[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

The Law of Love

Did you know the Bible contains love songs? Hard for some to imagine, but it’s true! Some of our more biblically savvy viewers might think of the Song of Solomon, which is, indeed, a beautiful part of the Bible. But that’s not what I’m thinking of!

Rather, I’m thinking of Psalm 119, which the songwriter, King David, filled with passion, praise, and heartfelt devotion. What was the object of such emotion? Believe it or not, the Ten Commandments!

Does this surprise you?

It shouldn’t. Because they paint a beautiful picture of the mind of God and play a key role in the transformation of the whole world that Jesus Christ will return and establish.

Join us for this episode of Tomorrow’s World, where we’ll uncover The Beauty of the Ten Commandments.

God’s Laws Bring LIBERTY

Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

Today we’re going to spend time talking about one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind—the Ten Commandments.

When you look closely enough, the core doctrines of common and mainstream Christianity seem to tell you these divine commands from God are done away with—as if God makes no binding obligation on us any longer, and we’ve been freed from the need to obey—freed from the Ten Commandments.

But when you come to understand the commandments and what they represent, you see that you might as well speak of being “freed” from food and water, or freed from air and light! Or, for that matter, freed from understanding, freed from righteousness, and freed from freedom and liberty, itself! In fact, in his inspired letter, James, the brother of Jesus Christ, TWICE refers to the Commandments as “the law of liberty”—even “the perfect law of liberty.”

Now, some preachers might dither and say that they would never preach against the Ten Commandments. Yet most who would say that are preaching in a pulpit on Sunday after having gone to the mall or the lake or the ballgame on Saturday, in violation of the Fourth Commandment. And in March of 2021, Christianity Today exposed modern Christianity’s opinion on the Seventh Commandment to keep sexual relations within the confines of marriage by reporting that, “Evangelicals, especially those under 40, increasingly see cohabitation as morally acceptable. Most young evangelicals have engaged in it or expect to” (“The Cohabitation Dilemma Comes for America’s Pastors,” ChristianityToday.com, March 16, 2021). And how many cathedrals are filled with statues and images that people bow before, pray before, or even weep before, filled with religious devotion—when the Second Commandment forbids such objects of worship?

Yes, a lot of lip service is paid to the Ten Commandments, but few people really take them as seriously as God the Father and Jesus Christ do. And what a shame that is! Because when they are embraced and taken seriously as merciful instructions handed down by a merciful and loving God, the Ten Commandments are a source of BEAUTY in life that is unmatched by any competing laws or philosophies of men.

At the beginning of the program, I mentioned King David’s “love song” to the Ten Commandments. Let’s read just a few of the words of praise and fondness penned by the Warrior Poet of Israel for these beautiful laws of God.

We’ll find them in Psalm 119. For instance,

Verse 35: “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it.”

Verse 47: “And I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love.”

Verse 73: “Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.”

Verse 127: “Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, yes, than fine gold!”

Verse 131: “I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for Your commandments.”

Verse 143: “Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, yet Your commandments are my delights.”

Believe me, there were more, but those should help paint the picture!

The Bible says that King David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), and in his trials, he found comfort in the Commandments. In his distress, he found wisdom in them. He found them more beautiful and precious than gold and silver, and he says he longed to understand them and live them, like the thirsty deer longs for water.

No one writes such songs of heartfelt devotion and passion about speed limits or legal regulations pouring out of Congress!

The Ten Commandments are DIFFERENT—they provide guidance, aid, and understanding. They represent the core of the way of life of the very Creator of mankind, who has shared them with us in His mercy. And as we get to know them and understand them—not just in our minds, but with the sort of understanding that only comes from acting and doing—then we begin to better understand the character and mind of God, Himself.

Actually, with the help of God, it is more than that: Keeping the Ten Commandments changes us, and helps us not only to understand the mind of God but even to begin to share the mind of God and to think like Him, ourselves. As David writes in Psalm 19 and verse 7, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul….”

