Answers from church history on today's questions
What Christian writers said, from about AD 107 to 1932.
134 passages · 44 writers · 14 centuries
Few writers in this collection take up suffering as a single question, and most of what they say comes from commentaries, homilies, and treatises on other subjects. Of the 134 passages here, 56 state a position on why God allows suffering and 78 mention it while treating another point. The 56 statements come from 29 writers between about AD 130 and 1904, and they sort into seven topics: the origin of evil, God's decree and permission, suffering as punishment for sin, the prosperity of the wicked, Job and Satan, testing and discipline, and endurance. Writers who address the origin of evil say that God is not the author of sin, but they differ on how to describe his permission of it, and they give several reasons for suffering, among them punishment, correction, testing, and the good God brings out of evil. Several also say that a given affliction is not a sign of the sufferer's own guilt. No statement in the collection is tagged Orthodox, and Eastern writers such as Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John of Damascus appear among the early-church statements.
7 passages · 6 writers · 100s to 1700s
Writers trace evil to the free will of creatures, describe it as a lack of good and not a created thing, and deny that God is its author.
So in no respect is God the author of evil. But since free choice and inclination originate sins, and a mistaken judgment sometimes prevails, from which, since it is ignorance and stupidity, we do not take pains to recede, punishments are rightly inflicted. For to take fever is involuntary; but when one takes fever through his own fault, from excess, we blame him.
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies 1.17
And therefore God is not the cause of evils, nor does He rejoice in evils. Nor does reason commend them, being good. If, then, any are evil, they are evil in accordance with the wants and desires of their minds, and not by necessity.
Methodius of Olympus, The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 9.16
“But if any one, proceeding more curiously, inquire: What then was the use of God’s making these evil things, which should have so great a tendency to subvert the minds of men? To one proposing such a question, we answer that we must first of all inquire whether there is any evil in substance. And although it would be sufficient to say to him that it is not suitable that the creature judge the Creator, but that to judge the work of another belongs to him who is either of equal skill or equal power; yet, to come directly to the point, we say absolutely that there is no evil in substance.
Pseudo-Clement, Pseudo-Clementine Literature 3.6.23
Since therefore it behooves us to be good not of necessity but voluntarily, it behooved God to give to the soul free will. But to this soul obeying His laws, He subjected all things without adversity, so that the rest of the things that God made should serve it, if also the soul itself had willed to serve God. But if it should refuse to serve God, those things that served it should be converted into its punishment. Wherefore if all things are rightly ordered by God, and are good, neither does God suffer evil.
Augustine of Hippo, Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus the Manichæan 2
The origin of sin is in the will; therefore in the will is also the origin of evil, both in the sense of acting against a just precept, and in the sense of suffering under a just sentence. There is thus no reason why, in your search for the origin of evil, you should fall into so great an evil as that of calling a nature so rich in good things the nature of evil, and of attributing the terrible evil of necessity to the nature of perfect good, before any commixture with evil. The cause of this erroneous belief is your pride, which you need not have unless you choose; but in your wish to defend at all hazards the error into which you have fallen, you take away the origin of evil from free-will, and place it in a fabulous nature of evil.
Augustine of Hippo, Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 24
The perfection of the universe requires both grades of goodness. But it is the care of a ruler to uphold perfection in the subjects of his government, not to make it less. Therefore it is no part of divine providence wholly to exclude from creation the capability of falling away from good. But upon this capability evil ensues: for what is capable of falling away, sometimes does fall away; and the mere lack of good is evil (Chap. VII).
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 3.71
He said, An enemy hath done this - A plain answer to the great question concerning the origin of evil. God made men (as he did angels) intelligent creatures, and consequently free either to choose good or evil: but he implanted no evil in the human soul: An enemy (with man's concurrence) hath done this.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 1.13
10 passages · 10 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers describe how God governs events that include sin: some speak of permission, some of a decree that permits, and all say God is not the author of sin.
It remains to say that such things happen without the prevention of God; for this alone saves both the providence and the goodness of God. We must not therefore think that He actively produces afflictions (far be it that we should think this!); but we must be persuaded that He does not prevent those that cause them, but overrules for good the crimes of His enemies: “I will therefore,” He says, “destroy the wall, and it shall be for treading under foot.” Providence being a disciplinary art; in the case of others for each individual’s sins, and in the case of the Lord and His apostles for ours.
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies 4.11
For God accomplishes some of His purposes, which of course are all good, through the evil desires of wicked men: for example, it was through the wicked designs of the Jews, working out the good purpose of the Father, that Christ was slain and this event was so truly good, that when the Apostle Peter expressed his unwillingness that it should take place, he was designated Satan by Him who had come to be slain. How good seemed the intentions of the pious believers who were unwilling that Paul should go up to Jerusalem lest the evils which Agabus had foretold should there befall him! And yet it was God’s purpose that he should suffer these evils for preaching the faith of Christ, and thereby become a witness for Christ.
Augustine of Hippo, The Enchiridion 101
Now the works of Providence are partly according to the good-will (of God) and partly according to permission . Works of good-will include all those that are undeniably good, while works of permission are…… . For Providence often permits the just man to encounter misfortune in order that he may reveal to others the virtue that lies concealed within him , as was the case with Job .
John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2.29
For it is beside the intention of the sinner, that any good should follow from his sin; as it was beside the intention of tyrants that the patience of the martyrs should shine forth from all their persecutions. … God therefore neither wills evil to be done, nor wills it not to be done, but wills to permit evil to be done; and this is a good.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I.Q19.A9
Here then you see, that, when God works in, and by, evil men, the evils themselves are inwrought, but yet, God cannot do evil, although He thus works the evils by evil men; because, being good Himself He cannot do evil; but He uses evil instruments, which cannot escape the sway and motion of His Omnipotence. The fault, therefore, is in the instruments, which God allows not to remain action-less; seeing that, the evils are done as God Himself moves. Just in the same manner as a carpenter would cut badly with a saw-edged or broken-edged axe. Hence it is, that the wicked man cannot but always err and sin; because, being carried along by the motion of the Divine Omnipotence, he is not permitted to remain motionless, but must will, desire, and act according to his nature.
Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will 84
Some object here to the apparent absurdity of saying God is the author of sin, if nothing is done without his will; nay, if he himself works it! This calumny is easily answered, as the method of God’s action differs materially from that of men. For when any man sins, God works in his own manner, which is very different indeed from that of man, since he exercises his own judgment, and thus is said to blind and to harden. As God therefore commands both the reprobate and the evil one, he permits them to indulge in all kinds of licentiousness, and in doing so, executes his own judgments. But he who sins is deservedly guilty, and cannot implicate God as a companion of his wickedness.
John Calvin, Commentary on Daniel, Vol. 1 4.23
We believe that this good God, after he created all things, did not abandon them to chance or fortune but leads and governs them according to his holy will, in such a way that nothing happens in this world without his orderly arrangement. Yet God is not the author of, nor can he be charged with, the sin that occurs. For his power and goodness are so great and incomprehensible that he arranges and does his work very well and justly even when the devils and wicked men act unjustly.
