Suffering & Sin

Day 177

OT Reading: Job 7-9

NT Reading: Acts 7:44-60

Throughout the discussion between Job and his friends, we see that his friends continually come back to the argument of, "Job, you are suffering due to some sin in your life. Repent and move on." Of course they each say it in their own way...and frankly some of them take quite a long time to get to that point. However, their argument is simply that suffering is a result of sin.

And in many ways it makes perfect sense how one would come to this conclusion. A variety of times thus far we have noticed how God punished Israel for their sins...not to mention all the personal consequences we end up dealing with when we sin. So it would be logical for you and I even to equate any and all suffering with sin.

Jesus' disciples apparently had a similar position. In John 9 Jesus is presented with a blind man. One of his disciples asks, "Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" Jesus' response is one that we may not expect...and one that definitely impacts our view of suffering in this world. In John 9:3 which reads, "'Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, 'but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.' " (NIV)

In other words, this man's condition was in fact not a result of sin, but was the case just so that God's greatness could be glorified. Of course if the suffering = sin equation is false...what else could that mean?

* Every bad instance that happens to us, may not be a result of our own sin.

* Every good event that happens to us, may not be a reward for our faithfulness.

* We should be very careful when connecting suffering with sin (e.g. maybe the region was decimated because it was built on a fault line and not due to divine wrath)

Granted there are also plenty of Biblical examples where suffering/ill consequences IS a result of sinful behavior. I'm not going to pretend like those do not exist. But let's also recognize that sometimes suffering is not a result of sin, but instead is there so that God may be glorified.