From Suffering to Perfection

Mankind is confined to a sentence of suffering. Throughout life, we will suffer. We will suffer the death of loved ones. We will suffer the loss of employment. We will suffer declines in health due to illness. We will suffer broken relationships. We will suffer financial hardship. Yet all of this suffering cannot compare to the glory and wonder of an eternal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

As we consider 1 Peter 5:10, which states, “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”. We see that suffering is not without purpose or reward. Those who are in Christ and suffer faithfully will be restored, strengthened, and established. This lets us know that our suffering is not in vain.

Furthermore, in the midst of suffering, we are being perfected. James 1:2–4 declares, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” We are to count suffering as joy, not because suffering feels good, but because through it God is producing something greater in us. He is maturing us, strengthening us, and completing us. The word “perfect” comes from the Greek word teleios, meaning complete, mature, or brought to its intended end.

Therefore, through our hardships, suffering, and difficulties, God is making us complete. Knowing God’s purpose in our trials gives us reason to rejoice even while we endure them.

An appropriate analogy is the refining of gold. Gold is heated intensely over and over again so that its impurities may be removed. Eventually, when the refining process is complete, the goldsmith can see his own reflection in the gold. In the same way, God is the goldsmith and we are the gold. Our trials are the furnace through which He removes our impurities. As we endure, He refines us until His image is seen in us.

This idea is echoed in 1 Peter 1:7, which states, “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.”

Child of God, know that your suffering is not in vain. God is using it to refine you, strengthen you, and shape you into what He desires you to be. So endure with joy, knowing that when God is finished, you will be complete, mature, and fit for His eternal glory.