hard sect within society to break into and proclaim Christ. Paul’s suffering, his imprisonment, has been useful to Christ and his kingdom. We too want our suffering to mean something. We don’t want our pain to be without meaning, without hope. Our hope and strength in Jesus in a time of suffering testifies to Christ.
Even more, sometimes our suffering, like Paul’s, causes other people to proclaim Jesus more freely, more powerfully. You see, suffering causes us to change and mature. It causes changes in us people can see, changes that are good. Romans 5 tells us, “And not only that, but we boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Suffering changes us, for the better. Many people try to take shortcuts to maturity, myself included. I’d rather not suffer to learn the lesson God would have me learn; I’d rather not suffer period. But there is no substitute for suffering, and our reaction to it matters. I think many of us are not used to suffering. We are used to getting our way, getting things done in our way, and in our time. We are not used to the suffering of waiting, not used to the suffering of loss, not used to the suffering of separation. We are not used to the suffering of failure, to the suffering of confinement, like Paul was.
But that suffering produces qualities in us that God can use. I am not saying God creates suffering. God doesn’t need to. There is enough suffering already in this world, from the way we treat each other, and others treat us, to the suffering produced by a world stained by sin and distance from God, that God does not need to create suffering for us. The good news is the God uses our suffering to change us into His image further and further. God uses tough times to bring us closer to Him, and to make us more useful for His kingdom on earth. And while that may be hard to hear, I think it is great news that God takes the suffering that we will undergo as human beings and can use it to make us better people, more Christ-like, more and better able to love others into the kingdom of God.
We suffer often because God created us with free will. God created us to love Him, but that always is a choice. Real love, of God or of others, is both a choice and a commitment. Tyrannical leaders throughout history have tried to force their people to love them, but real love, real devotion is a choice humans have. Some people, obviously, choose to follow themselves, to worship themselves, rather than God. But God gives humans that option. He gives us free will. And some people, like the Jewish leaders persecuting Paul in this story, like evil people all over the world, are free to do evil things because that is the choice God gave humanity. This is hard to accept because we fundamentally want to believe people are good and okay. But they aren’t. We aren’t. We aren’t fundamentally good people. We are fundamentally fallen and flawed people in whom there is some good remaining; the broken image of the Almighty. Remember, we were created in the image of God.
So much of what we see in society that is wrong is simply free will run amuck. The music videos I occasionally see use sex to sell the music. It is wrong, but it is an example of free will. The person who caused my family great pain in causing my mom to lose her job could do that evil thing because he had the free will to do that thing. If we aren’t free to do evil, then we aren’t free. And God wants us to be free to love Him. God does not want mindless beasts to worship Him. God desires real love, love that only beings with free will can ever have. The flip side is that freedom implies the choice to hurt others, hurt ourselves. It implies the awful choices people make, to kill others, to torture others, to abuse the authority and freedom we were given by God. Suffering, because of human fallenness, has always been around. Even the psalm we read earlier talks about suffering. “Out of the depths I call to you, O Lord!”. The psalmist is in the depths of suffering because of something he did, something someone else did to him, or because of the sin of Adam that originally stained creation.
Suffering has always been part of the human story, and it always will be. Others know that we are truly who we are when we are suffering. Our testimony in the midst of suffering that God is still God, and still the love of our lives goes a long way to convincing others that there is something to Christianity. There is something to this relationship we have with God through His Son. If Christianity was just rule-following, then I can see how people might believe if you follow all the rules, then only good things will happen. But that is not the case. Christianity is not about rule-following, it is about knowing Jesus, and asking Him to live in our hearts. Christianity is about God being with us, when things are going well and when things are not going well. Sometimes people will take note of our reaction to suffering; how we persevere. We serve and follow a God who is with us in all of life, not just a talisman protecting us from harm.
Paul has this deep relationship with Jesus, a relationship based on Jesus loving Paul first, just like Jesus loves us before we ever come to Him. So Paul continues in his letter to the Philippians, telling them about the motives some may have while he is incarcerated. Remember, this is a real letter to real people, and so sometimes Paul’s frustrations come through, but the good news is that his great heart and love and joy come through the letter as well.
Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; 16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.
