Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word

Theme · ethical

Suffering and Perseverance

Job is the Bible's sustained meditation on suffering — a righteous man who loses everything and receives no tidy explanation. The Psalms of lament give voice to pain without resolving it prematurely. Israel's suffering in Egypt and exile becomes the furnace in which faith is tested and refined. Jesus promises his followers not exemption from suffering but his presence within it: 'In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.' Paul teaches that suffering produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope. Revelation promises that God will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Passages expressing this theme

  • 1Pet 1:6 — Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
  • 1Pet 1:7 — That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
  • 1Pet 2:21 — For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
  • 1Pet 4:13 — But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
  • 1Pet 5:10 — But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
  • 2Cor 1:5 — For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
  • 2Cor 4:17 — For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
  • 2Cor 12:9 — And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon m
  • 2Tim 2:12 — If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
  • 2Tim 3:12 — Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
  • Acts 14:22 — Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
  • Heb 2:10 — For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
  • Heb 12:2 — Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
  • Heb 12:11 — Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
  • Isa 53:3 — He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
  • Jas 1:2 — My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
  • Jas 1:3 — Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
  • Jas 1:4 — But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
  • Jas 1:12 — Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
  • Jas 5:11 — Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
  • Job 1:21 — And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
  • Job 2:10 — But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
  • Job 13:15 — Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
  • Job 23:10 — But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
  • Lam 3:32 — But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.