Is Suffering Punishment for Sin?

People have debated this question for thousands of years. We read about it many times in the Bible. We seem to be agreed on the general principle but divided as to how it applies to specific situations.

This is not just some abstract, philosophical discussion. It is very practical. It is very personal. And we will learn important lessons in the examples we will look at in this episode.

Read about this subject

• Scriptures: John 9:1-3; Luke 13:1-3; Job 4:7-8
• “Seven Ways Men Fight Against God”

Listen to more on this subject

• Luke 12:54-13:9, Bible Commentary

Transcript

Kerry Duke: Hi, I am Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.

In John chapter nine, verses one through three, we read these words: “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And his disciples asked Him saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.’”

Is suffering caused by sin? Are natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes punishment from God for evil that people do?

There are many verses in the Bible that talk about this, and one of them is the story in John chapter nine. This man was blind. He was born blind. People back in those days didn’t have the medical knowledge that we have today. But when certain things happened over and over, they began to take notice. They knew about sexually transmitted diseases, and they put two and two together when they noticed that babies who were born blind were often born of mothers who had contracted a sexually transmitted disease.

Medical Doctor, S.I. McMillen wrote about this in his interesting book “None of These Diseases.” This view, however, although true in some or even in many cases, was evidently so common that when anyone was born with this condition of blindness, it was automatically assumed that a disease associated with sexual sin was the cause.

That’s why the disciples asked Jesus this question. They didn’t ask Him, “Did sin cause him to be born blind?” That wasn’t their question. They assumed that sin was the cause. Their question was more specific. They wanted to know who had sinned and caused this blindness? Was it the blind man himself or his parents?

Now, it seems strange to us that they would think the blind man himself could have caused this condition of blindness. How could he have sinned before he was born? Evidently, some ancient Jewish rabbis actually thought this was possible. Exactly what kind of sin an unborn infant could have committed in their thinking is hard to say.

And whether the disciples had heard that idea or not, we don’t know. Maybe that’s what they were thinking, or maybe it was something else they had in mind. The Bible doesn’t answer that part of the question, but we know that it is a completely false idea because babies are not guilty of sin before they’re born or after they’re born . And it is interesting that Jesus didn’t stop to correct them about this assumption. He did teach in other passages at other times that little children are innocent of sin . But still this shows that the disciples are thinking that sin caused his condition.

The other alternative they mentioned makes more sense from their point of view. That is, maybe the parents sinned. It is true that a parent or parents who have contracted sexually transmitted diseases can cause health problems in their offspring, and what a terrible price children sometimes have to pay. They pay for the sins of their parents, not because they are guilty, but because that is the nature of this life. Innocent people sometimes suffer because of the sins of others.

So in the mind of the disciples, were the parents responsible for this man’s blindness? His parents were still alive because we read about them later in the same chapter. These are the two alternatives in the mind of the disciples. They don’t mention any other people or any other possible causes of this blindness. It’s easy for us to criticize them because we have so much medical knowledge available to us today. They were not that fortunate. They saw people suffering and tried to figure it out and deal with it the best they could. Sometimes their assumptions were wrong. Sometimes their conclusions were false. But the one thing they were fairly settled on was that sin causes this condition. So here is a Bible example of a clear case of suffering, and the question about it was definite.

And so was Jesus’ answer. The first word He said, corrected their thinking. He said neither—neither the blind man sinned nor did his parents sin to cause this condition. Sin was not the cause of his suffering. Sin may have been the cause in other cases of blindness, but it was not the cause in this situation. So this one passage shows that not all suffering is caused by sin. We can’t say that every time somebody is sick or handicapped, that God is punishing that person.

Some suffering is directly caused by sin, but not all suffering is caused by sin. That is, in a direct sense. I say “directly” because you could say that all our physical suffering goes back to Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden. We don’t inherit the guilt of their sin and our suffering is not punishment for their sin. But we do suffer indirectly because of Adam and Eve’s sin. But the disciples we’re not talking about that. They we’re asking more than that. They were looking at sin committed by someone much closer to the situation, but Jesus didn’t go any farther with their question. He didn’t explain the different reasons why people suffer.

