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For persecuted Christians, suffering turns into affliction when they internalize the horrible feeling that they are alone. When the persecuted Christian begins to believe that most of the global church does not care and will not be there to share his pain, loneliness moves from the physical dimension to an inner anguish.

In fact, even my faith hero, Luther, found himself in the gray zone between suffering and affliction the night before his famous defense, as we see in his prayer: "O Almighty and Everlasting God! How terrible is this world! Behold, it openeth its mouth to swallow me up, and I have so little trust in thee!"

This raises significant questions: Where is God when millions of his children are being persecuted in the most brutal ways? Why does he keep silent in the middle of persecution but speak loudly in the middle of conferences with famous speakers and worship bands? I have prayed many times like Luther: "Bless us, Lord, even curse us! But don't remain silent!"

This reality forces us to take another look at what Paul means in Romans 8:28 by "our good." If our good is a stable, safe, healthy, happy, and reasonably wealthy middle-class life, then logically one can conclude that God really does not work for the good of the largest portion of the global church today.

Similarly, when we look at Paul's list of sufferings in 2 Corinthians 11, it's clear that Paul's life will never be known as a good one by today's pop psychology or quick-fix spirituality books. Didn't Paul ever stop and wonder why he wasn't blessed? Since Paul is clearly an intelligent man who can recognize the problem, we are forced to entertain other possibilities.

Maybe Paul was influenced by Stoic ideas that encouraged him to seek pain in order to develop his strength and be a virtuous man. Perhaps Neoplatonic ideas that saw the material body as a hindrance to be overcome in order to achieve the freedom of the soul encouraged Paul to pursue a life of suffering and sacrifice. Or, one can employ modern psychoanalytical tools that may show that Paul was a masochist who actively sought pain and enjoyed being in such conditions.

All of these potential answers point to self-gratification as the ultimate goal of life. This is parallel to our modern conceptions of the good life, for which the ultimate end is self-satisfaction and glorification (although self-discipline was long ago discarded as a means to that end).

At this point, the incapacity of the modern church to reconcile the suffering of the global church with the God of love is evident. But, our highest good is not a problem-free life; it is to be like the Son.

Paul continues to face a difficult life, but not because suffering itself is the end goal, as a virtue or merit. On the contrary, suffering is not about Paul or his salvation at all. He is not suffering because God is cruel and does not know how to treat his friends. Paul suffers and lives that life for a higher purpose:

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. (2 Cor. 4:10–12)

This higher purpose is identical to the purpose of the Son of God: to bring the life of God to us by his own sacrifice, and by doing so, to glorify God's name. This dual purpose, life and glory, echoes in the life and sacrifice of the apostle. Through his identification with the Son of God in his suffering, what emerges is the continuation of the post-crucifixion work of the Son of God.

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March 2008, Vol. 52, No. 3