Why Does God Allow Suffering? 5 Biblical Reasons

As a teenager, I harbored a burning desire to write a book titled Why Suffering Persists. I looked around my community and saw pain etched into the landscape of our lives. I was torn between two possibilities: Was this God’s doing, or was it entirely the fault of man?

Now, as an adult, I find myself revisiting that haunting question: Why does God allow suffering?

I hesitated to write this. Thoughts like "Do I have the authority to speak on this?" or "Should I wait until I possess the golden knowledge of old age?" raced through my mind. But I realized that waiting for a perfect understanding might mean never offering comfort to those hurting now.

I have decided to move this discussion from my internal soliloquy to the public square. I crave your indulgence as we explore what suffering means, why we endure it, and the ultimate theological question: If a benevolent Creator exists, is there a purpose behind our pain?

What Is Suffering? Understanding the Burden

To grapple with the issue, we must first define it with precision. The word suffering is the noun form of the verb suffer. Its roots are found in the Latin words sub (meaning "from below") and ferre (meaning "to bear"). Thus, etymologically, suffering is a heavy burden one must "bear from below." It implies carrying the weight of affliction, hardship, or deep need.

In Greek, the corresponding term is pathos, which translates to experience, feeling, or emotion. On a broader spectrum, suffering is any experience that breeds discomfort, distress, or unhappiness.

It is not monolithic but manifests in interconnected forms:

• Physical Suffering: Pain resulting from injury, disease, or biological decay.
• Mental & Emotional Suffering: Anxiety, depression, grief, and trauma.
• Existential Suffering: The anguish of finding meaning in the midst of loss.

A Sobering Reality: Millions of parents watch their children battle conditions like malaria, sickle cell anemia, and pneumonia. The World Health Organization notes that hundreds of thousands of children are lost annually to preventable diseases. This reality begs the question: Where is God in the midst of this heartbroken world?

The Spectrum of Human Experience

When I step out of my solitude and walk the streets, I observe the vast tapestry of humanity. Recently, while visiting a local market, five specific individuals stuck in my memory:

• A driver navigating the chaos.
• A pedestrian rushing to a destination.
• A person with a physical disability.
• A man with a limb deformity.
• A woman struggling with mental illness.

I watched them struggle to survive. It is easy to assume the wealthy are immune, but suffering is the great equalizer. The rich still bury their children; the powerful still succumb to illness; the famous still battle loneliness.

Life meets us all with unavoidable, unpleasant experiences. We often bargain with ourselves, thinking, "If only I had done X instead of Y, I wouldn't be suffering." But the truth is that we live in a fallen, fragile world.

5 Reasons Why Suffering Exists (The Human Condition)

Before we look at the divine perspective, we must acknowledge the structural reasons for suffering in our reality:

1. The Fragility of Life: We are biological beings in a physical world that is subject to decay.
2. The Reality of Sentience: To possess the capacity for great joy, we must also possess the nervous system to feel pain.
3. The Desire in Man: Unchecked desires often lead to dissatisfaction and emotional turmoil.
4. The Consequence of Choice: Actions have reactions. Sometimes we suffer due to our own choices or the choices of others.
5. Systemic Disadvantage: Poverty and inequality create environments where suffering thrives.

The Theodicy: Why Does God Allow Suffering?

This brings us to the core theological issue known as the Problem of Evil. In theology, the attempt to explain how an all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent), and all-loving (omnibenevolent) God can coexist with suffering is called Theodicy.

If God loves us, why does He not stop the pain?

Some argue that suffering proves God is not good. However, a deeper look into Scripture offers a different perspective. It suggests that while God is sovereign, He is not the author of moral evil (James 1:13). He did not invent wickedness or tempt humanity to sin. Rather, He allows the consequences of our choices while acting as the Redeemer of the brokenness that follows.

Here are five perspectives on why God allows suffering, covering moral choices, growth, reality, spiritual awakening, and divine mystery:

1. The Cost of Free Will (Authentic Love)

God created humanity not as robots but as children capable of love. The ancient theologian St. Augustine argued that for love to be genuine, it must be chosen. This required God to give humanity Free Will, or the ability to choose Him or reject Him.

• The Analogy: Imagine a man who wants a wife. He could build a robot programmed to say "I love you" every day. But would that be real love? No. To be truly loved, he must find a real person who has the freedom to say "I hate you." God took the risk of us rejecting Him, resulting in sin and suffering, so that our love for Him could be real.

2. For Character and Refining (The Greater Good)

The Bible often uses the metaphor of gold refining. As early church father Irenaeus posited, the world is a "vale of soul-making" where we grow from spiritual infancy to maturity. Suffering is often the tool God uses to carve depth into our souls.

• The Analogy: Think of a gym. If you walk into a gym and see people sweating, groaning, and struggling under heavy weights, you don't say, "The gym owner is cruel!" You understand that resistance builds muscle. A life without struggle would produce weak spirits. God allows the "weights" of life so we can build the spiritual muscles of patience, courage, and hope (Romans 5:3-4).