Instead of looking at what caused this man to be blind, He talked about the purpose that his condition would serve in God’s plan for His Son. That purpose was that the works of God should be revealed in him. Jesus was about to give this blind man sight and that miracle would glorify God and reveal His Son.

In Luke chapter 13 verses one through five, we read a similar story. There, the Bible says, “There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower and Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Jesus talks about two tragedies, and He asked the same question about both. The first one was an execution. The Bible doesn’t tell us their names or why this happened, but Pilate had them killed. He mingled, the Bible says, their blood with their sacrifices. These were evidently Jews who were offering their sacrifices at the temple when Roman soldiers sent by Pilate struck them dead.

Some people told Jesus about this. We don’t know who they were or all of their motives for telling him about it. Many Jews hated the Roman government. A killing like this would’ve infuriated those Jews. On the other hand, there were Jews that hated Jesus and they tried to lure him into criticizing the Roman government so that they would have something to use against him.

But this was a public execution that Pilate instigated, and it was no doubt a news story of the day. Jesus didn’t comment on whether Pilate was right or wrong. He didn’t talk about what these Galileans had done or were accused of doing. Instead, He did the same thing we just saw in John chapter nine. He used this story to teach a higher moral lesson.

The people that told Him about this incident were focused on the people involved, and especially the two groups they represented—the Jews and the Romans. That’s what most people do today. When they hear about some calamity, they focus on the physical, personal aspects of the situation. They talk about what happened, where it happened, how and why it happened, whose fault it was, and what should be done about it.

Those things have a place no doubt, but God-fearing people see higher principles and they see deeper lessons in tragedy. That’s one of the lessons we ought to learn from this story in Luke chapter 13.

Now, it appears that the people who told Jesus about this killing had the idea that these Galileans were bad people, perhaps worse than most people, and that was the reason why they died this horrible death. Jesus said, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things?” Was that the reason this happened to them? And Jesus gave a quick reply. He said no. He said you can’t draw that conclusion.

Just because something bad happens to a person does not always mean he deserved it or that he deserved it more than others. Life is not equal in how justice is administered. Sometimes people get what’s coming to them. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes people deserve what happens to them, and sometimes they do not. Now, that is why the human race cries out to God every da, “It’s not fair.”

Then Jesus brought up another tragedy that they did not mention. A tower in Siloam fell on 18 people and killed them. Jesus asked the same question about them. “Do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?” In the first case about the Galileans Pilate killed, He asked, “Do you suppose?” and this time “He asked, “Do you think?” This seems to indicate that they had the kind of idea that we’re talking about—the view that most, if not all, suffering in life is caused by our sins.

Did God cause the tower in Siloam to fall because these 18 people were the worst sinners in Jerusalem and deserved to die? Jesus again answers no. That was not the reason accidents happen. Not everything that happens is an act of God in the way that people use that phrase, that is, an act of special divine intervention to bring justice on earth.

But again, Jesus didn’t dwell on these calamities. He could have said many things about both tragedies. He could have explained many aspects about these situations, but He raised the discussion to a higher plane. These people talked about the physical earthly trials that people experienced. Jesus made the whole discussion more personal and more spiritual.

No, He said, is the answer to the question about whether these people who died were any worse than others. But He turned their attention inwardly to themselves. He said, “But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” The people who told Him about others needed to look at themselves. They were sinners who needed to repent, and they still had time. The ones who died in those calamities could not, and we need to remember that when we hear people talking about tragedies and they tend to stop short of any kind of spiritual application with them, it’s all about the earthly side. We need to train ourselves to remember the higher principles involved in these kinds of events and then teach them to other people.

It’s interesting that many other people in the Bible had the same view of suffering. Do you remember the story of Joseph? His brothers sold him into bondage and he ended up in Egypt. But God was with him and blessed him. He became a powerful man in Egypt. As a matter of fact, he became the second highest ranking man in the nation.