It is no wonder that Jesus Christ told a young man quizzing Him about salvation, “[I]f you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).

Clearly the Ten Commandments mattered to Jesus.

In fact, they matter so much so that the Apostle John wrote in his first letter, in 1 John 2 and verse 4, speaking of Christ, “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

Anyone preaching that you do not need to keep the commandments to know Jesus Christ is a liar and a false preacher, whether he knows it or not, and should be avoided.

What Are the Ten Commandments?

You know, if we’re going to spend all this time talking about the Ten Commandments, maybe I should take the time to read them!

You will find them listed in Exodus chapter 20, where we find the heart of God’s law listed in only 16 verses (vv. 2–17):

1. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

Yes, the whole of the Ten Commandments fits in these 16 verses. But the art of living by them, and the depth of truly understanding them, only really comes through practice, the light of Jesus’ teachings, and the help of God’s Holy Spirit.

Let’s take some time to appreciate their structure and organization.

In Matthew 22, we read an account of a young lawyer who asked Jesus an important question. We begin in verse 36:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:36–40).

Notice, Jesus said that the entirety of the law and the prophets hangs on these two great commandments: To love God and to love your neighbor.

Now look again at the Ten Commandments to see how they are structured.

The first four of the Ten Commandments teach us how to fulfill the First Great Commandment to love God. And the six Commandments that follow teach us how to fulfill the Second Great Commandment to love others.

The Ten Commandments aren’t just some legalistic list of dos and don’ts. When you understand what Jesus is saying, you see them as essential instructions in love. In fact, let me ask you: What is more beautiful than the love of God? Not just receiving it, but growing in it ourselves, in compassion and outflowing concern?

Well, if we seek to know the beauty of God’s love in our lives, then we will want to keep the Ten Commandments! Don’t take my word for it—take the Apostle John’s! Often called the Apostle of Love because love was such a consistent focus of His writings in Scripture, he teaches us a very important truth of God in his first letter—in 1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”

When you understand this connection between how the Ten Commandments are central to teaching us how to love God and to love each other and the fact that, as 1 John 4:8 tells us, “God is love,” then you begin to see how the Ten Commandments represent God’s own mind and character in print. And how learning to practice them and to make them a part of your life is a vital part of the beautiful transformation God seeks to achieve in all of us

How Do You Keep God’s Commandments?

Let’s dive into some of the individual commandments, themselves. Just as the beauty of a gemstone is shaped by how its individual facets reveal its brilliance, each of the commandments contributes to the overall beauty of these laws of God.

In fact, consider the first one, given in Exodus 20, verses 2 and 3: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.”

Now compare this to, say, the beginning of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which lays a foundation based on the idea that all men are created equal—or the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states in its first article that all human beings are free and equal in dignity and rights.

In today’s free resource, The Ten Commandments, Roderick Meredith explains the stark difference between works like these and the Commandments:

In our day of human reason, agnosticism, and creeping materialism, it is important to notice that the Almighty spoke first not about the “brotherhood of man,” but about obedience and worship to God, the Creator and Ruler of heaven and earth—and the personal God of those who serve and obey Him! (p. 7).

What a difference! Unlike human philosophers or politicians who ground our obligations to each other in moral theories or passing ethical fashions, God grounds our obligations on His own eternal and unchanging status as the Creator of all things, who does not change! (Malachi 3:6).

Consequently, the Ten Commandments have a beautiful and immovable foundation that grounds them in the firmest foundation conceivable. For instance…

• The Fourth Commandment about keeping the Sabbath holy is about the day He, Himself, sanctified at Creation.

• The Sixth Commandment against murder, we’re told in Genesis 9:6, is grounded in the fact that man is made in God’s image.

• The Ninth Commandment against bearing false witness runs afoul of the fact that God is a “God of truth” (Deuteronomy 32:4) and that His word is truth (John 17:17).

This grounding in the nature and character of the Eternal God who created all life—indeed, the God who created all of REALITY!—gives these inspired commandments a richness and depth that few ever take the time to truly explore.

