In recent months, the amount of suffering that the people in my life have experienced took a steep increase. They had lost loved ones, had suffered loss of their possessions, or had fallen seriously ill. Consequently, my prayers have been longer and more dedicated to them. I know that God works through these situations, but Christ himself had on a number of occasions taught his disciples to pray for what they wished according to the Father’s will.

I rejoice in knowing that the Christian communities I’d become a part of in the last couple of years hold a sound view of suffering and pain in light of the sovereignty of God. But, what has simultaneously pained and infuriated me in recent weeks is the grave realization that there are Christian churches that hold a very different and unbiblical view of suffering. I would go as far as to say that they are heretical.

According to this view, if a professing Christian suffers in any way it must be because he is in sin or is not truly saved. One may conclude then that tangible blessings and good health are the signs of salvation and right standing with God. If you were to challenge them to hold this view under the foundation of Scripture, they will fire at you Old Testament passages that have a particular interpretation of (1) words like “righteous” and “wicked” and (2) the idea of the righteous prospering and the wicked falling into ruin.

However, where this view falls apart are in both the New Testament teachings regarding trials and persecutions (Jesus himself promised that his followers would suffer persecution) and the clear and unmistakable example of the apostles’ lives. Of the apostles, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:11-24, “To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things”. This is regarding the apostles, who were filled with the Holy Spirit! The apostles suffered much persecution to the point where all but one apostle were martyred. Did they prosper during their time as servants to the Lord? The answer to that is clear. Rather, they endured all things, placing their hopes not on worldly pleasures but on the promise of heaven; that day when we will no longer suffer but will have everlasting joy with God.

You don’t even need the New Testament as a frame by which to understand the true meaning of the Old Testament. The point of the book of Job was not merely that bad things happen to “good” people. Job’s friends insisted that he suffered because he was in sin. But, Job responded, asking, “But how can a man be in the right before God?” (Job 9:2) The truth was that Job’s friends were not better than Job; they were all sinners in the eyes of God and the only reason they prospered was because of God’s unmerited, undeserved grace.

One of the big lessons in Job is that one cannot discern everything that God does and the reasons for them. Although Job’s friends argued that Job suffered because of sin, they themselves were not in the presence of God during his conversations with Satan in Job 1 and 2, where they could more easily discern the reason why Satan was allowed to bring suffering to Job. It was clear from those conversations that Job did not suffer because of sin. In Job 1:8, God says, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” To conclude that professing Christians suffer because they are in sin is to indirectly admit that one does not understand the book of Job at all. Yes, Job was a sinner, but he was simultaneously righteous before God.

Naturally, one would ask, “then what is the righteous man?” If the righteous are not the morally perfect nor fully capable and successful in battling sin, then what are they? Psalm 32 is a good place to go:

“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

Psalm 32:1-5

Job himself was a sinner. So, why was he called “blameless and upright”? He considered himself upright, but he also confessed that he was in need of mercy (Job 9:15). According to Psalm 32, the man who hides nothing from God but confesses his own sins before him is blessed because God forgives his iniquity (through Christ, of course). Even David himself confessed his sin, and God forgave. For this, he was considered righteous.

Abraham was called righteous because of his faith (Genesis 15:6) not because he was morally good. He lied to kings about his marriage to Sarah and he even laughed at God when God promised him a child. In 2 Peter 2:7, Lot was called “righteous”, but if you read Genesis’ account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot appeared as anything but righteous. He was timid and his faith was weak, even to the point where the angels had to drag him out of Sodom. Furthermore, after the destruction of these cities, his daughters got him drunk and slept with him in order to have offspring. Lot was nothing like the popular conception of a righteous man. Yet, he was called righteous, because he had faith (albeit small) in God and believed the angels who came to warn him (even though he lingered).

If one cannot be convinced at this point, one only has to look up the persecuted Church in the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia. They suffer more than us comfortable American Christians, yet they are more faithful and zealous than us. To suggest that they are not true Christians because of persecution and their lack of material blessings (which seems typical of Middle Easter Christians) is nonsensical and ignores the blessing found in being persecuted (Acts 5:41).

Riches are not evil by nature; God uses riches for his glory (by having us give them to the needy). But, we can easily be blinded by riches from seeing that the only treasure worth pursuing is treasure in heaven. Riches on earth will not follow us in the afterlife. They will go to someone else (regardless if that someone is righteous or wicked <Job 21>)and will ultimately perish. We are called in invest on eternal things, things that truly matter.