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At a glance
If pain can be spiritually useful, does that mean Christians should seek it out, praise cruelty, or tell sufferers to simply be grateful?
Tribulation is not the same thing as virtue, relieving suffering remains a plain Christian duty, and no bystander is authorized to declare someone else’s pain good for them.
Scripture for reflection
“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”
Matthew 25:35–36 KJV
UECF.NET summary
Lewis moves quickly to close off a dangerous misreading of the previous chapter: that if pain can do spiritual good, Christians should therefore welcome, seek out, or refrain from relieving suffering — whether their own or another’s. He states plainly that relieving pain and practicing ordinary compassion remain unambiguous Christian duties, whatever pain might theoretically accomplish.
He also separates undergoing tribulation from actually becoming virtuous through it: suffering can produce bitterness, despair, or self-pity just as readily as humility or dependence on God. The outcome is not automatic, and no bystander is in a position to assure a sufferer that their pain “is doing them good.”
UECF.NET’s note: read together, chapters 6 and 7 form one argument — the first cautiously suggesting a possible use for suffering in general, the second refusing to let that suggestion become either a command to embrace pain or an excuse to withhold help and comfort from those who are hurting.
Main themes
- The danger of turning an observation about pain into a rule for treating sufferers
- Tribulation as an occasion for growth, never a guarantee of it
- Compassion and the relief of suffering as unqualified Christian duties
Key ideas
- Chapters 6–7 form a single argument; reading either half alone risks serious misapplication.
- Lewis explicitly rules out using this material to justify neglecting or minimizing someone’s pain.
- Virtue is a possible fruit of suffering, never an automatic one.
Important concepts
- Tribulation — Trouble or hardship considered as a category of experience, distinct from the moral response a person makes to it.
Related Bible references
- Matthew 25:34–40
- Galatians 6:2
- James 1:2–4
- 2 Corinthians 1:3–7
Practical application
- The next time you are tempted to tell a suffering friend “this will make you stronger,” consider whether comfort, practical help, or simply listening might be the more faithful response.
Questions for study
Reflection questions
- Have you seen “suffering builds character” used in a way that felt dismissive rather than comforting — by others, or by yourself?
Small-group discussion
- How does a church community practically hold together “pain can have spiritual value” and “we must actively relieve suffering,” without one idea undermining the other?
These notes are an original UECF.NET study companion and are not a reproduction of C. S. Lewis’s text, which remains in copyright. Read Chapter 7 (“Human Pain, continued”) in The Problem of Pain itself — from a library, bookseller, or the Internet Archive’s access-restricted lending copy — then use this page to review its themes and questions. Scripture quotations above are the King James Version. No quotations from Lewis are included on this page.