Consider the Third Commandment against using God’s name in vain. How often is this commandment trampled in this world—often by the very ones who claim to be living a godly life! Yet, not using God’s name in vain is so much more than simply not using His name in curse words or swearing. For instance, everyone who claims to be a Christian is, in a very real way, taking on the name of Jesus Christ—yet, if we behave in an un-Christian manner and set a bad example, we’ve taken on that name in vain.

Keeping the Third Commandment means taking our lives seriously enough to bring honor to the name we bear—and in that way, the commandment becomes far more than a guide concerning the statements we make with our mouths, but a motivation to consider the statements we make with our lives.

Even the commandments that might seem obvious—such as the Sixth Commandment, “You shall not murder”—have SO much more to say than those four words might seem to reveal!

Jesus Christ, Himself, makes this plain, explaining in Matthew 5:21 and 22 that hating your brother in your heart is the spirit of murder, and that hating others violates the Sixth Commandment.

When you look at the world today and see how anger-filled it is, and then when you recognize it as the spirit of murder that you are seeing in the faces of rage that fill our streets and news feeds, suddenly you realize just how far we’ve fallen from what God seeks to make of us.

And further still, the command against murder is rooted in the fact that every single human being is created in God’s image. In contrast to the culture of death we see around us—in which abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide are considered moral progress instead of the signs of moral degradation they truly represent—a devotion to living the values of the Sixth Commandment is a devotion to respecting the beautiful image of God inherent in every human life! Not just the life of the healthy and strong, but the life of the infirm and the weak. As God told Moses in Exodus 4 and verse 11, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?”

The Sixth Commandment declares that no life is without value and meaning in the eyes of God. And even a supposedly simple, “obvious” command like “You shall not murder” has beautiful depths that are worth exploring.

In a moment, I want to help us step back and take in the larger picture by imagining the world that Jesus Christ will establish at His return. When we do, we’ll find the Ten Commandments are the key to seeing that picture.

A World Free from Sin and Suffering

Imagine a world in which every human being in every country on earth has no other God than the God of the Bible. Every living, breathing soul understands that nothing in their devotions should come before God the Father and Jesus Christ, and everyone worships Them alone. That worship is free of any and all trappings of paganism.

There are no statues or images of so-called saints or other distractions. Every soul on earth uses God’s name with a sense of respect for everything that it represents, because they know that the words they utter matter. Consequently, no one uses foul language any longer. No one anywhere on the planet utters God’s name in a curse, and it would not even cross someone’s mind to swear or speak in a filthy manner.

Imagine a world in which everyone keeps the seventh-day Sabbath. Gone forever are the days when someone worked seven days a week, replaced by a joyful, worldwide observance of God’s ordained rest from labor—a time for families to reaffirm their affections for each other and to seek the face of their God together.

Every week, everyone on earth gathers together as God commands, in holy convocation, to sing praises to their Creator and their Savior, and to learn together from the pages of Scripture.

Imagine, too, that, in that world, families have been restored as the fundamental building blocks of civilization. Parents are honored and loved, in accordance with the fifth commandment, and grandparents and great-grandparents are held in high esteem, as children are taught to respect those who have gone before them. Those same children play safely in the streets as families spend time together in the neighborhood, because violence and hatred are no longer a part of anyone’s experience. Families remain intact for life and marriages remain strong, as men and women learn the joy and peace that comes from reserving physical intimacy for the God-ordained place for which it was designed: their marriages.

There are no locks on doors, and children leave their bicycles on the front lawns, since no one would ever think to take something that is not theirs. And relationships in the community and between people and their leaders are built on a foundation of mutual trust and respect, in which everyone speaks truthfully with each other.