Reformed Churches, Belgic Confession 13
1. God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Confession of Faith 3.1
It is evident also that in no sense whatever except by a total misapplication of terms, can God be said to be “the author of sin.” Nor can it be said that God “wills the event of sin;” but the contrary is plain, that he does not will it either in a decretive, a legislative, or any other sense.
Jonathan Edwards, Freedom of the Will 5
The distinction between the efficient (or efficacious) and the permissive decrees of God, although important, has no relation to the certainty of events. … He effects good, He permits evil. He is the author of the one, but not of the other.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology I.9.1
9 passages · 9 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers connect suffering and death to Adam's sin and to personal guilt, and some say a given affliction is not a punishment for the sufferer's own sins.
“Behold, therefore,” says Paul, “the goodness and severity of God: on them that fell, severity; but upon thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness,” that is, in faith in Christ. Now hatred of evil attends the good man, in virtue of His being in nature good. Wherefore I will grant that He punishes the disobedient (for punishment is for the good and advantage of him who is punished, for it is the correction of a refractory subject); but I will not grant that He wishes to take vengeance. Revenge is retribution for evil, imposed for the advantage of him who takes the revenge.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 1.8
For since in that first transgression of the com mandment strength of body departed with immortality, and weakness came on with death—and strength cannot be received unless when immortality also has been received—it behoves us, in this bodily frailty and weakness, always to struggle and to fight. And this struggle and encounter cannot be sustained but by the strength of patience. But as we are to be examined and searched out, diverse sufferings are introduced; and a manifold kind of temptations is inflicted by the losses of property, by the heats of fevers, by the torments of wounds, by the loss of those dear to us. Nor does anything distinguish between the unrighteous and the righteous more than that in affliction the unrighteous man impatiently complains and blasphemes, while the righteous is proved by his patience, as it is written: “In pain endure, and in thy low estate have patience; for gold and silver are tried in the fire.”
Cyprian of Carthage, The Treatises of Cyprian 9
God cannot be charged with injustice, and perfect goodness is unstained by the impulses and motions of an evil will. He does not awaken mischief out of malice, but requites it in vengeance; He does not inflict it because He wishes us ill, but He aims it against our sins. For these evils are universally appointed as instruments of retribution without destruction of life, such being the sternly just ordinance of that righteous judgment. But these evils are warded off from the righteous by the law of righteousness, and are turned back upon the unrighteous by the righteousness of that judgment. Each proceeding is equally just; for the righteous, because they are righteous, the warning exhibition of evil without actual infliction; for the wicked, because they so deserve, the punitive infliction of evil; the righteous will not suffer it, though it is displayed to them; the wicked will never cease to suffer it, because it is displayed to them.
Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on Psalms I., LIII., CXXX 2.2
And now that I am writing to you I beseech you do not regard the bodily affliction which has befallen you as due to sin. When the Apostles speculated concerning the man that was born blind from the womb and asked our Lord and Saviour: “Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” they were told “Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” Do we not see numbers of heathens, Jews, heretics and men of various opinions rolling in the mire of lust, bathed in blood, surpassing wolves in ferocity and kites in rapacity, and for all this the plague does not come nigh their dwellings?
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 68
And so not only that death itself, but all the evils of this world, and the griefs and labors of men, although they come from the deserts of sins, and especially of original sin, whence life itself too became bound by the bond of death, yet have fitly remained, even when sin is forgiven; that man might have wherewith to contend for truth, and whereby the goodness of the faithful might be exercised; in order that the new man through the new covenant might be made ready among the evils of this world for a new world, by bearing wisely the misery which this condemned life deserved, and by rejoicing soberly because it will be finished, but expecting faithfully and patiently the blessedness which the future life, being set free, will have for ever.
Augustine of Hippo, On the Holy Trinity 13.16
Yet consider, dearest brother, how all that we suffer in this mortal flesh is of infirmity of nature, ordained after guilt by the fitting judgment of God. For to hunger and to thirst, to be hot, to be cold, to be weary, is of infirmity of nature.
Gregory the Great, Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great 7.30
First, then, we ought to acknowledge the hand of God which strikes us, and not to imagine that our distresses arise from a blind impetuosity of fortune; and next we ascribe this honor to God, that, since He is a Father full of goodness, He does not take pleasure in our sufferings, and therefore does not treat us more harshly than he has been offended by our sins.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Vol. 1 5.2
This blindness was allowed and ordained by God, not because the man was specially wicked, but in order to furnish a platform for the exhibition of a work of Divine mercy and power. … God has thought fit to allow evil to exist in order that He may have a platform for showing His mercy, grace, and compassion. If man had never fallen, there would have been no opportunity of showing Divine mercy. But by permitting evil, mysterious as it seems, God’s works of grace, mercy, and wisdom in saving sinners have been wonderfully manifested to all His creatures.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 9:1-12
Griefs and pains are not tokens of anger, nor punishments of sin, but love-gifts meant to help to the acquisition of wisdom. They do not come because the sufferers are wicked, but in order to make them good or better. Tempests are meant to blow us into port.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.8.4
7 passages · 7 writers · 200s to 1900s
Writers take up the complaint that the wicked do well while the righteous suffer, and answer it with God's timing, final judgment, and the purposes of present trials.
“Listen, then,” said Peter: “Some men who are blasphemers against God, and who spend their whole life in injustice and pleasure die in their own bed and obtain honourable burial; while others who worship God, and maintain their life frugally with all honesty and sobriety, die in deserted places for their observance of righteousness, so that they are not even thought worthy of burial. Where, then, is the justice of God, if there be no immortal soul to suffer punishment in the future for impious deeds, or enjoy rewards for piety and rectitude?” Then Simon said: “It is this indeed that makes me incredulous, because many well-doers perish miserably, and again many evil-doers finish long lives in happiness.”
Pseudo-Clement, Pseudo-Clementine Literature 3.5.30
“But whence,” you say, “come the rich, the healthy, the renowned, and how are some made rich by covetousness, some by inheritance, some by violence? and why does God suffer the wicked to be prosperous?” We answer, Because the retribution, according to the desert of each, does not take place here, but is reserved for hereafter. … God therefore shows you that these things are nothing, and indifferent; for if they were not indifferent, He would not bestow them on such men.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Timothy 2
Accordingly this seems to me to be one principal reason why the good are chastised along with the wicked, when God is pleased to visit with temporal punishments the profligate manners of a community. They are punished together, not because they have spent an equally corrupt life, but because the good as well as the wicked, though not equally with them, love this present life; while they ought to hold it cheap, that the wicked, being admonished and reformed by their example, might lay hold of life eternal. And if they will not be the companions of the good in seeking life everlasting, they should be loved as enemies, and be dealt with patiently. For so long as they live, it remains uncertain whether they may not come to a better mind.
Augustine of Hippo, City of God 1.9
Behold! God so governs this corporal world in external things, that, according to human reason and judgment, you must be compelled to say, either that there is no God, or that God is unjust: as a certain one saith, ‘I am often tempted to think there is no God.’ For see the great prosperity of the wicked, and on the contrary the great adversity of the good; according to the testimony of the proverbs, and of experience the parent of all proverbs.
Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will 166
But how does it seem to stand with God's justice, that the wicked should prosper in the world? ‘Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?' Jer 12:1. This has been a great stumbling, and has led many to question God's justice. Such as are highest in sin are highest in power.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 3.8
Wise and good men have, of old, been perplexed with this difficulty, how the prosperity of the wicked and the troubles of the righteous can be reconciled with the holiness and goodness of the God that governs the world. Concerning this Solomon here gives us his advice. I. He would not have us to be surprised at it, as though some strange thing happened, for he himself saw it in his days, v. 14 .
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ecclesiastes 8.4
The mystery of suffering and the mystery of its distribution, the apparent utter want of connection between righteousness and well-being, are still formidable difficulties in the way of believing in a loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful God, and are stock arguments of the unbeliever and perplexities of humble faith. Never to have felt the force of the difficulty is not so much the sign of steadfast faith as of scant reflection. To yield to it, and still more, to let it drive us to cast religion aside, is not merely folly, but sin.
Alexander Maclaren, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Minor Prophets; and Matthew Chaps. I to VIII 1.11.7
8 passages · 8 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers read Job as a case of testing and not of punishment, and note that Satan acts only within the limits God allows.
Satan will not be at liberty to do anything against the servants of the living God unless the Lord grant leave, either that He may overthrow Satan himself by the faith of the elect which proves victorious in the trial, or in the face of the world show that apostatizers to the devil’s cause have been in reality His servants. You have the case of Job, whom the devil, unless he had received authority from God, could not have visited with trial, not even, in fact, in his property, unless the Lord had said, “Behold, all that he has I put at your disposal; but do not stretch out your hand against himself.” In short, he would not even have stretched it out, unless afterwards, at his request, the Lord had granted him this permission also, saying, “Behold, I deliver him to you; only preserve his life.” So he asked in the case of the apostles likewise an opportunity to tempt them, having it only by special allowance, since the Lord in the Gospel says to Peter, “Behold, Satan asked that he might sift you as grain; but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not;” that is, that the devil should not have power granted him sufficient to endanger his faith.
Tertullian, De Fuga in Persecutione 1
If Job had not fought the battle and won the victory, he would never have received the crown of righteousness, or have heard the Lord say: “Thinkest thou that I have spoken unto thee for aught else than this, that thou mightest appear righteous.” In the gospel those only are said to be blessed who suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake. My conscience is at rest, and I know that it is not from any fault of mine that I am suffering; moreover affliction in this world is a ground for expecting a reward hereafter.’
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 108
“The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away:” very well knowing that even what the devil was able to do with these elements, he would still not have done to a servant of God, except at his Lord’s will and permission; he did confound the malice of the devil, forasmuch as he knew who it was that was making use thereof to prove him. In the sons then of unbelief like as it were in his own slaves, he doth work, like men with their beasts, and even therewith only so far as is permitted by the just judgment of God.
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Book of Psalms 78
Of these things not even the devil himself will be able to rob a man, if he who possesses them guards them with the needful carefulness: and that most malicious and ferocious demon is aware of this. For this cause also he robbed Job of his substance, not to make him poor, but that he might force him into uttering some blasphemous speech; and he tortured his body, not to subject him to infirmity, but to upset the virtue of his soul. But nevertheless when he had set all his devices in motion, and turned him from a rich man into a poor one (that calamity which seems to us the most terrible of all), and had made him childless who was once surrounded by many children, and had scarified his whole body more cruelly than the executioners do in the public tribunals (for their nails do not lacerate the sides of those who fall into their hands so severely as the gnawing of the worms lacerated his body), and when he had fastened a bad reputation upon him (for Job’s friends who were present with him said “thou hast not received the chastisement which thy sins deserve,” and directed many words of accusation against him), and after he had not merely expelled him from city and home and transferred him to another city, but had actually made the dunghill serve as his home and city; after all this, he not only did him no damage but rendered him more glorious by the designs which he formed against him.
John Chrysostom, A Treatise to Prove that No One Can Harm the Man Who Does Not Injure Himself 3
For the patience of Job did not bring any gain to the devil, through making him a better man by his temptations, but only to Job himself who endured them bravely; nor was Judas granted freedom from eternal punishment, because his act of betrayal contributed to the salvation of mankind.
John Cassian, The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X 7.9
From the first chapter of Job we learn that Satan appears in the presence of God to receive his orders, just as do the angels who obey spontaneously. The manner and the end are different, but still the fact is, that he cannot attempt anything without the will of God. But though afterwards his power to afflict the saint seems to be only a bare permission, yet as the sentiment is true, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done,” we infer that God was the author of that trial of which Satan and wicked robbers were merely the instruments.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion I.18
It is a matter of comfort that God has the devil in a chain, in a great chain, Rev. xx. 1 . He could not afflict Job without leave from God first asked and obtained, and then no further than he had leave: " Only upon himself put not forth thy hand; meddle not with his body, but only with his estate." It is a limited power that the devil has; he has no power to debauch men but what they give him themselves, nor power to afflict men but what is given him from above.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Job 1.3
Indeed the prologue is more completely the solution than the ending is; for it shows the purpose of Job’s trials as being, not his punishment, but his testing. The whole theory that individual sorrows were the result of individual sins, in the support of which Job’s friends poured out so many eloquent and heartless commonplaces, is discredited from the beginning. … Suffering comes with the mission of trying what stuff a man is made of, and it leads to closer knowledge of God, which is blessed; to lowlier self-estimation, which is also blessed; and to renewed outward blessings, which hide the old scars and gladden the tortured heart.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.7.7
8 passages · 8 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers present affliction as a father's correction, as a trial that refines faith, and as something God turns to a greater good.
To speak briefly, therefore, the Lord acts towards us as we do towards our children. … For those who speak with a man merely to please him, have little love for him, seeing they do not pain him; while those that speak for his good, though they inflict pain for the time, do him good for ever after. It is not immediate pleasure, but future enjoyment, that the Lord has in view.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 1.9
For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and a rebuke is a fatherly action; while every soul which is unchastised, is unhealed. Is not then freedom from chastisement a hard thing? But to fail to be corrected by the chastisement is still harder.
Gregory of Nazianzus, Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 9
“Ye endure chastisement” (he says); not for punishment, nor for vengeance, nor for suffering. … If ye did not suffer, then it were right to suppose this. For if “He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth,” he who is not scourged, perhaps is not a son.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 33
For God allows evils to happen in order to bring a greater good therefrom; hence it is written ( Rom. 5:20 ): "Where sin abounded, grace did more abound." Hence, too, in the blessing of the Paschal candle, we say: "O happy fault, that merited such and so great a Redeemer!"