And when his brothers came before him looking for food over 20 years later, they didn’t realize that they were standing before their brother that they had betrayed. When they came before him this second time, Joseph was very stern with them in Genesis chapter 42. They were naturally afraid of what this powerful Egyptian might do to them.

It’s almost human nature that when we are afraid and distressed, we tend to look inside ourselves. We examine our lives and feel guilty for things that we have done. That’s what happened with Reuben, one of Joseph’s brothers, when they were before Joseph. Genesis 42:22 says, “And Reuben answered them saying, ‘Did I not speak to you saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy and you would not listen. Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us.’” The guilt of what they had done to young Joseph was still weighing heavy on their hearts all those years later.

We have to remember that God made us with a conscience just as he made Ruben and everyone else in the Bible. Even though we don’t always follow our conscience, and even though our thoughts about right and wrong may not be correct in every case, that God-given capacity causes us to feel guilty. We yearn for release from that guilt from inside us. We even expect that we will have to pay for what we’ve done in some way.

So when tragedy strikes, it’s natural for us to wonder if it’s because we’ve sinned. Now again, it may or it may not be. I’m only talking about the feeling here. It happened with Reuben, and it happens today. Reuben thought that after all those years, their sin was about to catch up with them. He was wrong, of course, because Joseph treated them very kindly after this. But it does show that this is very common to feel this way.

Another story is in First Kings chapter 17. When the son of the widow in Zarephath died, she told Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son?” That’s First Kings 17, verse 18.

Being in the presence of a prophet of God may have inclined her to feel this way even more. She thought the death of her son was punishment for her sin. Little did she know, though, that Elijah was about to bring her son back to life.

Another story is in Acts chapter 28 when Paul and others suffered shipwreck and were stranded on an island. An interesting story occurred. The Bible says in Acts chapter 28, verse one, “Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta. The natives showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said one to another, “No doubt, this man is a murderer, whom though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow him to live. But he shook off the creature into the fire and felt no harm. However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a God .

These people were superstitious, but their idea of paying for sin in tragedies of life was really no different than the other stories that we’ve read. What they said about Paul’s snake bite was no different than what the disciples asked Jesus about concerning the blind man in John chapter nine. Even though they were superstitious to the point of saying that Paul was a God after nothing happened to him after he was bitten, they had the same feeling, they had the same view, about calamities in life.

This kind of thinking is almost ageless and universal among mankind. And not surprisingly, we find another example in the book of Job Job’s three friends were guilty of falsely accusing him because this is what they thought about his situation. Eliphaz, who was the first to speak to Job, told Job that he was reaping what he had sown. He said, “Remember now, whoever perished being innocent, or where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” . Throughout the book of Job, he held his ground against his three friends who said this about him. He maintained his innocence. And in the end, God said that he was right and his three friends were wrong.

But there is one statement Job made that shows that he realized that he had not lived a perfect life. He accused God of punishing him for those sins. It’s not that he was a hypocrite, but he had done some things when he was younger that he thought God was punishing him for. In Job chapter 13 verse 26, here’s what he said to God: “For you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.”

But Job was wrong about that. God was not behind his suffering at all. Satan was the one who was tormenting Job, not God. We need to remember that Job was a good man, but he was still a man, and when he was down and depressed with all of his pain and loss and grief, he began to look at his life in ways that he never had before. He felt that he had no future before him. In fact, he wanted to die and put an end to all his suffering. He couldn’t figure out why God was allowing him to live.

And we’re no different. When we reach a point in life where we think we have no future or very little future left, and when we don’t enjoy the present, we tend to look back over our shoulder at the past. Now, this is very common when you get older. When you’re young, your mind is oriented toward the future. You think about everything that you want to do. It feels like the whole world is open to you. When you’re older, you tend to look back at the past and sometimes think about it too much. You may try to live in the past, or you might let the past burden you with guilt and depression.