Then imagine that, over all of this lies an air of contentment and gratitude—because the idea that happiness is dependent on the number of things you can buy or collect to keep up with the neighbors has long since passed from the world. Instead, everyone finds their deepest satisfaction in the profitable work of their hands, the joy they feel from the love of friends and family, and the knowledge that the God they worship is One who knows them, and loves them, and is personally working in this world, and in their lives, to bring His purpose for their lives to fruition—when they will join His own Family and step into eternity with Him, forever.

That beautiful world—which Jesus Christ WILL establish at His return—is one in which everyone keeps the Ten Commandments.

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If you’re interested in our free study guide on The Ten Commandments, there’s a link in the description or you can go straight to the url TWTV.org/Ten.

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[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Why Does God Allow Suffering?

If God exists and if God is a God of love, why is there so much suffering in our world? Is He powerless to stop it? This challenge is often thrown up by atheists, agnostics, and also sincere individuals who struggle to understand. How can a loving God permit wars that kill, maim, and destroy property? Why diseases, famines, and other so-called natural disasters? Some smugly ask these questions in an attempt to dismiss God. Others sincerely look at the cruelty in the world and wonder, why? Why doesn’t a loving God stop war, disease, natural disasters, and cruelty toward women and children?

On this Tomorrow’s World program, I’ll give you three reasons why a loving God allows pain and suffering. Yes, there is great suffering found everywhere and you may personally be going through a painful trial yourself, but our Creator IS a God of love. Now stay tuned as I will be back in five seconds and give you three reasons WHY a loving God allows such great suffering on this troubled planet.

If God Is Real…

A warm welcome to all of you from all of us here at Tomorrow’s World, where we fearlessly take on the hard questions and tell you the plain truth straight from the pages of the Bible. Atheists and agnostics think they have the perfect argument against God’s existence, when they ask. “How can there be a loving God when children are abused, women are raped, people die from excruciatingly painful diseases, and innocent people are displaced and killed in war?” There are answers and I’ll give you three of them today, but there are two aspects to this question:

#1: Does God exist?

And, number two, if He does,

#2: Is He truly a God of Love?

Please bear with me as I address the question of God’s existence. Frankly, dear friends, that is not as difficult as some make it out to be. It comes down to this: Either the vast universe and life on this planet is the result of blind chance, or it is the result of an intelligent Designer, in other words, God. Setting aside the huge question of how the universe came to be, let me get to the crux of this issue of life itself. Could life arise from non-living matter by chance? Evolutionist Bill Bryson addresses the unlikelihood of life arising as a result of chance when discussing proteins—the building blocks of cellular life. As all knowledgeable people know, proteins are made up of long strings of amino acids connected in precise meaningful ways—similar to the way letters form sentences. You cannot throw vowels and consonants randomly together and form meaningful sentences. Nor can you throw amino acids together randomly and form functioning proteins. As an example, Bryson speaks of the most common protein found in all of us—collagen:

But to make collagen, you need to arrange 1,055 amino acids in precisely the right sequence. But – and here’s an obvious but crucial point – you don’t make it. It makes itself, spontaneously, without direction, and this is where the unlikelihoods come in. The chances of a 1,055 sequence molecule like collagen spontaneously self-assembling are, frankly, nil. It just isn’t going to happen (Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, p. 288).

What an amazing admission! But collagen is only one protein needed for life. As Bryson points out:

No one really knows, but there may be as many as a million types of protein in the human body, and each one is a little miracle. By all the laws of probability proteins shouldn’t exist (ibid.).

Now, why does he call them little miracles? And why shouldn’t they exist? Bryson explains the laws of probability and points out that the odds of a more typical 200 amino acid protein self-assembling is 1 in 10²⁶⁰. That is a single chance in 1 followed by 260 zeros! About which Bryson states:

That in itself is a larger number than all the atoms in the universe (ibid.).

Think about that! This is only one typical protein, of which there may be as many as one million different types in the human body. If the odds are so great for forming a protein made up of 200 amino acids, what are the odds for collagen?

