Austin Bible Church
All suffering of the believer while in a state of sin (carnality) is called divine discipline and is also called deserved suffering. Deserved suffering is designed by God for you to realize you have sinned and confess your known sins to God the Father per 1 John 1:9 thus returning to the filling of the Holy Spirit and allowing resumption of your spiritual growth. Divine discipline is also administered by God due to the believer’s negative volition toward Bible doctrine and their accumulated bad decisions related to sin and evil. Divine discipline also shows the believer that their scale of values are wrong and their priorities need to be changed. In this regard, even divine discipline is designed by God for the believer’s ultimate good. Rom. 8:28.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NASB)
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NASB)
After enduring suffering, we have either learned from it or we have not and are the worse for it. We are never the same after suffering. If the believer reacts to suffering with mental attitude sins, they have lost the filling of the Holy Spirit and have not learned spiritually from it. If the believer responds to suffering by applying faith-rest and claiming God's promises and applying the Bible doctrine resident in their souls, they grow spiritually because they have successfully used only God's grace resources to handle the suffering.
Deserved Suffering From Your Own Decisions
Suffering from your own decisions is the most common cause for human suffering. This effects believers and unbelievers alike. Each of us are fully responsible for the decisions we make and the actions we take in life. Blaming others for your decisions only brings more suffering and misery.
The believer cannot blame others for their bad judgment, self-induced misery, unhappiness, and suffering. Each of us are fully responsible whether the decisions we make are ultimately right or wrong. Decisions made in a state of carnality results in both self-induced misery and divine discipline from God. This misery and suffering impacts our relationships with others and especially with God. The innocent often suffer with the guilty when associated with someone who has made a bad decision. Gal. 6:7.
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7, NASB)
Free will decisions to give into the temptations from the old sin nature and outside sources results in the believer sinning and getting involved in the production of human good and evil. All result in God's administration of divine discipline. God only wants the believer to confess their known sins by naming them and acknowledging them as sins. God is always faithful to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and thus restore us to the filling of the Holy Spirit.
The believer inflicts on themselves suffering from personal sins, producing human good, involvement in evil, exercising bad judgment, lacking common sense, overestimating their own abilities, or failing to see themselves in a realistic light.
The believer and unbeliever alike are mandated to live under the rule of law and under the laws of divine establishment. These laws govern the entire human race and result in human freedom. A great deal of suffering in human history comes from criminals violating the sacredness of life, property, and privacy of others.
Suffering comes to believers because they are ignorant of Bible doctrine and many true principles in life. The divine solutions to this suffering are found only in the Word of God. God has provided the means to turn that suffering into blessing through spiritual growth and use of God's grace resources from which divine solutions are learned.
Many wrong or bad decisions come from a practice of self-centered arrogance and self-righteousness. To protect us from our own arrogance, God has provided authority figures in our lives like our parents, pastor-teachers, coaches, bosses, and all other forms of divinely authorized forms of authority.
Negative or wrong thinking includes wrong mental attitudes, arrogance in all forms, and anything you react to in your thinking. Wrong motivation and wrong thinking cause self-induced misery long before wrong decisions or wrong actions are made. Wrong decisions and actions can be either deliberate or impulsive. Sometimes it’s a matter of lack of common sense, bad judgment, or not knowing your limitations. Misery results either way. Hosea 8:7; Col. 3:25; Prov. 22:8; Gal. 6:7.
“For they sow the wind And they reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; It yields no grain. Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.” (Hosea 8:7, NASB)
“For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.” (Colossians 3:25, NASB)
“He who sows iniquity will reap vanity, And the rod of his fury will perish.” (Proverbs 22:8, NASB)
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7, NASB)
Wrong decisions which produce self-induced misery include decisions based on sin, human good, evil, emotional revolt, bad judgment, lust patterns of the old sin nature, and false teaching. When in emotional revolt, the believer cannot think and has no common sense. Bad decisions that cause self-induced misery are related to sin with the seven worst sins stated in Proverbs 6:16-19.
