Last night, my son came to me with his Bible open. He’d played the “Magic 8-ball” game with the scripture (as kids do). He chose a random book, a random chapter, and a random verse to read and think about before praying and heading to bed. He told me, “I needed some Jesus tonight before I go to sleep.” His facial expression told me he had a question. He pointed to this verse.
1 Peter 3:14 (ESV) “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,”
He was confused. The context of this verse is the Apostle Peter’s teaching to the early Church about being loving and compassionate to others while focusing on doing what is good before the Lord. It’s a teaching that helps us understand the role of good deeds and loving others as Christ followers amid opposition and persecution. Verse 14 troubled him. He asked me why Christians could suffer for doing what is good, right, and true. He was hung up on a notion that God would allow goodness in his people to be punished. He questioned how suffering could come from always trying to do what is good and avoiding evil.
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard this question from someone because it’s an inescapable thought that many people have. We are taught and come to believe that good behavior deserves good outcomes. Oddly, while many people believe this, it’s not true about the world. Life does not return goodness or evil to us based on our doing good or doing evil. Admittedly, we do see some good results from doing good things. But doing good in no way guarantees a life without pain or suffering.
We may ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” This is still a good question because it leads us eventually to a determination about God. The question assumes there is a system in place in the universe that returns good experiences when we do what we believe to be good. It’s like a big cosmic vending machine. When that vending machine breaks down, we tend to smack it around and decry the evil of a system that hasn’t given us what we are owed. The broken cosmic vending machine causes us to declare that someone now is in our debt, but God is clear, He and this world owe us nothing. (Romans 11:33-35)
Why does God allow suffering for those who’d seek only to do good and avoid evil? It’s because God is interested in us being the givers of authentic sacrificial love. He wants that powerful love to draw all people to a right relationship with Him.
Consider what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5.
Matthew 5:44–46 (ESV) “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?…”
Here the Lord Jesus says we are to love our enemies. We are to pray for those who’d oppose us and cause us to suffer. Only real love does such things. True goodness loves and prays for others even when they are the source of our pain. We are true children of our Father in heaven when we love those who don’t love us back. And when our doing of goodness and love relies on the vending machine returning the favor, it questions the authenticity of the good we are doing.
But God wants us to do good because it’s His good, not due to anything we get in return. He wants us to owe others nothing but to love them. (Romans 13:8) And he doesn’t want us believing that He or the cosmos owes us anything in return.
I told my son we emulate Jesus when we do good things for the reason that God is good and not for anything we get out of it. Whether we suffer or not shouldn’t change our desire to still love like Christ loves. For on the cross, He showed us this love and goodness. Jesus went willingly for people who’d caused him to suffer, doing the ultimate good for all humanity and He didn’t do it for Himself. He did it for us. And that love is powerful.