In Paul’s absence, some folks are stepping in to take his place. Some are stepping in for good reasons, some for bad reasons. Some folks are like Paul, proclaiming Jesus Christ as the real Son of God, in whom all have the opportunity of eternal life. Others are proclaiming the same thing, but for impure motivations. It could be that they were wanting to imitate the other philosophers or religions who got paid money for providing religious experiences. It could be that the misguided preachers had money as their motive, but did actually proclaim the truth. It could that some were jealous of Paul, and they wanted to prove the church could work and be successful without him. We just don’t know exactly what Paul was referring to. Fundamentally, the trouble with the early church in Philippi was that there were people in it. People inherently mess things up because that’s who we are. Our motives aren’t pure, but the good news is that God can use us anyway.
And you know what? Paul doesn’t really care how the gospel is preached, doesn’t really care about motives. I’d be willing to bet he’d rather have teachers with pure motives, but God uses us often despite our motives. I think Paul was disappointed some folks had that attitude, but the primary objective in Paul’s life was that the gospel was going out to the people; that Christ was proclaimed.
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice.
You see, it doesn’t really matter. The important thing in Paul’s life is that Christ is proclaimed. People are hearing about Jesus Christ. Paul proclaims Jesus Christ in his cell, to the guards, and to his cell mates, while those outside proclaim to new folks. Paul is less worried about motives than the proclamation gets done. Paul rejoices that the most important thing in his life is continuing. The church he planted is doing its job. It is like watching someone you have trained or coached take over and start to play well or do their job well. It is wonderful to watch those you love to take their job and make it their own. These are Paul’s full partner’s in ministry, these are folks who are really making a difference in Philippi for the kingdom of God.
Paul ends with this thought:
For I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
Suffering is not the same thing as shame. Paul is suffering, but he was not shamed, or ashamed of his position or of the God for whom he suffered. I read a thought from Alexander Soljinitzin, a Russian Christian who was imprisoned for his faith, about suffering and shame. The guards at his prison tried to humiliate him, through various horrible means. But Soljinitzin decided only he could humiliate himself, only he could allow himself to be shamed or ashamed. Paul has decided the same thing. No matter what, Jesus Christ will always be exalted in Paul. Paul will always seek to preach Christ in everything he does. Despite the suffering he is enduring, nothing can change the basic message Paul will proclaim until his life is taken from him.
Paul’s devotion to Christ nearly matches Christ’s devotion to us. As he was going to the cross Jesus forgave, Jesus was still preaching Himself as He died so that the centurian might believe, so that the thief on the cross might believe and be ushered into paradise that day. Christ suffered, suffered innocently for us. Christ suffered. Our God knows our suffering: He has suffered himself. In His suffering we were healed, in His stripes and pain we were ultimately healed of our human affliction; sin. That was the gift, the good outcome of Christ’s suffering. Suffering is not the ultimate evil. God used Christ’s suffering to make the greatest improvement to our lives that we will ever be able to experience. The ultimate evil is to take our free will and use it to distance ourselves from God, and to hurt as many people in the process.
We serve a God who knows human pain. It is in that pain of Jesus that God dealt with our sin once and for all. It is in the blood of the Lamb of God that we are healed; it is because of Jesus pain that our suffering in this life will at some point come to an end and we will be ushered into eternity. A blessed eternity, free from pain and suffering, free from humiliation and shame.
Suffering matters to God. Paul’s suffering mattered to God. God knows about the suffering we have. God knows the number of hairs on our heads, and if He knows what is trivial about us, then He certainly knows what is important to us. Our suffering matters to God. But He chooses not to protect us from suffering, we are not protected from real life. We are protected from eternal suffering. But our suffering in this life is what alienates many people from God. We were not made to have perfect lives. Our bodies break down and are attacked from within and without. The sin of others and the consequences of our own sin catches up with us. And so we suffer. If you are not suffering now, you will. But that is not a reason to curse God and die, but rather a reason to cling stronger to God for strength, look to God for peace while suffering, and to allow God to change us, grow us and mature us through the suffering we endure.
Our pain, our suffering matters to God. It is our right as Christians to turn over that pain to Christ, and let Him help us carry it, and bear it. It is our right to bring pain to God and complain, if necessary. God can handle our complaints. But we are human, and humans suffer. CS Lewis wrote, God whispers to us in our triumphs, but shouts to us in our pain. The Good News of the Gospel is that God is with us, God came to us, and knows and loves us. Hold on to that truth through whatever you are suffering, or will suffer.
