Everyone Experiences Suffering

Everyone Experiences Suffering

It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

1 Peter 3:17

If you think believers will have only good days on earth, while unbelievers don’t get to have any—well, it doesn’t work that way. Everyone experiences suffering. God said to Adam, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food” (Genesis 3:19), and to Eve, “With pain you will give birth to children” (Genesis 3:16). Since that time, everyone has shared in that tragic condition. This makes it all the more necessary for those seeking eternal life to bear the cross. Peter teaches us, “It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good.” Those who suffer for doing wrong also have guilty consciences. So they have a double punishment. But Christians have only half of this. Though they experience suffering outwardly, they are inwardly comforted.

Notice too that Peter has set a boundary for our suffering when he says, “For a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials” (1 Peter 1:6). In other words, God doesn’t want us to look for misfortune and choose it for ourselves. So move ahead in faith and love. If the cross comes your way, accept it. If it doesn’t come, don’t search for it. We should take care of our bodies in such a way that we neither become self-indulgent nor destroy them (Romans 13:13–14). We should suffer willingly when someone else inflicts suffering on us, but we shouldn’t bring it on ourselves. This is what it means when Peter says, “If it is God’s will . . .” If God sends suffering to us, it’s better than if he didn’t. We are happier and better off if we suffer for doing good.