Bible verses about suffering
Scripture treats suffering as something to be gone through rather than explained. Job is given no answer and withdraws his case anyway; the letters that follow weigh the pain against something and say what the scale is. These passages are set out with a sentence on each.
He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.” — Job 1:21 · WEB
The disasters arrive without a pause between them, and the man who has lost everything grieves fully and worships in the same breath.
But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips. — Job 2:10 · WEB
God states that the ruin had no cause in Job, which settles the argument thirty chapters before anyone starts making it.
Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him. — Job 13:15 · WEB
Job accuses his friends of lying on God's behalf, and asks to be told the charge against him rather than to be spared it.
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. — Job 42:5 · WEB
Job withdraws his case without ever learning why, and what changed is not his information but that he has met the one he was arguing with.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all. — Psalm 34:19 · WEB
It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. — Psalm 119:71 · WEB
The psalm reaches its most useful verse, and it is a man saying that going wrong is what taught him.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you. — Isaiah 43:2 · WEB
Four verbs of belonging, a promise about going through rather than around, and a nation put on the stand as witnesses.
Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; — Romans 5:3 · WEB
The first therefore cashes the doctrine into possessions — peace, access, standing — and then builds a chain from suffering to a hope that cannot embarrass.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. — Romans 8:18 · WEB
The sufferings are weighed and found light, and the whole creation is described as subjected in hope and groaning toward delivery.
For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, — 2 Corinthians 4:17 · WEB
An affliction that had reached despair is called light and momentary, and the scale that makes that true is stated rather than assumed.
By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, a thorn in the flesh was given to me: a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively. — 2 Corinthians 12:7 · WEB
A request is refused three times and answered with something else, and the refusal is the letter's whole argument delivered to the man making it.
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. — 2 Timothy 3:12 · WEB
Against imitators Paul sets a life Timothy watched at close range, including three towns where it went badly.
though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered. — Hebrews 5:8 · WEB
A prayer offered with crying and tears is said to have been heard, and what the Son learned he learned by suffering.
All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. — Hebrews 12:11 · WEB
The readers' hardships are reclassified as training, and the argument runs on what a father's discipline proves about the child.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, — James 1:2 · WEB
The joy is commanded as a calculation rather than a feeling, and the reason given is a chain that ends in wholeness.
Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord promised to those who love him. — James 1:12 · WEB
One Greek word covers both trial and temptation, and the letter uses the ambiguity to close off an excuse before it can be made.
Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you. — 1 Peter 4:12 · WEB
The one thing the readers are told not to do is treat their situation as abnormal.