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III.Q1.A3
In temptations and trials the progress of a man is measured; in them opportunity for merit and virtue is made more manifest. When a man is not troubled it is not hard for him to be fervent and devout, but if he bears up patiently in time of adversity, there is hope for great progress. Some, guarded against great temptations, are frequently overcome by small ones in order that, humbled by their weakness in small trials, they may not presume on their own strength in great ones.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 1.13
Consider that sad accidents and a state of affliction is a school of virtue; it reduces our spirits to soberness, and our counsels to moderation; it corrects levity, and interrupts the confidence of sinning. … For God, who in mercy and wisdom governs the world, would never have suffered so many sadnesses, and have sent them especially to the most virtuous and the wisest men, but that he intends they should be the seminary of comfort, the nursery of virtue, the exercise of wisdom, the trial of patience, the venturing for a crown, and the gate of glory.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 2.6.3
1. That God's people shall get good by their sufferings. … The afflictions of the saints are fatherly chastenings, designed for their instruction, reformation, and improvement. … It is not the chastening itself that does good, but the teaching that goes along with it and is the exposition of it.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 94.2
“Just as a vine-dresser prunes and cuts all healthy branches of a vine in order to prevent it running to wood, and have it bear more fruit, so does my Father deal with all my believing members. He prunes and purifies them by affliction and trouble, in order to make them more fruitful in holiness.” Let us remember that this sentence throws light on many of the afflictions and trials of God’s people. They are all part of that mysterious process by which God the Father purifies and sanctifies Christ’s people. They are the “pruning” of the vine-branches, for good and not for harm, to increase their fruitfulness.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 15:1-6
7 passages · 7 writers · 100s to 1600s
Writers urge patience and joy in suffering, point to comfort and the coming glory, and connect the sufferings of Christians to Christ's own.
Let not then the godly man be grieved, if he be wretched in the times that now are; a blessed time waits for him. He, living again above with the fathers, shall be joyful for an eternity without grief.
Pseudo-Clement, An Ancient Homily. The Second Epistle of Clement 3
But let us, knowing that we suffer for the truth, and that those who deny the Lord smite and persecute us, ‘count it all joy, my brethren,’ according to the words of James, ‘when we fall into trials of various temptations, knowing that the trial of our faith worketh patience .’ Let us rejoice as we keep the feast, my brethren, knowing that our salvation is ordered in the time of affliction.
Athanasius of Alexandria, Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life 3.3.11
Where affliction is, there is also consolation; where consolation, there is grace also. … And so it was too in the Old Testament; by their trials the righteous flourished. So it was with the three children, so with Daniel, with Moses, and Joseph; thence did they all shine and were counted worthy of great crowns. For then the soul also is purified, when it is afflicted for God’s sake: it then enjoys greater assistance as needing more help and worthy of more grace.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Second Corinthians 26
Although you were taken to the third heaven with Paul, you were not thereby insured against suffering. Jesus said: “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Acts 9:16. To suffer, then, remains your lot, if you mean to love Jesus and serve Him forever.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 2.12
We know that we suffer these things not because we are thieves and murderers, but for Christ’s sake whose Gospel we proclaim. We have no reason to complain. The world, of course, looks upon us as unhappy and accursed creatures, but Christ for whose sake we suffer pronounces us blessed and bids us to rejoice. “Blessed are ye,” says He, “when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians 6:14
6. Thus, indeed, it is; the whole body of the faithful, so long as they live on the earth, must be like sheep for the slaughter, in order that they may be conformed to Christ their head (Rom. 8:36). Most deplorable, therefore, would their situation be did they not, by raising their mind to heaven, become superior to all that is in the world, and rise above the present aspect of affairs (1 Cor. 15:19). On the other hand, when once they have raised their head above all earthly objects, though they see the wicked flourishing in wealth and honour, and enjoying profound peace, indulging in luxury and splendour, and revelling in all kinds of delights, though they should moreover be wickedly assailed by them, suffer insult from their pride, be robbed by their avarice, or assailed by any other passion, they will have no difficulty in bearing up under these evils.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion III.9
See here, that sufferings must go before glory. … 2 Tim 2:12. The wicked first reign and then suffer; the godly first suffer, and then reign. There is no way to Constantinople, but through the strait; no way to heaven, but through sufferings; no way to the crown, but by the cross.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 5.7
8 passages · 8 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers mention the coming glory, reward, or rest as the measure of present suffering.
But I, O thou blessed woman, not being now so much my own master as in the power of others, am driven along by the varying wills of many adversaries, being in one sense in exile, in another in prison, and in a third in bonds. But I pay no regard to these things. Yea, by the injuries inflicted on me through them, I acquire all the more the character of a disciple, that I may attain to Jesus Christ. May I enjoy the torments which are prepared for me, seeing that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Ignatius of Antioch, The Epistles of Ignatius 2
For the apostle announces that we shall receive greater things than anything that we here either do or suffer, saying, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come hereafter which shall be revealed in us.” When that revelation shall come, when that glory of God shall shine upon us, we shall be as happy and joyful, honoured with the condescension of God, as they will remain guilty and wretched, who, either as deserters from God or rebels against Him, have done the will of the devil, so that it is necessary for them to be tormented with the devil himself in unquenchable fire.
Cyprian of Carthage, The Epistles of Cyprian 55
Though affliction may come, it will have an end, though insult and persecution, yet are they nothing to the hope which is set [before us]. For all present matters are trifling compared with those which are future; the sufferings of this present time not being worthy to be compared with the hope that is to come . … Therefore it is not right, my beloved, to consider afflictions and persecutions, but the hopes which are laid up for us because of persecutions.
Athanasius of Alexandria, Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life 3.3.11
What is there to excite surprise, if, in the Christian dispensation, the world, like that servant, knowing the will of the Lord, and refusing to do it, is beaten with many stripes? These men remark the rapidity with which the gospel is proclaimed: they do not remark the perversity with which by many it is despised. But the meek and pious servants of God, who have to bear a double portion of temporal calamities, since they suffer both at the hands of wicked men and along with them, have also consolations peculiarly their own, and the hope of the world to come; for which reason the apostle says, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in us.”
Augustine of Hippo, Letters of St. Augustin 1.104
Even so, on the other hand, it can do no harm to the righteous to lay down the present life through sword, or steel, or fire, when they are to depart to the good things that are immortal. … But not so was it with Lazarus; for when lying upon the pavement, while the dogs came and licked his sores, he had suffered a violent death (for what could be more painful than hunger?), but on his departing hence he enjoyed eternal blessings, luxuriating in the bosom of Abraham! In what respect, then, did it injure him that he died a violent death? or what did it profit the rich man, that he died not with violence?
John Chrysostom, The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 7
Do you cling to the hope that confounds not. Do you keep yourself, I say, for that far more exceeding weight of glory, which our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh (2 Cor. iv. 17) for you on high.
Bernard of Clairvaux, Some Letters of Saint Bernard 52
There is a rest that remains for the people of God, a rest from sin and sorrow. Though many may be the troubles of the righteous now, yet God will deliver them out of them all. The future rest will abundantly recompense all their present troubles. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. There is enough in heaven to countervail all that we may lose or suffer for the name of Christ in this world.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Second Thessalonians 1.2
Great to us seem the things which we suffer; but one of thy most illustrious citizens, placed amid those sufferings, who knew something of thee, hesitated not to say, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" Co2 4:17. We will then "rejoice in hope," and "by the waters of Babylon," even while "we sit and weep," we will "remember thee, O Zion.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Joel 3:21
9 passages · 9 writers · 200s to 1800s
Writers mention that the wicked prosper and that their end or God's judgment is still to come.
“But you say, Neither ought God to do evil. … But you will say, If it is right to punish the wicked, they ought to be punished immediately when they do wickedly. You indeed do well to make haste; but He who is eternal, and from whom nothing is secret, inasmuch as He is without end, in the same proportion is His patience extended, and He regards not the swiftness of vengeance, but the causes of salvation. For He is not so much pleased with the death as with the conversion of a sinner.
