The theology of pain

“My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof,”
-Proverbs 3:11

If God loves us, why is there pain in the world?

I’ve heard this question quite a bit. It’s not a new one. James and Peter both address it in the words of Scripture. Recently, I read C. S. Lewis’ response to the same question in The Problem of Pain. It took him about 150 pages to answer it; let me give a quick response over the next two or three posts.

I grew up thinking I was a Christian. I practiced all the outward mechanics of Christianity, including reading my Bible, avoiding sin where I could, and going to church. But it was all religion, no love. I did it because I thought that is what I had to do.

My world fell apart in my late teens and early 20s. I was really without direction, lonely, and sick of myself. I didn’t really like the religious, yet unbelieving, man I had become.

It was a painful time, but I thank God for that pain, because it roused me from my sleep and brought me before Him. See, without the pain, I would not have known that anything was wrong in my life. As pain will tell me that the stove is hot, so too did pain tell me that I needed something more out of life.

A good father will spank his child, and the child may wonder, “If my father loves me, why does he hurt me?” But we know why he does it: to teach the child, to guide him, to instruct him, to move him. It’s not out of sick pleasure he does it, but out of duty.

The pain teaches us that there is something wrong. It teaches us that we have missed the mark.

Now, the spankings of a good father will often produce a good son, but sometimes they will be twisted within the son, and the son will rebel against the punishment, claiming it was undeserved and the good father was abusive. That’s not necessarily the fault of the father, but of the son’s stubborn will.

And so we sometimes react with pain in our own lives. We will stand and declare ourselves innocent, and that God has punished us unjustly.

But the Bible tells us differently. We have all fallen away from God’s glory. While we were made in His image, we have tainted His creation and gone about our own desires. We have acted out of lust, greed, selfishness, ambition, hatred, and anger. We refuse to acknowledge Him as our Lord and Creator. We think a football game is more important than worshipping God in church. How should God react to this?

If your young son acted in these ways, what would you do?

We have all sinned. We have all fallen. No one is innocent. We have all been coasting through life, attending to ourselves, to our own desires. Sometimes, God allows pain into our lives to wake us from that sleep and let us know that something is wrong.

It is better to feel the pain now than later. In sin, we all deserve to die, for that is the rightful punishment of sin. But Jesus came to earth in the form of a man to die in our place. If we repent and believe in Him, we will have life eternal.

If a little pain now can bring us from our daze and send us on our knees now, then that little pain will have saved us from eternal death.

Pain in our fingers is a warning for us to keep the rest of our body from the fire. Pain in our lives also warns us of the fire of death, and points the way to life, who is Jesus.

I know some people reading this will not think this applies to them. Some are wrong, and they are like children who deny the punishment of their fathers was just. Others are right. This answer is not a complete one, but though I am unable to give a complete answer to the question in this small space (it took Lewis 150 pages!), but maybe we can start here. Ask God to teach you the purpose of the pain in your lives. Chances are, it is trying to lead you to Christ.