It can be hard even for Christians to escape this. Our mind can go back like Reuben’s mind did to something we did 20, 30, or 40 years ago, and sometimes we have to work hard to remind ourselves that God has forgiven us. As the old saying goes, we can be our own worst enemies. It can be easier to say to someone, “I forgive you” than it is to forgive ourselves.

This takes a great deal of faith. That’s really what it comes down to. The devil will tempt Christians to feel guilty about things that they have already been forgiven of. He does that to confuse, to discourage, to distract. It’s hard to get much done for the Lord when you’re chained to the past.

Even David in the Bible faced this challenge of life. When you read the book of Psalms, you’ll notice that two things go together. One of them is the trials and tribulations David is facing, and the other is how he examines himself and humbles himself before God. That’s the good side of this struggle we’re talking about.

It causes us to examine ourselves spiritually—our hearts, our words, our actions. When David was at his lowest point, he looked up to the Most High. When he felt the pain and sorrows of life, he looked to God for comfort. And when he was in great distress, he also looked inwardly to examine himself. He didn’t hesitate to confess his sins before God. In Psalm 51, which appears to have been written about his awful sins with Bathsheba, we find a great example. Psalm 32 is another Psalm about forgiveness.

And notice also in Psalm 25 that David had the same thought or feeling that Job had about things that he had done when he was a young man. We don’t know these specifics. We don’t know exactly what Job did or what David did when they were young, but we do read in Psalm 25, verse seven that David said these words to God. ‘Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions according to your mercy. Remember me for Your goodness sake, O Lord.’ Again, here’s the same old feeling when trials come. We don’t enjoy them, obviously, but anyone who has an even halfway healthy conscience, will look at his life and ask himself if he caused the situation in some way, or if he is in some way reaping what he has sown.

How do we deal with that feeling when it gets out of hand though? How can we keep that feeling from crippling our spiritual life? David is a great example. Just think about what he did. He took another man’s wife. He committed adultery with her. When he found out that she was pregnant, he had her husband killed, and then he took the woman to be his wife to try to hide his sin, but that didn’t work.

As a matter of fact, David did pay for what he had done for the rest of his life. In second Samuel chapter 12, Nathan the prophet told David that the sword would never depart from his house. He said that God would raise up evil from his own house or family. His own children, grown children, would give him all kinds of trouble.

That’s exactly what they did. One of his sons raped his half-sister. Another one of his sons killed that brother. Absalom, one of David’s sons, decided that he wanted to take the throne away from his father and be the king. That started a war in Israel that left many people dead and almost wrecked that nation. Then David’s top military man Joab killed Absalom, and that almost killed David. He mourned and grieved for him for days, even though he was the son that was trying to take away everything that David had had and built.

Have you ever wondered how David was able to survive mentally, emotionally, and spiritually after this? In some cases in our life, we question whether we have brought suffering on ourselves. David didn’t have to question this part of his life. He knew that he had brought this suffering on himself. So how did he make it through this?

In the book of Psalms, we find the key. Not every Psalm was written about what his children had done, but some of them probably were. Even the Psalms where he talks about his troubles that didn’t involve his children still help us to understand how he made it through. It’s very simple, although it can be very difficult to do. He simply put his trust and his faith in God. There is no secret formula. There is no magical trick that we can do to deal with this kind of pain. It’s simply and solely a matter of faith.

And that doesn’t just mean that David trusted in God to get him through this situation until he died. It means that David had faith that God had forgiven him of his sin that caused these very problems that he was facing.

Think about how difficult this must have been for David when one of his children gave him trouble. He knew that it was punishment for his sins because Nathan the prophet told him so. In our lives, sometimes we know that we’ve not done the right thing as parents and we pay a price. But at the same time, there are other times where our children do things on their own and it is in no way some kind of punishment for our sins.

Children that are grown are responsible for what they do, but even if we have failed in some way as parents and we’re paying the price for that failure, we know as Christians that we can be forgiven. Not only that, we can know that we are right with God, even though that situation keeps blowing up in our face.