But my favorite Bryson quote comes from his book The Body, in which he explains:

You could call together all the brainiest people who are alive now or have ever lived and endow them with the complete sum of human knowledge, and they could not between them make a single living cell, never mind a replicant Benedict Cumberbatch [a British actor] (Bryson, The Body, p. 4).

Who is it now who believes in miracles?

Bryson’s comments mirror those of Michael Denton, PhD in biochemistry. We often hear the term “simple cell” thrown about. Here is what this biochemist says about that so-called simple cell:

The complexity of the simplest known type of cell is so great that it is impossible to accept that such an object could have been thrown together suddenly by some kind of freakish, vastly improbable, event. Such an occurrence would be indistinguishable from a miracle (Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, p. 264).

He explains what many scientists are coming to understand and why former evolutionists are changing their minds on the subject.

Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small… each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery… far more complicated than any machine built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world (Denton, p. 250).

The evidence for intelligence—that is God—as the cause of life is massively compelling for anyone willing to look at the facts. So, why do we have terrible suffering in our world? If God is all-powerful, why CAN’T He, or why WON’T He, put an end to all the awful suffering that is here on this earth?

Humanity Both Victim and Perpetrator

The answer IS NOT that God does not exist. It IS NOT that He is too weak. And it IS NOT that He does not care.

No, God exists. He is all powerful. And He truly IS a God of love and compassion, but again, we wonder: “If God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” that we might have life, WHY does He allow war, children to be abducted, women to be raped, and people to die from long-lasting and painful diseases?

Let’s ask a relevant question: Are we looking in the wrong direction by placing blame on God? The answer is, yes. So, the first reason for suffering here on earth is:

#1: We are doing it to ourselves.

Consider this. A teenage boy is told by his parents not to smoke, as smoking can cause lung cancer, oral cancers, heart disease, emphysema, and a host of other maladies. His parents dearly love him and don’t want him to hurt himself, but as with so many teens, he rejects his parent’s loving advice and chooses rather to follow his friends and his own judgment. He takes up smoking, or more likely today, vaping. Of course, he doesn’t think HE will be addicted, nor suffer the consequences he’s warned about. No, he thinks he’s the exception. But 35 years later he comes down with lung cancer and his life, his hopes, and his dreams, are cut short by a long, painful death. Whose fault is it? His parents? No, they did everything they could reasonably do to prevent him from picking up the dangerous habit.

Is it God’s fault? Why blame Him when God commanded him to obey his parents? And note this additional warning to everyone not to trust one’s own heart:

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12).

That’s from Proverbs 14:12, and the warning is so important that it’s repeated in chapter 16, verse 25. Can we not make the rational judgment that it is his own fault? Even though he was warned by parents, God, the Surgeon General, and probably numerous others, the immediate pleasure of fitting in with his peers was more important than what MIGHT happen decades later.

Trusting our own ways, what SEEMS right in our own eyes, and short-sightedness, have been man’s problem from the beginning. However, the problem does go deeper than that. When God created the first man and woman, he placed them in a beautiful garden filled with the most delicious organic fruits and vegetables that one could ever imagine. In this garden, He planted two special trees. We read of them in Genesis 2, verse 9:

And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9).

These two trees were symbolic. To eat of the tree of life was the choice to trust God for determining right and wrong, and to live accordingly. But, to take of the other tree was an act of rebellion against God’s rule, symbolizing man choosing for himself to determine good and evil. We are not animals that act according to instinct. God made us free moral agents. We must make moral choices and His laws reveal which choices are right. And He informs us that there are consequences for our decisions. Deuteronomy the thirtieth chapter in verse 19 tells us:

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live (Deuteronomy 30:19).

There was no ambiguity here: blessings and life on one side, curses and death on the other. So why do we blame God for the choices that we freely make? Just as with a rebellious teenage son, we think we know better. We think God is keeping something good from us because there is a temporary benefit. For the teenager, the vanity of being accepted and looking good in the eyes of his friends, seems worth taking a risk on something that may or may not happen in the future.