Pseudo-Clement, Pseudo-Clementine Literature 3.12.49
But if any one shall wish to know more fully why God permits the wicked and the unjust to become powerful, happy, and rich, and, on the other hand, suffers the pious to be humble, wretched, and poor, let him take the book of Seneca which has the title, “Why many evils happen to good men, though there is a providence;” in which book he has said many things, not assuredly with the ignorance of this world, but wisely, and almost with divine inspiration. “God,” he says, “regards men as His children, but He permits the corrupt and vicious to live in luxury and delicacy, because He does not think them worthy of His correction.
Lactantius, The Divine Institutes 5.23
Do not great waves of doubt surge up over my soul as over yours? How comes it, I ask, that godless men live to old age in the enjoyment of this world’s riches? How comes it that untutored youth and innocent childhood are cut down while still in the bud?
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 39
Be not seduced by the prosperity of the wicked, admire not the flower of grass: admire not those who are happy only for a season, but miserable unto eternity.…If ye wish to flourish like a palm-tree, and to spread abroad like a cedar in Libanus, and not to wither like grass when the sun is hot; as those who appear to flourish when the sun is absent. If then ye wish not to be as grass, but as the palm-tree and the cedar, what will ye show forth? “How true the Lord my strength is: and that there is no unrighteousness in Him.” How is it there is no unrighteousness?
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Book of Psalms 92
If there is no resurrection, neither is there any God nor Providence, but all things are driven and borne along of themselves. For observe how we see most righteous men suffering hunger and injustice and receiving no help in the present life, while sinners and unrighteous men abound in riches and every delight.
John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.27
This, indeed, is our only consolation; deprived of it, we must either give way to despondency, or resort to our destruction to the vain solace of the world. The Psalmist confesses, “My feet were almost gone: my steps had well nigh slipt: for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked,” (Psalm 73:3, 4); and he found no resting-place until he entered the sanctuary, and considered the latter end of the righteous and the wicked.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion III.9
Use four: If God be just, there will be a day of judgement. Now things are out of course; sin is rampant, saints are wronged, they are often cast in a righteous cause, they can meet with no justice here, justice is turned into wormwood; but there is a day coming, when God will set things right; he will do every man justice; he will crown the righteous and condemn the wicked. … At that day shall all mouths be stopped, and God's justice shall be fully vindicated from all the cavils and clamours of unjust men.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 3.8
Because the prosperity of the wicked will soon be at an end ( v. 9 ): Evil-doers shall be cut off by some sudden stroke of divine justice in the midst of their prosperity; what they have got by sin will not only flow away from them ( Job xx. 28 ), but they shall be carried away with it. See the end of these men ( Ps. lxxiii. 17 ), how dear their ill-got gain will cost them, and you will be far from envying them or from being willing to espouse their lot, for better, for worse. Their ruin is sure, and it is very near ( v. 10 ): Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be what they now are; they are brought into desolation in a moment, Ps. lxxiii. 19 .
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 37.2
The judgments of God are represented as falling on the wicked in a future state, and thus effectually vindicating the justice of God in his dealings with men. The Psalmist said, he was envious at the foolish, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked, until he went into the sanctuary of God and understood their end. … Such is the drift and spirit of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology IV.1.1
8 passages · 7 writers · 100s to 1700s
Writers quote or cite the teaching that the Lord chastens those he loves, usually as part of another point.
“Do not any longer,” he says, “my son, despise the chastening of the Lord , nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.” O surpassing love for man! Not as a teacher speaking to his pupils, not as a master to his domestics, nor as God to men, but as a father, does the Lord gently admonish his children.
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 9
Furthermore, the general of an army, by inflicting fines and corporeal punishments with chains and the extremest disgrace on offenders, and sometimes even by punishing individuals with death, aims at good, doing so for the admonition of the officers under him. Thus also He who is our great General, the Word, the Commander-in-chief of the universe, by admonishing those who throw off the restraints of His law, that He may effect their release from the slavery, error, and captivity of the adversary, brings them peacefully to the sacred concord of citizenship.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 1.8
For it is not to be feared that parents would seem to hate a little son when, on committing an offence, he is beaten by them that he may not go on offending. And certainly the perfection of love is set before us by the imitation of God the Father Himself when it is said in what follows: “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which persecute you;” and yet it is said of Him by the prophet, “For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; yea, He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”
Augustine of Hippo, Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 2.20
Why dost thou yearn after wealth? For this cause He took it away from thee, that He might free thee from slavery. For true fathers also, when a son is corrupted by some mistress, and having given him much exhortation they do not persuade him to part from her, send the mistress into banishment. Such also is abundance of wealth. Because the Lord cares for us, and delivers us from the harm [which arises] therefrom, He takes away wealth from us.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 37
I at once allow that the man who measures the love of God from the state of things as presently existing, judges by a standard which must lead to a false conclusion; “for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,” ( Hebrews 12:6 .) But as God is never so severe towards his own people as not to furnish them with actual experimental evidence of his grace, it stands always true that life is profitless to men, if they do not feel, while they live, that He is their father.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 3 89.9
Guide me, O Lord, in all the changes and varieties of the world; that in all things that shall happen I may have an evenness and tranquility of spirit; that my soul may be wholly resigned to thy divine will and pleasure, never murmuring at thy gentle chastisements and fatherly correction; never waxing proud and insolent, though I feel a torrent of comforts and prosperous successes.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 1.4.3
Oh how is our Father put to it by froward children! If he afflicts, then one cries, he loves me not: if he exempt from affliction, others question his love upon that ground. Surely you have other work to do under the rod, than this. 2. Or do you rashly infer the Lord has no love for you, because he hides his face from you; that your condition is miserable, because dark and uncomfortable?
John Flavel, A Saint Indeed 14
5. And yet ye seem already to have forgotten the exhortation - Wherein God speaketh to you with the utmost tenderness. Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord - Do not slight or make little of it; do not impute any affliction to chance or second causes but see and revere the hand of God in it. Neither faint when thou art rebuked of him - But endure it patiently and fruitfully.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 19.12
6 passages · 6 writers · 300s to 1800s
Writers mention that trouble tests faith and produces patience, using images of fire, the refiner, and the flail.
Remember how none of the saints of old won their crowns of patient endurance by living luxuriously and being courted; but all were tested by being put through the fire of great afflictions. “For some had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, and others were sawn asunder and were slain with the sword.” These are the glories of saints. Blessed is he who is deemed worthy to suffer for Christ; more blessed is he whose sufferings are greater, since “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.”
Basil of Caesarea, The Letters 139
Where the feet of saints step, there will be nothing painful; and if such should happen, it is for proving us and for the greater glory of God. … Be not thou afraid: (the wicked one) fears the tracks of saints, as foxes do lions.
John Chrysostom, A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 53
GOD never permits such grievous temptations and assaults to try any, save those souls whom He designs to lead on to His own living, highest love, but nevertheless it does not follow as a natural consequence that they are certain to attain thereto. Indeed, it has often happened that those who had been stedfast under violent assaults, failing to correspond faithfully to Divine Grace, have yielded under the pressure of very trifling temptations. I would warn you of this, my child, so that, should you ever be tried by great temptations, you may know that God is showing special favour to you, thereby proving that He means to exalt you in His Sight; but that at the same time you may ever be humble and full of holy fear, not overconfident in your power to resist lesser temptations because you have overcome those that were greater, unless by means of a most stedfast faithfulness to God.
Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life 4.5
There is more evil in a drop of sin than in a sea of affliction. Affliction is but like a rent in a coat, sin a prick at the heart. In affliction there is aliquid mellis, some good: in this lion there is some honey to be found. … ‘Affliction is God's flail to thresh off our husks; not to consume, but to refine.'
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 4.1
There must be patience: The trial of faith worketh patience. The trying of one grace produces another; and the more the suffering graces of a Christian are exercised the stronger they grow. … Let us take care, in times of trial, that patience and not passion, be set at work in us; whatever is said or done, let patience have the saying and doing of it: let us not allow the indulging of our passions to hinder the operation and noble effects of patience; let us give it leave to work, and it will work wonders in a time of trouble.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on James 1.2
Nothing brings out character so much as sickness and affliction. It we would know how much grace believers have, we should see them in trouble.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 11:17-29
6 passages · 6 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers mention death, calamity, and the curse on the earth as results of Adam's sin, and one says God inflicts pain to prevent fault.
For God made man free, and with power over himself. That, then, which man brought upon himself through carelessness and disobedience, this God now vouchsafes to him as a gift through His own philanthropy and pity, when men obey Him. For as man, disobeying, drew death upon himself; so, obeying the will of God, he who desires is able to procure for himself life everlasting.
Theophilus of Antioch, Theophilus to Autolycus - Book II 27
47. And, indeed, death was no part of man’s nature, but became natural; for God did not institute death at first, but gave it as a remedy. Let us then take heed that it do not seem to be the opposite. For if death is a good, why is it written that “God made not death, but by the malice of men death entered into the world”? For of a truth death was no necessary part of the divine operation, since for those who were placed in paradise a continual succession of all good things streamed forth; but because of transgression the life of man, condemned to lengthened labour, began to be wretched with intolerable groaning; so that it was fitting that an end should be set to the evils, and that death should restore what life had lost. For immortality, unless grace breathed upon it, would be rather a burden than an advantage.
Ambrose of Milan, On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus 3
On account of thee, O man. For since thou hast taken a body mortal and liable to suffering, the earth too hath received a curse, and brought forth thorns and thistles.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 16
But divine wisdom inflicts pain to prevent fault. Therefore fault is a greater evil than pain. I answer that, Fault has the nature of evil more than pain has; not only more than pain of sense, consisting in the privation of corporeal goods, which kind of pain appeals to most men; but also more than any kind of pain, thus taking pain in its most general meaning, so as to include privation of grace or glory. There is a twofold reason for this. The first is that one becomes evil by the evil of fault, but not by the evil of pain, as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv): "To be punished is not an evil; but it is an evil to be made worthy of punishment."
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I.Q48.A6
Thence it follows, that under the name of death is comprehended all those miseries in which Adam involved himself by his defection; for as soon as he revolted from God, the fountain of life, he was cast down from his former state, in order that he might perceive the life of man without God to be wretched and lost, and therefore differing nothing from death. Hence the condition of man after his sin is not improperly called both the privation of life, and death. The miseries and evils both of soul and body, with which man is beset so long as he is on earth, are a kind of entrance into death, till death itself entirely absorbs him; for the Scripture everywhere calls those dead who, being oppressed by the tyranny of sin and Satan, breath nothing but their own destruction. Wherefore the question is superfluous, how it was that God threatened death to Adam on the day in which he should touch the fruit, when he long deferred the punishment? For then was Adam consigned to death, and death began its reign in him, until supervening grace should bring a remedy.
John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1 2.1
Death, according to the Scriptures, is a penal evil. It presupposes sin. No rational moral creature is subject to death except on account of sin.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology II.8.13
6 passages · 5 writers · 1600s to 1900s
Writers mention that God permits evil or governs it to an end, without making that the main point.
Though God be said to be the cause of creation, yet he is never by any said to be the cause of that nothing which was before creation. This permission of God is not the cause of sin, but the cause of not hindering sin. Man and angels had a physical power of sinning from God, as they were created with freewill, and supported in their natural strength; but the moral power to sin was not from God; he counselled them not to it, laid no obligation upon them to use their natural power for such an end; he only left them to their freedom, and not hindered them in their acting what he was resolved to permit.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 11
The great source of confusion into which many authors have plunged themselves, is, that they draw too hasty an inference in attempting to make not hindering an event to be ultimately the same as willing it.
Jonathan Edwards, Freedom of the Will 5
Hereby we ask of God that all we do, and all that befalls us, may be ordered not as we will, but as pleases him. 413. Why need we ask this? Because we often err in our wishes; but God unerringly, and incomparably more than we ourselves, wishes for us all that is good, and is ever ready to bestow it, unless he be prevented by our willfulness and obstinacy.
Philaret of Moscow, The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church q. 412–414
The preceptive will relates to the rule of duty for his rational creatures. He decrees whatever he purposes to effect or to permit. … He may, as we see He does, decree to permit what He forbids. He permits men to sin, although sin is forbidden. This is more scholastically expressed by the theologians by saying, A positive decretive will cannot consist with a negative preceptive will; i.e., God cannot decree to make men sin.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology I.5.9
The good acts of men then are rendered certain by the positive decree of God, and the sinful acts occur only by His permission. Yet it is more than a bare permission by which the sinful acts occur, for that would leave it uncertain whether or not they would be done. … Satan could go no farther with Job than God permitted; but it is certain that he would go as far as God allowed."
Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination 29
To a certain extent we can say that the reason for the permission of sin is that, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Such deep, unfathomable grace could not have been shown if sin had been excluded. As a matter of fact we gain more through salvation in Christ than we lost by the fall in Adam.
Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination 29
9 passages · 9 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers mention that evil comes from free choice and not from God, while treating another subject.
Plato in what follows gives an exhibition of free-will: “Virtue owns not a master; and in proportion as each one honours or dishonours it, in that proportion he will be a partaker of it. The blame lies in the exercise of free choice.” But God is blameless. For He is never the author of evil.
Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies 5.14
The heretic of Pontus introduces two Gods, like the twin Symplegades of his own shipwreck: One whom it was impossible to deny, i.e. our Creator; and one whom he will never be able to prove, i.e. his own god . The unhappy man gained the first idea of his conceit from the simple passage of our Lord’s saying, which has reference to human beings and not divine ones, wherein He disposes of those examples of a good tree and a corrupt one; how that “the good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither the corrupt tree good fruit.” Which means, that an honest mind and good faith cannot produce evil deeds, any more than an evil disposition can produce good deeds. Now (like many other persons now-a-days, especially those who have an heretical proclivity), while morbidly brooding over the question of the origin of evil, his perception became blunted by the very irregularity of his researches; and when he found the Creator declaring, “I am He that createth evil,” inasmuch as he had already concluded from other arguments, which are satisfactory to every perverted mind, that God is the author of evil, so he now applied to the Creator the figure of the corrupt tree bringing forth evil fruit, that is, moral evil, and then presumed that there ought to be another god, after the analogy of the good tree producing its good fruit.
