Suffering – Three Minute Bible

May 22, 2025May 22, 2025

Philippians 1:12 – Paul’s Bad Day

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.

Summary: Comparing ourselves to Paul puts our own experiences in an interesting light.

Most of us have had a bad day now and then, but very few of us have ever had bad days like Paul’s bad days.

Imagine going to work and ending up in prison — for years! Or, you are just minding your own business, trying to do your job, and somebody stirs up a riot against you. Before you get to your first coffee break, soldiers grab you and drag you off to be flogged or beaten with rods. Then, just before you clock out for the day, an angry crowd gathers around you, physically carrying you outside the city limits while simultaneously beating you up on the way. Once outside the city, they all pick up rocks and throw them at you until, bruised and bleeding, you black out from the pain (2 Corinthians 11:21-27).

August 16, 2024August 16, 2024

Galatians 6:5 – Jackson’s Burden

… for each one should carry their own load.

Summary: Just a few verses ago Paul told us to “carry each other’s burdens.” Now he says “each one should carry their own load.” We need to untangle his words to understand their meanings.

May 27, 2023May 27, 2023

Ephesians 3:13 – The Glory of Suffering

I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

Summary: There is a relationship between our suffering and our faith. As we look at Paul’s suffering and his attitude towards it, we can learn a lot about what it means to walk in faith.

May 16, 2023May 16, 2023

Ephesians 3:7a (II) – Serving the Lord

I became a servant of this gospel …

Summary: Being a servant is not a glorious occupation. In fact, it can be downright degrading and physically painful. Yet, being in the service of the gospel is serving the Lord, and isn’t that what we really need to be about?

November 7, 2020November 7, 2020

1 Peter 5:10 (c) — Thorns

Picture: A small bird sits on a thorny branch.

… after you have suffered a little while …

Summary: Peter uses the word “suffering” throughout his letter. What the context of this letter tells us is that choosing to serve God rather than our flesh creates tension with the flesh. We call this tension ”suffering.“

April 2, 2020April 3, 2020

James 5: 10 — A History of Pain

A picture of an hourglass sitting on a log.

Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

James, remember, is talking to fellow Jews. Jews, by nature, are innately historical. I know of no other race or tribe that has such an extensive, detailed and authentic written history of their existence. They also seem to have a perverse inclination to record their most embarrassing moments and worst impulses.

God has impressed on them a need to know who they are, and so even Jews who do not believe in a judgment or an afterlife still know their history. It is a long history of failure. Failure to listen to God.

December 22, 2019December 23, 2019

Psalm Sunday – Psalm 1: 3

That person [the one who delights in the law of the Lord] is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Good Soil

There is something you may have heard about called the “prosperity gospel.*” I acknowledge this because it is a hot topic for many Bible-believing Christians. In the study of James that we just started James dives right in by talking about “trials of many kinds.” Paul, in his letter to the Romans (Chapter 5) starts with a discussion of sufferings and how believers are to “glory in our sufferings” (vs 3). So there is a potential for confusion. Some verses, like today’s, offer the hope of prospering while others talk about the reality of suffering. Yet I firmly believe that “all scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16).

So what do we make of this?