What Does The Bible Say About Suffering?

Where Is God When Life Falls Apart?

It is the question that has been asked since the beginning of time. If God is all-loving and all-powerful, why does suffering exist? For some, the presence of pain in the world is enough to dismiss God entirely. For others, it is the very thing that drives them deeper into faith. So what does the Bible actually say about suffering — and where is God in the middle of it?

In this episode, John Harding tackles one of the biggest and most emotive questions anyone can ask, drawing on theology, philosophy, personal experience, and a trip to the Congo that changed his perspective entirely.

The Argument That Sounds Convincing

John lays out the common objection clearly. If God is truly loving and there is suffering, then he cannot be powerful — because if he were powerful, he would stop it. If God is truly powerful and there is suffering, then he cannot be loving — because a loving God would intervene. Therefore, such a God cannot exist.

It is an argument that has been around for as long as people have been thinking about God. And John is honest about it: "Logically, intellectually, philosophically, I don't think it's a very good argument." But he acknowledges that this problem is rarely played out at the level of logic. "It's an argument that really gets played out at the emotional level — the personal, the experiential level. That's why it's such a challenging topic."

Two Responses Christians Tend to Make

The first response centres on free will. God created humans distinct from the rest of creation — moral beings with the freedom to make their own choices. That freedom is what separates us from animals. It gives us the capacity for great good, but by the same token, the capacity for great evil.

"God is not responsible for our suffering," John says. "Humans misuse the gift of free will. We make choices that harm ourselves and that harm others."

This takes us back to Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve. Through that first sin — choosing to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather than the tree of life — catastrophic consequences entered the world. Pain, sickness, ageing, death, and environmental damage all followed. We now live in a broken world as broken people.

The obvious counter-question is: why did God give humans free will at all? John's answer is straightforward. The whole reason there is something rather than nothing is so that something could freely choose to be in relationship with its creator. Without free will, we would be robots, incapable of truly loving God. The risk was essential.

The second response is that God ultimately works through suffering to bring about something good. It is the grit in the oyster that becomes a pearl, the pressure on coal that becomes a diamond, the tearing of muscle through weight training that makes it grow stronger.

John quotes Romans 5:3 — "We can boast in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope."

He used to illustrate this to his A-level students with a simple demonstration. He would ask who likes cake. Every hand went up. He would call four volunteers to the front and give them the raw ingredients — flour, whisked eggs, butter, and sugar — then say, "Tuck in, lads." We all want the end product, but we do not enjoy the individual ingredients. We want hope and freedom, but we do not like the perseverance part. We certainly do not like the suffering part. But these are the essential ingredients of a transformed life.

A Trip That Changed Everything

The most powerful section of the talk comes from John's personal experience. He describes his first trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the Kivu region, where his church was working to rehabilitate boy soldiers.

The situation was horrific. Boys as young as twelve, taken from their families, dehumanised through drugs and rape, used as cannon fodder in a conflict fuelled by western demand for diamonds and coltan. Women raped as a weapon of war. Decades of suffering, largely ignored by the outside world.

And yet, what John found alongside the suffering was hope. "Many beautiful Christians who by our standards had so little, and yet they were working tirelessly to rescue those boy soldiers, to rehabilitate them, to educate them."

What struck him most was the perspective. No one there was asking, "Where is God in our suffering?" That question made no sense to them. Instead, they were thanking God for his presence with them in their suffering. Their focus was not on the pain but on how God was helping them endure it.

"They had discovered the deep and profound truth," John says, "that when you are at that point in life where Jesus is all that you have got — that's the point when you realise that Jesus is all you need."

He came back to England, back to the classroom, back to teaching the philosophy of suffering to bright seventeen-year-old boys. And he told them: "This idea of 'where is God in our suffering?' — to me it feels like an indulgence of the modern western world."

A Sparrow Does Not Fall Without the Father

John turns to a small but significant verse — Matthew 10:29. Jesus says: "Not one sparrow falls to the ground without the Father."

Bible translators have struggled with this verse because the literal Greek simply says "without the Father" — no verb attached. Translators typically add "knowing" to make it read smoothly. But John suggests the literal version makes perfect sense as it stands.

"God is so present with his suffering creation that he draws close to each and every sparrow in their final moments," he says. "Where is God? He is most close to us in our suffering."

Jesus goes on to say: "How much more valuable are you to God than a humble sparrow?"

The word "compassionate" itself tells the story. It comes from two Latin words — passio, meaning to suffer, and com, meaning alongside. God is compassionate. He is the co-sufferer, the one who suffers alongside.

John's Mother in A&E

John shares something deeply personal from the night before the talk. He had spent the night in accident and emergency with his eighty-seven-year-old mother, who was in extreme pain. He felt helpless. He asked if there was anything he could do.

"Pray for me," she said.

He prayed for her there in the hospital cubicle. The pain did not immediately leave — it wore off as powerful drugs kicked in. But she said something that stayed with him: "John, how do people go through this sort of thing without the Lord in their lives?"

The Choice We All Have

John's conclusion is not neat or tidy. He does not pretend to have all the answers.

"This world throws up so many big questions, so many mysteries — stuff I've tried to study and understand academically and, if I'm entirely honest, still don't really understand."

But he is clear on this: we cannot seem to escape suffering, pain, and hardship in this life. What we can choose is how we respond to it. We can walk through suffering with God or without God. We can invite his presence into our pain or walk through it alone.

"Draw close to him," John says. "We call that worship. Draw close through his word. Draw close to community. Invest in other believers. And you will experience him carrying you through."

Maybe God will give breakthrough. Maybe the suffering will last a lifetime. But one day, in heaven, there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death. Suffering will be over forever.

What would it mean for you to invite God into the hardest thing you are facing right now?