Tertullian, The Five Books Against Marcion 1.2
Now those who decide that man is not possessed of free-will, and affirm that he is governed by the unavoidable necessities of fate, and her unwritten commands, are guilty of impiety towards God Himself, making Him out to be the cause and author of human evils. For if He harmoniously orders the whole circular motion of the stars, with a wisdom which man can neither express nor comprehend, directing the course of the universe; and the stars produce the qualities of virtue and vice in human life, dragging men to these things by the chains of necessity; then they declare God to be the Cause and Giver of evils. But God is the cause of injury to no one; therefore fate is not the cause of all things.
Methodius of Olympus, The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 9.16
The devil then is the first author of sin, and the father of the wicked: and this is the Lord’s saying, not mine, that the devil sinneth from the beginning : none sinned before him. But he sinned, not as having received necessarily from nature the propensity to sin, since then the cause of sin is traced back again to Him that made him so; but having been created good, he has of his own free will become a devil, and received that name from his action.
Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 6
3. Accordingly, when the Catholic Church declares that God is the author of all natures and substances, those who understand this understand at the same time that God is not the author of evil. For how can He who is the cause of the being of all things be at the same time the cause of their not being,—that is, of their falling off from essence and tending to non-existence? For this is what reason plainly declares to be the definition of evil.
Augustine of Hippo, On the Morals of the Manichæans 2
God in His goodness brought what exists into being out of nothing, and has foreknowledge of what will exist in the future. … But if the very existence of those, who through the goodness of God are in the future to exist, were to be prevented by the fact that they were to become evil of their own choice, evil would have prevailed over the goodness of God. Wherefore God makes all His works good, but each becomes of its own choice good or evil.
John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.21
157. Whence is sin in men, seeing that they were created in the image of God, and God can not sin? From the devil. … The devil deceived Eve and Adam, and induced them to transgress God's commandment.
Philaret of Moscow, The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church q. 150–165
It was partly the difficulty of conceiving of the non-existing passing into existence, and partly the need for a solution of the question concerning the origin of evil, that led Plato and other Greek philosophers to adopt the theory of the eternity of matter, which they regarded as the source of evil; a theory which passed over to Philo and to the Platonizing fathers. The Scriptural theory, or rather doctrine of the origin of evil, refers it to the free agency of rational creatures, and dispenses with the preëxistence of anything independent of God.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology I.10.4
The "only" way of accounting for the scarcity of even comparatively upright men and women is that, whereas God made man upright, they (men) have, &c. The only account to be "found" of the origin of evil, the great mystery of theology, is that given in Holy Writ (Ge 2:1-3:24). Among man's "inventions" was the one especially referred to in Ec 7:26, the bitter fruits of which Solomon experienced, the breaking of God's primeval marriage law, joining one man to "one" woman (Mt 19:4, 5, 6).
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Ecclesiastes 7
9 passages · 5 writers · 200s to 1900s
Writers use Job or the case of an innocent sufferer to say that affliction is not always a mark of guilt.
10. Thus Job, after the loss of his wealth, after the death of his children, grievously afflicted, moreover, with sores and worms, was not overcome, but proved; since in his very struggles and anguish, showing forth the patience of a religious mind, he says, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, naked also I shall go under the earth: the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it seemed fit to the Lord, so it hath been done. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” And when his wife also urged him, in his impatience at the acuteness of his pain, to speak something against God with a complaining and envious voice, he answered and said, “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women. If we have received good from the hand of the Lord, why shall we not suffer evil?
Cyprian of Carthage, The Treatises of Cyprian 7
3. Long ago this wealthy proprietor and still wealthier father was made by a sudden stroke destitute and bereaved. But as, in spite of all that befel him, he had not sinned before God or spoken foolishly, the Lord—exulting in the victory of his servant and regarding Job’s patience as His own triumph—said to the devil: “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity?” He finely adds the last clause because it is difficult for innocence to refrain from murmuring when it is overborne by misfortune; and to avoid making a shipwreck of faith when it sees that its sufferings are unjustly inflicted.
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 118
10. Thou too then, if thou hast Him for thy Friend, be not despairing, although thou fallest into the furnace: and in like manner if He be angry, think not thou art safe though thou be in Paradise. For Adam indeed was in Paradise, yet, when he had provoked God, Paradise profited him nothing. These youths were in the furnace; yet, since they were approved, the furnace injured them not at all. Adam was in Paradise, but when he was supine, he was supplanted! Job sat down on the dunghill, yet, since he was vigilant he prevailed!
John Chrysostom, The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 6
The poor man is looked down upon and insulted. … But the poor man, if he knows how to be spiritually wise, is not assailable even by the devil himself. Job therefore, strong as he was before this, when he lost all, became still more powerful, and bore away an illustrious victory from the devil!
John Chrysostom, The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 4
Didst thou see him in prosperity, in high esteem, that thou shouldst say that he is wicked and worthless? But if thou seest him in affliction, do not say that he is wicked. For when a man is in high credit, we fairly say these things; but when he is in calamity, and needs help, it is not right to say that he is wicked. For this is cruelty, inhumanity, and arrogance. Tell me what was ever more iniquitous than the Jews. But nevertheless while God punished them, and that justly, yea, very justly, yet He approved of those who had compassion on them, and those who rejoiced over them He punished. ( Amos vi. 6 .)
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 14
It was a great truth that Job did not fear God for nought; he got much by it, for godliness is great gain: but it was a falsehood that he would not have feared God if he had not got this by it, as the event proved. Job's friends charged him with hypocrisy because he was greatly afflicted, Satan because he greatly prospered. It is no hard matter for those to calumniate that seek an occasion.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Job 1.3
Job's friends are like Job's messengers: the latter followed one another close with evil tidings, the former followed him with harsh censures: both, unawares, served Satan's design; these to drive him from his integrity, those to drive him from the comfort of it. Eliphaz did not reply to what Job had said in answer to him, but left it to Bildad, whom he knew to be of the same mind with himself in this affair. Those are not the wisest of the company, but the weakest rather, who covet to have all the talk. Let others speak in their turn, and let the first keep silence, 1 Cor. xiv. 30, 31 . Eliphaz had undertaken to show that because Job was sorely afflicted he was certainly a wicked man.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Job 8.0
When Job insisted so much upon his own integrity, and the severity of God's dealings with him, he did in effect say, My righteousness is more than God's; whereas, though we be ever so good and our afflictions ever so great, we are chargeable with unrighteousness and God is not. 2. For disowning the benefits and advantages of religion because he suffered these things: What profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin? v. 3 . This is gathered from ch. ix. 30, 31 . Though I make my hands ever so clean, what the nearer am I?
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Job 35.1
‘Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,’ says the Epistle to the Hebrews, in full accord with Eliphaz. But his well-meant and true words flew wide of their mark, for two reasons. They were chillingly didactic, and it is vinegar upon nitre to stand over an agonised soul and preach platitudes in an unsympathetic voice. And they assumed unusual sin in Job as the explanation of his unparalleled pains, while the prologue tells us that his sufferings were not fruits of his sin, but trials of his righteousness. He was horrified at Job’s words, which seemed to him full of rebellion and irreverence; and he made no allowance for the wild cries of an agonised heart when he solemnly warned the sufferer against ‘despising’ God’s chastening. A more sympathetic ear would have detected the accent of faith in the groans.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.7.2
10 passages · 10 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers mention that Christians share Christ's sufferings, that their sufferings can serve others, and that persecution is expected.