3. The Price of a Consistent World (Natural Law)

This addresses the difficult question of "Unnecessary Suffering" such as accidents or natural disasters. The renowned thinker C.S. Lewis argued that for the world to be meaningful, it must have consistent laws. Gravity must pull things down. Fire must consume fuel. God cannot constantly intervene to suspend these laws, or we would live in a world of chaos, not cause and effect.

• The Analogy: Think of a Kitchen Knife. A sharp knife is necessary to cut vegetables and prepare food (Good). But because the knife is sharp, it is also capable of cutting your finger (Suffering). You cannot have a knife that is sharp enough to cut carrots but magically dull when it touches skin. God created a world with sharp edges, or Natural Laws, so life could function. Sometimes we get cut not because God is cruel, but because the "knife" of the world is real.

4. The "Megaphone" of Pain (The Wake-Up Call)

Sometimes suffering is allowed to shift our focus from the temporary to the eternal. C.S. Lewis famously wrote, "God whispers to us in our pleasures... but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." If life were perfect, we would never yearn for heaven. Suffering reminds us that this world is not our final home.

• The Analogy: Think of a Smoke Alarm. The sound of a smoke alarm is ear-piercing and painful (Suffering). But the alarm is not designed to torture you. It is designed to save you. It wakes you up to a danger you cannot see. God sometimes allows the "alarm" of suffering to wake us up from spiritual sleep before we perish.

5. For God’s Pleasure and Sovereignty (The Mystery)

This is the hardest answer, yet it is where faith is truly tested. Scripture tells us that all things were created "for His pleasure" (Revelation 4:11). This does not mean God enjoys our pain. It means God has a sovereign purpose that is larger than our individual comfort. As seen in the Book of Job, human beings often lack the capacity to understand the infinite complexity of God's plan.

• The Analogy: Think of a Grandmaster playing Chess. If a novice watches a Grandmaster sacrifice his Queen, the novice might scream, "That was unnecessary! You just threw away your best piece for nothing!" To the novice, the move is senseless suffering. But the Grandmaster sees 20 moves ahead. He knows that this "unnecessary" loss is the only way to win the game in the end. We are the novice. God is the Grandmaster. We see the lost piece. He sees the checkmate.

You Are Not Alone

The most unique aspect of the Christian faith is not that it explains away every instance of suffering, but that God participates in it.

In other religions, gods remain distant, observing human pain from a safe heaven. In Christianity, we have a High Priest who is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15). God did not stay on the throne. He came down in the form of Jesus Christ. He wept, He bled, and He suffered.

Why does God allow suffering?

Sometimes it is to build us. Sometimes it is the cost of a free world. And sometimes we simply do not know. But we know this. The story isn't over. According to the scriptures:

• He defeats the penalty of suffering through the Cross.
• He defeats the power of suffering by giving us the Holy Spirit to endure.
• He will defeat the presence of suffering in the New Heaven and New Earth.

A Call to Action

While we wait for that day, we are not called to be passive.

I mentioned earlier that science, biotechnology, and medicine are working to mitigate suffering. This is not God being absent. This is God empowering us. God gives wisdom to the doctor, skill to the surgeon, and compassion to the social worker.

If you are suffering today, know this. Your pain is not invisible to God. And if you are not suffering today, you have a mandate. We are called to be the hands and feet of God. We are the answer to the question, "Why doesn't God do something?" He did do something. He made you.

Let us unite, irrespective of our beliefs, to be agents of healing in a hurting world. In doing so, we might accelerate a progression towards reducing suffering and participating in the redemption of humankind.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Why do innocent people suffer if God is good? This is one of the hardest questions in theology. From a biblical perspective, we live in a fallen world where innocent people are often affected by the consequences of sin, broken systems, and natural laws. God does not delight in the suffering of the innocent but promises justice and restoration. The death of Jesus, an innocent man, demonstrates that God understands this pain personally. Does God cause suffering or just allow it? It is important to distinguish between calamity and wickedness. God is sovereign and allows calamity, but according to James 1:13, He is not the author of moral evil (sin). He never tempts anyone to do wrong. While He allows suffering as a consequence of free will and natural laws, He often uses what He allows to bring about a greater good, as seen in the story of Joseph (Genesis 50:20). Is suffering a punishment for my sins? Not necessarily. While actions have consequences, Jesus explicitly rejected the idea that all suffering is a direct punishment for specific sins (John 9:1-3). In the story of the blind man, Jesus clarified that the man's blindness was not because of his sin or his parents' sin, but so that the works of God might be displayed in him. What is the "Problem of Evil"? The "Problem of Evil" is a philosophical argument that questions how an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good God can exist alongside evil and suffering. Theodicies (defenses of God) explain this by pointing to Free Will, the need for Soul-Making, and the reality of Natural Laws. Where is God when I am in pain? The Bible teaches that God is "close to the brokenhearted" (Psalm 34:18). He is not distant. Through the Holy Spirit, He offers comfort, strength, and presence to those who are suffering, even when the situation does not immediately change.