5: The Fear of Suffering

The Podvig with Joel Dunn

“[I]n the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 Certainly, we can rightly abhor suffering and physical death, which are the result of sin, but we cannot, as Christians, be afraid of or avoid either one of them. Patiently enduring one’s cross for the sake of love is the only path to the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as Christ did not ascend the cross for the sake of punishment but as a voluntary offfering, so God does not punish us with suffering. He allows suffering to touch us as an opportunity to “offer [our] bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God,”(Romans 12:1) or so that, by falling, we might come to our senses, repent, and, learn obedience to the law of love.