That’s exactly what happened with David. It seems that every time he turned around in the book of Second Samuel, after he had sinned with Bathsheba, that one of his children gave him grief. How in the world did David keep from going crazy, especially since he knew that he was to blame? He accepted God’s forgiveness. He trusted in God’s mercy.

And we know this because of what’s said in Hebrews 11, verse 32. David is in glory now. He’s not feeling guilty anymore. So in these verses, we see a very important lesson about the problem of suffering in this life. Sometimes we bring suffering on ourselves. Sometimes the suffering comes as a result of our actions. At other times, it’s not trouble on the outside, but the pain comes from within, from our memories and from our conscience. Sometimes we are right in thinking that we caused some of the problems and sometimes we are wrong in feeling that the trial we’re facing is some kind of punishment for our sins.

We have to look at our lives and be honest about that. But I can say this as a preacher, that after decades of preaching, it is very common for Christians to feel unnecessarily guilty. Christians are obviously more conscientious than people who are lost. There’s a good side to being conscientious, but there can be a downside to it as well. We must let God guide us in how we think.

That can be hard to do in a world where people are always pointing fingers. It can be difficult when people judge and even misjudge your situation, especially when they’ve not been through what you’ve been through. We need to read and study the Bible more. We need to pray and keep a level head about these things.

We need to trust in God and have faith in his forgiveness, and then patiently endure the trials and tribulations of life. Sometimes we can go too far with this question of why. Sometimes we don’t know the reason, and even if we do, it may not help us to know as much as we thought it would. The most important thing to do is to deal with the suffering. That’s more important than why it’s happening.

You can’t always know why a trial’s happening. You may not even need to know why, or at least some of the time, you may not need to know. But what you do need to know is how we should deal with this problem and how we should not deal with the problem.

Sometimes this same question emerges on a larger scale. What about diseases and natural disasters that affect a lot of people? Are these calamities punishments from God? There’s no doubt that the Bible shows God using these troubles to punish men. The great flood was definitely punishment for sin. Solomon prayed to God in First Kings chapter eight. And he asked for mercy for the nation of Israel “when the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you.” That’s First Kings eight verse 35.

In the Book of Job, the young man Elihu said God uses the elements of rain and wind for different reasons. He said He causes it to come “whether for correction or for his land or for mercy” . Sometimes God sends drought and other disasters to humble men and bring them to repentance.

The prophet Amos said God sent natural disasters upon Israel, but they still wouldn’t repent. God said in Amos chapter four, also, “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I also withheld rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain in one city. I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt. Your young man I killed with a sword along with your captive horses. I made the stench of your camps come up to your nostrils, yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord.” That’s Amos four, six through 10.

There are many other stories in the Bible like this. So the answer is yes, God does send earthly calamities because of man’s sins. How and when He does this, we can’t say for sure. But there are definitely two extremes that we need to avoid.

One is claiming that God never sends these kinds of afflictions today. Sometimes well-meaning Bible students take the examples Jesus gave in Luke 13 one through five and the case of the blind man in John nine and then they say that we can never say that these things can be punishment from God because of these passages. But they’re forgetting what a lot of other verses say about this. Just because the suffering in those two passages was not punishment for sin does not mean that no suffering ever is punishment for sin.

The other extreme, of course, is to assume that anytime you have a catastrophe, it is punishment from God for sin. This is the idea that all suffering is the direct result of our sins. That’s what we spent most of our time talking about today. How could anyone know the mind of God on these things, though, unless He were to reveal it? Besides, the stories in Luke 13 and John 9 show that this is not always the case. And the Book of Job certainly goes against making some kind of blanket claim that wherever there is suffering sin must be the direct cause.

Still, whether God intervenes or not, the principle of sowing and reaping is the general rule in life. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap . We don’t have to know whether God’s hand was involved in a special way. The important thing is that we repent of our sins, and that as Christians, we grow in the grace and knowledge of the truth because of our suffering.

Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.