“There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.” (Proverbs 6:16-19, NASB)
Confession of sin using 1 John 1:9 does not immediately solve or negate bad decisions or bad judgment. The consequences of such decisions remain, but the believer that returns to fellowship and the filling of the Holy Spirit will find God's grace resources in the spiritual life to soften the impact of the bad decision or poor judgment.
When you judge, gossip, or malign someone, you have generated your own misery. In Proverbs 12:13, “the righteous” is someone who does not gossip, malign, or judge others.
“An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, But the righteous will escape from trouble.” (Proverbs 12:13, NASB)
The believer’s decisions are influenced by the company we keep. If you are in with the wrong crowd, the odds are very high that would will be involved in a bad decision that will cause you misery that may have long-term implications. Prov. 15:17; Prov. 13:20.
“Better is a dish of vegetables where love is Than a fattened ox served with hatred.” (Proverbs 15:17, NASB)
“He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm.” (Proverbs 13:20, NASB)
Deserved Suffering From Divine Discipline
Divine discipline is administered by God to the believer who is in carnality and motivates them to confess their sins to God the Father and to thereby return to fellowship with God by being filled with the Holy Spirit. Divine discipline also motivates the believer to turn back toward Bible doctrine and to restrain themselves when under future temptation and repetition of sins or failures.
Divine discipline is from the justice of God in grace to correct, punish, encourage, train, and motivate the carnal believer to return to fellowship with God. Divine discipline is for believers only. Heb. 12:5-6. See category on Carnality.
“and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”“ (Hebrews 12:5-6, NASB)
Divine discipline is based on God's love. When a believer is out of fellowship, divine discipline is designed to get them to confess their sins to the Father and be restored to fellowship. Discipline never implies loss of salvation. Gal. 3:26.
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26, NASB)
Divine discipline is chastisement for sins of the believer in the immediate vicinity of sin. Discipline is removed by confession of sin by naming or acknowledging our known sins to God the Father per 1 John 1:9. 1 Cor. 11:31-32.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NASB)
“But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:31-32, NASB)
When suffering continues after confession of sin, the purpose is for blessing. Job. 5:17-18.
““Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. “For He inflicts pain, and gives relief; He wounds, and His hands also heal.” (Job 5:17-18, NASB)
Suffering can be caused by making the details of life a higher priority than Bible doctrine. This can result in scar tissue on the soul where everything you touch turns to misery. Eph. 4:17-19.
“So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:17-19, NASB)
Suffering can result from guilt reaction to sin and the suppression of the sin in the conscience. 1 Tim. 1:5-6; 1 Tim. 1:19-20; 1 Tim. 3:9.
“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion,” (1 Timothy 1:5-6, NASB)
“keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.” (1 Timothy 1:19-20, NASB)
“but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.” (1 Timothy 3:9, NASB)
Suffering can result from failure to isolate sin which leads to chain sinning. Here, the believer lights a new sin from a sin they just confessed to God the Father and returns to carnality and divine discipline. Heb. 12:15. See category on Chain Sinning.
“See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;” (Hebrews 12:15, NASB)
Suffering results from the rejection of bonafide authority. Judges 19 - 21; Matt. 7:29 - Matt. 8:13; Jer. 7; Prov. 30. Suffering results from rejection of or indifference to the Word of God. This is rejection of the Lord. Jer. 13.
When the believer, through negative volition, persists in a state of carnality, God in His grace will administer divine discipline. The discipline will intensify until the believer returns to fellowship by confession of sin to God the Father per 1 John 1:9. If carnality persists long enough even with intense divine discipline, God may choose to take them home early by the sin unto death. The sin unto death occurs only when God has no more use for the believer on earth. No matter the level of divine discipline, God's discipline to every believer is always motivated by love. 1 Cor. 11:30-31; Rev. 3:19-20; Job 5:17-18; 1 John 5:16. See category on Divine Discipline.
“For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.” (1 Corinthians 11:30-31, NASB)
“'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:19-20, NASB)
“"Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. "For He inflicts pain, and gives relief; He wounds, and His hands also heal.” (Job 5:17-18, NASB)
“If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.” (1 John 5:16, NASB)