Lesson 8: Purpose of suffering – our purification
Philippians 3:8-11 (ESV)
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

The next purpose we find in Scripture for our suffering is in the above verses. Verses 8 and 9 tell us the purpose is that “I may gain Christ and to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own…”

This means that we are being purified of our own righteousness, our own desires, our pride through suffering. You might ask how suffering can accomplish this in us. When we suffer, whether emotionally or physically, that suffering tends to make us single-minded. We can become focused on our pain and think only of ourselves and how we can escape the pain, or we can become focused on God. When we focus on God instead of ourselves we find ourselves clinging to Him in ways we would never have done otherwise.


At first we tend to ask Him to remove the pain. This is exactly what the apostle Paul did in 2 Corinthians 12:7-8. There is nothing wrong with asking God to heal us or to remove the pain or suffering, but we also need to listen and accept His answer. Paul said he asked God for healing 3 times. When he had not been healed by the 3rd request he accepted God’s answer of “no” and went on to find out why God had said no. This time God answered him with those wonderful words we find in the next verse in this passage, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in your weakness.”

As we read in verse 9 above, such an acceptance comes only through faith in God. And through acceptance our faith in God increases, and through our increased faith we are purified and made stronger because we now rely on Him rather than our own abilities or in our own pride. Only then can we share Paul’s testimony that knowing Him is more important than the suffering we experience now in this life. In fact Paul says that he becomes like Jesus when he suffers. We know Jesus suffered, and He suffered much for us so we could have forgiveness of sin.

In verse 11 above we read that Paul is seeking to attain resurrection from the dead. This does not mean Paul was uncertain whether he would be resurrected, it means he would do anything God asked of him just to reach that goal. It means he was focused so much on God that it did not matter to him what God did with his body because he knew resurrection was coming and all suffering would be ended – just as Jesus had suffered and died, and then rose again in triumphant victory. Our victory will be sweeter because of our suffering too.

*Have you asked God, in faith, to remove your suffering? What was His answer? How do you feel about this?
*What encouragement do you gain from Paul’s example in the midst of his suffering?