Bible

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? (Part 11)

Answers from the Bible to One of Life’s Hardest Questions

This is the eleventh in a multi-part series on what the Bible says about why bad things happen to ‘good’ people. You can read Part 1 here.

If you’ve made it this far in the series, thank you! What was originally planned as just four parts has taken much longer, because of all of the great questions and discussions that have come up as I’ve been writing. In today’s post, we are going to tackle the revised question directly. And for those who have been hanging in with such a long series, you’ll get a direct response.

The way the question is usually asked is ‘Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?’. That’s the way things often seem to us initially. The way they often feel in our hearts. In Part 3, we looked more closely at what the Bible has to say about goodness. And we saw that there really is only one person who meets God’s standard of goodness: Jesus. But when people ask the question, they often mean something a little different. Even when we understand that Jesus is the only one who is perfect, it seems that there are some people who really try to live their lives for God. People who seem to genuinely work hard to honor Him. Why do bad things happen to those people when other people seem to just be doing whatever they want and have happy lives? When we say 'good people' we have in mind people like Paul or Joseph or Job. They aren't perfect, but they are genuinely seeking to honor God.

We also explored in Part 8 the idea of bad things. And we looked at how it’s not so simple to label them as bad, because God is working them for good. More accurately, we called them ‘painful things’. And perhaps that’s too light for some of the hardest things in life. Perhaps we are really asking about the most painful experiences of life. Things that are excruciatingly painful. So if we rewrite the question, so that it’s more accurate it might be something like: 'Why does God allow excruciatingly painful things in the lives of people who are genuinely trying to live for Him?'

And this is a really fair question. After such a long series, this question deserves a direct answer. And perhaps the best summarized answer to ‘why?’ is: For good.

Why does God allow excruciatingly painful things in the lives of people who are genuinely trying to live for Him?

For good.

It took a long time to get to a short answer. But part of the problem of just jumping to that answer, is that it doesn’t quite feel resolved. In order for that answer to provide comfort, we have to trust, really trust, the God who says He is working these excruciatingly painful things for good. We have to believe that He is good. That He loves us. That He is powerful enough to do what He promises. We explored Who God is and why we can trust Him in Part 10. So, knowing that we can trust Him, let’s explore one of the ways God works excruciatingly painful things for good.

The greatest blessing God can give us is deeper fellowship with Him. That may sound odd and even feel a bit hard to believe, but if He is the source of everything good. Everything. If every good and perfect thing comes from Him, because He is the only absolute good. If He is the only one who is perfect, then this is true. The first commandment is to Love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength- and this is also the best gift that God can give us. Jesus says this is actually eternal life.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 17:1–3 (ESV)

The greatest gift God can give us is more of Himself. All of the incredible lesser goods are only good because they reflect Him in some way. This may feel counterintuitive to our hearts, but it is true. Paul and David both talk about this. That the experience of knowing God, of walking closely with Him, is the ultimate blessing.

David says:

One thing have I asked of the LORD,

that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD

and to inquire in his temple.

Psalm 27:4 (ESV)

Paul says:

But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Philippians 3:7-12 (CSB)

David was king and experienced the highest eschalons of power and wealth. Still he says that the only thing He seeks is to dwell in the house of God. To abide. To be with God.

Paul also had a great deal of prestige in his life before he became a Christian. He is from the tribe of Benjamin. He is a Pharisee known for being extremely dedicated. But he willingly gives up any earthly claims to respect or righteousness. He leaves everything behind to follow Jesus. He trades in a life of safety and human approval for a life where he is constantly ridiculed, mocked and attacked- for the sake of sharing the Gospel around the world. He does this because knowing and following Jesus is more valuable to him than anything else. He understands the cost of following Christ: laying down our lives.

But our question is more asking ‘why does God allow this type of sacrifice?’ Why isn’t it that God instantaneously rewards this type of desire with success, worldly happiness, riches, earthly praise! Perhaps it is because those things don’t usually draw our hearts closer to Him? Perhaps it is because those things can make it harder for the world to see the true goodness of God. Consider the life of Job. When his life was going well he was extremely wealthy and it was easy for people to think that he only followed God because God gave him material blessings. But when Job continued to follow God through times of tragedy, it demonstrated that God Himself was more valuable to Job than God’s gifts.

We see something similar in the earthly ministry of Jesus. Early in his ministry, crowds of people are following Him, but they are following Him to get material blessings. They are following Him because He miraculously creates unlimited sourdough- without a starter! Because He heals physical diseases. He turns water into wine. But this is not worshiping Jesus for who He is, this is wanting more of His gifts for themselves. The people were following Him, but it wasn’t love of God. It was desire for more gifts.

With His closest followers, Jesus offers something different. Something more. He blesses them with something so much more valuable than fish and loaves: fellowship with God. Abiding in Christ is the greatest gift. And as Paul wrote to the Phillipians, God often deepens our fellowship with Christ through suffering. We respect leaders who don’t ask their people to do something they are unwilling to do themselves. And we see this so much more with God. He allows us to suffer as a vehicle for deeper blessing. But He does not allow something He has not endured. Jesus experienced the ultimate suffering for our ultimate good.

Is this new offer of Eden not better (for us) than the original? Not just God walking beside us, but God within us. One with God through Christ. Indwelt by God’s own Spirit. As in the lives of Abel, Job, Joseph, Paul and so many more, we see that there is an enemy who wants to steal, kill and destroy. The goal seems to be for sin, pain, suffering and all of the 'bad things' we experience in life to destroy the people of God. But God, in His ultimate wisdom, power, mercy and love miraculously works these very things that are meant to destroy us for good. Jesus comes that we might have life and have it more abundantly. And He paid the price to give us this best of all gifts.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 (ESV)

So 'Why does God allow excruciatingly painful things in the lives of people who are genuinely trying to live for Him?': For good. The painful things we experience are not the opposite of a blessed life, they are part of what God uses to give us the greatest, most blessed life of all. A life of abiding in Him.

The painful things we experience are not the opposite of a blessed life, they are part of what God uses to give us the greatest, most blessed life of all.

The answers to ‘why’ can be helpful, but they don’t always take away the pain. Enduring excruciating pain is still incredibly difficult. So once we answer ‘why’ maybe what we are left with is ‘how’? How do we endure life, when the pain feels overwhelming? Even when we know God will work it for good. We’ll cover that in the next post.

Thank you for reading. This is part of a multi part series on what the Bible says about why bad things happen to ‘good’ people. You can read Part 1 here.

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This copy in this article was written by a real person, me 🙂, not AI.

For true hope and joy,