Freedom to Choose Between Right and Wrong

To anyone with an objective mind, the blame for our pain and suffering is our own, not God’s. He made us free moral agents and leaves it up to us to choose. Still, people argue, “An all-powerful loving God should stop it.” Now, let us consider how God would stop us from making bad decisions and suffering the consequences of them.

God would have to take away free moral agency. In effect, He would have to force us to make right choices. But our first parents said, by rebelling against God and taking of the forbidden tree, “God, stay out of our business. Don’t tell us what to do. We want to do our own thing.” And if we’re honest with ourselves, we must admit we are no different. Yes, we may rationalize that we are different, but we deceive ourselves, as Jeremiah told us in the seventeenth chapter, verse 9:

The heart [that is, the mind of man] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9).

Wars are fought between nations, between neighbors, and even in homes between husbands and wives. Whether it is domestic violence or whether it is one nation warring against another, the result is pain and sorrow.

When there is conflict between individuals or nations, there are causes, and one cause is revealed in James the fourth chapter, verses 1 and 2:

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war (James 4:1–2).

Selfish desire, lust, and greed end in conflict, but we learn elsewhere another cause of conflict, and that is human pride. Notice these Proverbs:

By pride comes nothing but strife, but with the well-advised is wisdom (Proverbs 13:10).

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).

He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will be prospered (Proverbs 28:25).

As we see, human nature involves lust, greed, pride, and selfish desire. To put it another way, we want what we want and dismiss God’s law of outgoing concern.

Correction for a Purpose

As explained earlier, rather than blaming God, reason #1 is:

#1: We are doing it to ourselves.

Blaming God is easy, but it’s wrong-headed. Most of our trials are a direct result of our own actions. How can one blame God for lung cancer if we refuse to heed the warnings? The same can be said for wars, accidents, and injuries. Don’t blame God. The fault is with human beings! But there are other reasons for suffering, as well;

#2: God is a loving parent who occasionally punishes us for our good.

Not only has God put in place natural consequences for disobedience, but He also steps in as a loving parent to remind us when we go astray. This is explained in Hebrews the twelfth chapter, beginning in verse 5:

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “MY SON, DO NOT DESPISE THE CHASTENING OF THE LORD, NOR BE DISCOURAGED WHEN YOU ARE REBUKED BY HIM; FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE CHASTENS, AND SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons (Hebrews 12:5–8).

God is looking at the long-game. Suffering, whether as a result of our own foolishness, that of others, or discipline from God, produces character needed to be in God’s family. As we read in Hebrews 12:11,

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11).

And this brings me to the most important reason for human suffering.

#3: God desires for us to live forever in His Kingdom as His children.

Most people have no idea WHY God created us. To them, we are here to cram into life as much happiness, fun, and success as possible before we die. They see this life as the dessert, and anything that comes later as the broccoli. Few understand what is at stake: a few years on earth, or life for eternity. And what kind of eternity? The Bible is clear. Scripture after Scripture speaks of us becoming children of God. The Apostle Paul even calls us “joint heirs with Christ”—notice Romans the eighth chapter, verses 14–17:

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, [now notice this] if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together (Romans 8:14–17).

This is the context in which he puts in perspective the temporary suffering that comes with this life. Continuing in verse 18:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:18–21).

In light of this, consider the common refrain “no pain, no gain.”

Yes, this temporary existence with all its trials, no matter how severe they may be, is nothing in comparison to what the future holds for those who learn to put God first. This is why Paul also said,

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

There is much suffering in our world—some excruciating and long-lasting—but blaming God is wrong-headed. He has given us free moral agency to make decisions. Most of the heartache we suffer is the result of bad decisions. Sometimes, it is the decision of others that cause us grief, but much of the time it’s our own. Some suffering is a direct result of God stepping in as a loving parent to let us know that we are on the wrong track. He wants us to succeed. He wants us to be in His Kingdom. A few years of pain now can yield a far greater reward. As it tells us in Psalm 16:11:

You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

All suffering must be understood in the context of John 3:16:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

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