How Do Spiritually Mature Christians Handle Suffering?

Our Unbiblical Thinking About Suffering 

Much of our thinking about suffering is unbiblical.

We tend to think that spiritual maturity somehow inoculates us against the pain of suffering. We falsely imagine that the more spiritually mature we are, the less emotional pain we will experience when we suffer.

The Apostle Paul Would Like to Have a Word with Us 

There are few human beings who we would consider more spiritually mature than Paul. Yet Paul did not glide through suffering on some super spiritual cloud of emotional invulnerability or invincibility.

Consider just a few of Paul’s candid descriptions of his personal, emotional, experiential responses to suffering.

1. Paul felt his suffering was far beyond his ability to endure (2 Corinthians 1:8).
2. Paul responded to his suffering by despairing of life itself (2 Corinthians 1:8).
3. Paul’s inner response to his external suffering was so traumatic that he felt that he had received the sentence of death (2 Corinthians 1:9).
4. Paul felt hard pressed on every side (2 Corinthians 4:8).
5. Paul was confused and perplexed in the midst of his suffering (2 Corinthians 4:8).
6. Paul repeatedly desperately pleaded with the Lord to take away his suffering (2 Corinthians 12:8).
7. Paul experienced intense personal, spiritual weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Spiritually mature Christians respond to suffering with intense feelings, with emotional pain, with candor, and with lament.

Jesus Would Like to Have a Word with Us 

In case Paul is not enough of an example of emotional turmoil in the midst of suffering, consider Jesus. As He endured His Gethsemane soul suffering:

1. Jesus’s soul was sorrowful and troubled (Matthew 26:37; John 12:27).
2. Jesus was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death (Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:34).
3. Jesus was deeply distressed and troubled (Mark 14:33).
4. Jesus was in anguish (Luke 22:44).
5. Jesus’s sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:44).

Paul’s Traumatic Suffering 

I’ve been continuing my Genesis-to-Revelation study of suffering. Currently, I’m examining Acts.

Paul suffered traumatically in Acts. Consider some samplers:

1. At the very beginning of his Christian life, Jesus showed Paul how much he must suffer for Christ (Acts 9:15-16). The Holy Spirit warned Paul that prison and hardship were his lot in life (Acts 20:23-24). Imagine peering into your future and knowing the trauma coming your way…
2. The Jews conspired to kill Paul, day and night keeping watch into order to murder him (Acts 9:23-30). Imagine knowing your enemies were continually plotting to kill you…
3. Jealous people verbally abused Paul (Acts 13:45).
4. Religious people poisoned the minds of others against Paul (Acts 14:2).
5. Religious leaders physically abused Paul (Acts 14:4-7).
6. Paul was stoned and left for dead (Acts 14:9-20).
7. Paul was humiliated, stripped, beaten with rods, severely flogged, thrown into prison, and fastened in the stocks (Acts 16:19-25).
8. Paul was beaten publicly without a trial and thrown into prison (Acts 16:37).
9. Paul experienced spiritual abuse (Acts 18:5-6).
10. People united together to attack Paul (Acts 18:12-13).
11. People publicly maligned Paul (Acts 19:9).
12. Paul was seized, dragged from the temple, crowds were trying to kill him, a violent mob beat him, he was bound with chains (Acts 21:27-36).
13. People mocked and despised Paul, saying, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”
14. Over forty men formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul (Acts 23:12-15). Imagine conspiratorial enemies bound together with an oath to kill you.

How Do Spiritually Mature People Survive Traumatic Suffering? 

We know what we don’t do. We don’t fake it. We don’t pretend. We don’t deny our emotions. We don’t stuff our feelings.

Paul teaches us a few things that spiritually mature people do when they face traumatic suffering.

1. We turn to the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). We turn to our sympathetic High Priest, Jesus, who is the Man of Sorrows who knows our suffering (Hebrews 4:14-16).
2. We refuse to try to handle life on our own. We tell others about our sorrows. Paul did not want the brothers and sister sin Corinth to be uninformed about the troubles he was experiencing. (2 Corinthians 1:8).
3. When we find ourselves in a casket; we cling to resurrection hope. We refuse to rely upon ourselves, instead relying upon the God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9).
4. We admit our weakness and cling to Christ, whose power is made perfect in weakness. We trust in Christ, whose grace is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).