How Do We Respond To Suffering?
HOW DO WE RESPOND TO SUFFERING?
HEBREWS 12:11-17
A right attitude to suffering has good, peaceful results.
Suffering, rightly endured, can be the means of great blessing, both to the person suffering and also to those with whom such a person comes into contact. Nothing, it is true, can make suffering pleasant (12:11). But a right attitude can make it profitable. It is this with which our author proceeds to concern himself. He points to “the peaceful fruit of righteousness,” ie the fruit which consists in righteousness. Notice the adjective “peaceful”: this may not be a description that would spontaneously occur to most of us. But when discipline is accepted, the soul is at peace. It is rid of the tensions and divisions which make life difficult for the undisciplined. It is at one with God. This is real peace.
Because of this the writer can appeal to his readers to lift their drooping hands and strengthen their weak knees (12:12; see also Isaiah 35:3), a vivid picture of people who are not realizing their full potential. In language reminiscent of Proverbs 4:26 he urges that they make the paths straight (ie take away awkward bends and roughnesses). The lame will then not be hurt but healed. It is easy to live in such a way as to neglect the needs of the spiritually lame, but those who heed the discipline God sends will not make that mistake.
“Strive” (12:14) is perhaps better “pursue.” There is the thought of diligent and eager pursuit. This is directed towards peace, here “peace with everyone.” This follows naturally enough from that peace with God which we have just noticed (12:11). With this is linked “the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” This does not, of course, mean that people must by their own effort produce such qualities of character as fit them for the vision of God. Such an idea cannot be fitted into the New Testament. Rather the writer is speaking of earnestness in living out the gospel. If a person does not yield themselves to God in response to Christ’s atoning act, they will not see God. This is something to be sought after from the depths of our being.
This passage ends with the reminder that some have had a certain acquaintance with the things of God but have failed to profit thereby. It is the thought of 6:4ff. in another form. If people nourish a “root of bitterness,” they will surely fail to obtain the blessing of God. Esau is the example of the kind of thing that is in mind. We learn here that, following his rejection of his birthright, he wanted back the blessing he had once treated so lightly. But his renunciation was a solemn act that could not be undone by tears.