For to endure to the end is nought else than to suffer the end. And therefore there immediately follow, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his own lord;” because, seeing the Master and Lord Himself was stedfast in suffering persecution, betrayal and death, much more will it be the duty of His servants and disciples to bear the same, that they may not seem as if superior to Him, or to have got an immunity from the assaults of unrighteousness, since this itself should be glory enough for them, to be conformed to the sufferings of their Lord and Master; and, preparing them for the endurance of these, He reminds them that they must not fear such persons as kill the body only, but are not able to destroy the soul, but that they must dedicate fear to Him rather who has such power that He can kill both body and soul, and destroy them in hell.
Tertullian, Scorpiace. Antidote for the Scorpion's Sting 9
The sufferings therefore of Christ are not in Christ alone; nay, there are not any save in Christ. For if Christ thou understandest to be Head and Body, the sufferings of Christ are not, save in Christ: but if Christ thou understand of Head alone, the sufferings of Christ are not in Christ alone. For if the sufferings of Christ are in Christ alone, to wit in the Head alone; whence saith a certain member of Him, Paul the Apostle, “In order that I may supply what are wanting of the oppressions of Christ in my flesh”? If therefore in the members of Christ thou art, whatsoever man thou art that art hearing these words, whosoever thou art that dost hear these words (but however, thou dost hear, if in the members of Christ thou art): whatsoever thing thou sufferest from those that are not in the members of Christ, was wanting to the sufferings of Christ. Therefore it is added because it was wanting; thou fillest up the measure, thou causest it not to run over: thou sufferest so much as was to be contributed out of thy sufferings to the whole suffering of Christ, that hath suffered in our Head, and doth suffer in His members, that is, in our own selves.
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Book of Psalms 62
“The reproach of Christ.” For the being reproached for the sake of Christ he accounted better than being thus at ease; and this itself by itself was reward. “Choosing rather” (he says) “to suffer affliction with the people of God.” For ye indeed suffer on your own account, but he “chose” [to suffer] for others; and voluntarily threw himself into so many dangers, when it was in his power both to live religiously, and to enjoy good things. “Than” (he says) “to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” He called unwillingness “to suffer affliction with the” rest “sin”: this, he says, [Moses] accounted to be “sin.” If then he accounted it “sin” not to be ready to “suffer affliction with” the rest, it follows that the suffering affliction must be a great good since he threw himself into it from the royal palace.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 30
Indeed very grateful to me is any kind of trouble which is brought on me for the sake of the divine doctrines. For, if we really trust in the Lord’s promises, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” … And the divine Apostle is witness of what I say, exclaiming as he does, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Theodoret of Cyrrhus, The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret 10.21
Persecution does not diminish but increase the church, and the Lord’s field is clothed with an ever richer crop, while the grains, which fall singly, spring up and are multiplied a hundred-fold . Hence how large a progeny have sprung from these two Heaven-sown seeds is shown by the thousands of blessed martyrs, who, rivalling the Apostles’ triumphs, have traversed the city far and wide in purple-clad and ruddy-gleaming throngs, and crowned it, as it were with a single diadem of countless gems.
Leo the Great, The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great 5.42
The sufferings of the saints are beneficial to the Church, as by way, not of redemption, but of example and exhortation, according to 2 Cor. 1:6 : "Whether we be in tribulation, it is for your exhortation and salvation."
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III.Q48.A5
That the death of the martyrs was in a special manner for the glorifying of God. The truths of God, which they died in the defence of, are hereby confirmed. … Precious therefore in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, as that which honours him; and those who thereby at such an expense honour him he will honour.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on John 21.2
4. Who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any affliction - He that has experienced one kind of affliction is able to comfort others in that affliction. He that has experienced all kinds of affliction is able to comfort them in all. 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us - The sufferings endured on his account. So our comfort also aboundeth through Christ - The sufferings were many, the comfort one; and yet not only equal to, but overbalancing, them all.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 8.1
Christ was destined to endure certain afflictions in this figurative body, as well as in His literal; these were "that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ," which Paul "filled up." His own meritorious sufferings in expiation for sin were once for all completely filled up on the Cross. But His Church (His second Self) has her whole measure of afflictions fixed. The more Paul, a member, endured, the less remain for the rest of the Church to endure; the communion of saints thus giving them an interest in his sufferings.
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Colossians 1
Oh, brethren! you with sad hearts, you with lonely lives, you with carking cares, you with pressing, heavy duties, cast your burden on the Christ, and He 'will sustain you,' and sorrows borne in union with Him will change their character, and the very cross shall be wreathed in flowers.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy 1.2.9
7 passages · 7 writers · 300s to 1900s
Writers mention receiving loss from God's hand, giving thanks, and finding comfort in affliction.
Let us bear all things thankfully, be it poverty, be it disease, be it anything else whatever: for He alone knows the things expedient for us. “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought.” ( Rom. viii. 26 .) We then who do not know even how to ask for what is fitting, unless we have received of the Spirit, let us take care to offer up thanksgiving for all things, and let us bear all things nobly.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 37
We must needs accept the decrees of inestimable wisdom, and own them to be for our good; for they who reflect thus piously shall reap piety’s rewards, and so delivered from immoderate lamentations shall pass their lives in peace. On the other hand they whom sorrow makes its slaves will gain nothing by their wailing, but will at once live weary lives and grieve the Guardian of us all. Receive then, my most honoured friend, a fatherly exhortation “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
Theodoret of Cyrrhus, The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret 10.15
It is the grace of Christ, and not the virtue of man, which can and does bring it about that through fervor of spirit frail flesh learns to love and to gain what it naturally hates and shuns. To carry the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it to subjection, to flee honors, to endure contempt gladly, to despise self and wish to be despised, to suffer any adversity and loss, to desire no prosperous days on earth—this is not man’s way. If you rely upon yourself, you can do none of these things, but if you trust in the Lord, strength will be given you from heaven and the world and the flesh will be made subject to your word.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ 2.12
Note, Afflictions must not divert us from, but quicken us to, the exercises of religion. Weeping must not hinder sowing, nor hinder worshipping. He eyed not only the hand of God, but the name of God, in his afflictions, and gave glory to that: Blessed be the name of the Lord. … When our comforts are removed from us we must thank God that ever we had them and had them so much longer than we deserved. Nay, [2.] He adores God even in taking away, and gives him honour by a willing submission; nay, he gives him thanks for good designed him by his afflictions, for gracious supports under his afflictions, and the believing hopes he had of a happy issue at last.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Job 1.5
The Father of mercies, and God of all comfort - Mercies are the fountain of comfort; comfort is the outward expression of mercy. God shows mercy in the affliction itself. He gives comfort both in and after the affliction.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 8.1
The consolation of grace: a divine consolation, which even sufferings themselves can not impair. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
Philaret of Moscow, The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church q. 509–515
To bring in the thought of the Lord makes a world of difference. The tendency is to look only at the second cause.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.7.1
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