Does suffering have meaning?

What the Bible says

For someone in the middle of suffering, ‘everything happens for a reason’ rarely helps, and it can deepen the wound. The Bible does not talk that way, and this essay will try not to either. One thing must come first. Not all suffering is caused by the sufferer's sin. When the disciples saw a man born blind and asked whose sin was to blame, Jesus answered:

Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.

John 9:3

In Luke 13 Jesus says the same about the Galileans killed by Pilate and the eighteen crushed when the tower of Siloam fell. They were not worse sinners than others (Luke 13:1-5). The book of Job makes the point too. Job's friends read his suffering as proof of guilt, and they were rebuked. Scripture does sometimes link suffering to discipline (Heb 12:5-11), but Jesus does not let an outsider read off the cause of another person's pain.

What, then, can the sufferer do? The first thing Scripture shows is lament. The Psalms are full of protest and tears.

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?

Ps 22:1

This is a prayer inside the canon. It is the speech of a believer, not of someone without faith. Jesus himself cried out the first line of this psalm on the cross (Matt 27:46). Psalm 88 is more startling still. It does not end in comfort but in darkness: "my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol" (Ps 88:3). That such a prayer is in the Bible means that God does not accept only tidy faith. Lamentations weeps over a ruined city and still says:

Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!

Lam 3:22-23

Second, Scripture shows Christ inside suffering. God is not a spectator.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.

Heb 4:15

In suffering, the hardest part is often not the pain itself but the sense of being alone. Scripture speaks to that. Because Jesus himself suffered, "He is able to help those who are being tempted" (Heb 2:18).

Third, Scripture says that some suffering shapes a person. Paul writes:

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

Rom 5:3-4

He also writes, "Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16). James says that testing produces perseverance (Jas 1:2-4), and Paul tells how he prayed three times about his thorn in the flesh and heard this:

My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.

2 Cor 12:9

Care is needed here. These are words that a sufferer says looking back on his own life. They are not lessons for a bystander to deliver. Paul pleaded three times and the thorn stayed (2 Cor 12:8); only after that answer could he speak of delighting in weakness.

Finally, Scripture names one way suffering can bear fruit. Those who have been comforted can comfort others.

who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

2 Cor 1:4

The church's witness

The Fathers did not think one reason explains suffering. Gregory distinguishes: "One stroke falls on the sinner, for punishment only, not conversion; another for correction; another not for correction of past sins, but prevention of future" Gregory. Another stroke, he adds, comes "by the unexpected deliverance following the blow, to excite more ardent love of the Savior’s goodness" Gregory. On the man born blind, Chrysostom says plainly that "one man cannot be punished for the sin of another" Chrysostom.

Matthew Henry, on the same passage, says that Christ speaks of uncommon calamities as "not always to be looked on as special punishments of sin" Matthew Henry. On Romans 5 he does not say that tribulation bears fruit by itself: "Tribulation worketh patience, not in and of itself, but the powerful grace of God working in and with the tribulation" Matthew Henry. Suffering shapes people not because suffering has such power, but because God is at work in it. On 2 Corinthians 1 he writes: "The favours God bestows on us, are not only to make us cheerful, but also that we may be useful to others" Matthew Henry.

In the original languages

The main New Testament word for suffering is thlipsis (θλῖψις). It pictures pressure, being crushed. English Bibles often render it "tribulation" or "affliction." What matters is that the Bible does not dress suffering in soft words. It calls it pressure.

Its partner in Romans 5:3 is hypomone (ὑπομονή), "perseverance" or "endurance." It is built on the idea of "remaining under." It means staying under the load instead of fleeing from it. This is less gritting one's teeth than staying in the place where God is present. The Bible never says that endurance means feeling no pain.

Common objections

"To speak of 'meaning' in suffering is cruel. Some suffering is simply senseless." There is truth here. Before a child's death or a long illness, talk of meaning can rub salt in the wound. The Bible does not attach an explanation to every sorrow either. Job was never given a reason. So the meaning a Christian speaks of is not "the reason this happened." It is that suffering is not cut off from God, that Christ is in it with us, and that God will in the end wipe away every tear (Rev 21:4). Meaning is given in relationship and hope more than in explanation.

"Suffering breaks people more often than it forms them." That is also true. Through addiction, abuse, war and long depression, people are often crushed rather than strengthened. To wave "perseverance, character, hope" at such a person is a kind of violence. As Matthew Henry says, the fruit comes not from suffering but from God's grace working within it. And the Bible does not promise that everything is restored in this life. It sets its hope on a day when the broken are raised. To be broken is not to lack faith. Psalm 88 shows that.

"Doesn't the Bible itself say that suffering can be a result of sin or a discipline of God?" It does. Scripture sometimes treats suffering as the fruit of sin, and says that God disciplines the children he loves (Heb 12:5-11). There is no need to hide that. But Jesus refused to let an outsider fix the reason for another's suffering. Examining one's own life and repenting is each person's own task. For a neighbour to pronounce ‘you brought this on yourself’ is not the Bible's way. Christians differ about how far one can tell whether a given suffering is discipline. They broadly agree that it must never become a ground for condemning the one who suffers.

Going further

If you are suffering now, the most important thing to take from this essay is not a reason. It is that you may lament. You may pray the Psalms just as they are. On the days when you find no meaning, God does not turn from you. You do not have to hurry to manufacture meaning.

You might ask yourself some questions. Have I ever told God honestly what I think of my suffering? Beside someone in pain, am I the one who explains, or the one who stays? To whom could I pass on the comfort I once received?

To read further, see Why does a good God allow evil? and What is hope?. Reading Psalm 22 and Lamentations 3 slowly is also a good place to start.