Affliction according to the Bible, arranged by topic

Affliction

by Matt Slick | Jun 1, 2010 | Bible Verses by Topic, The Bible

A list of Scripture on the topic of “Affliction” arranged in topical order. Affliction is that which causes pain or distress, and it can be due to sin in the world and the consequences of our own actions. Sometimes God afflicts us to discipline us and to purify us. Other times affliction is not due to our failure for the failure of others. How we endure affliction tells us a lot of how we are before Christ.

Attitude towards affliction
1. A Blessing
  1. James 1:2-4, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
  2. James 5:11, “Behold, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.”
  3. 1 Pet. 4:14 16, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you…but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God.”
2. Christians should expect affliction
  1. Matthew 24:9, “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name.”
  2. John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
  3. Acts 14:22, “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, ”Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
3. Have Joy in affliction
  1. 1 Pet. 4:13, “but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.”
Causes of affliction
1. The Fall
  1. Genesis 3:16-19, “To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you shall bring forth children; Yet your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
2. One’s self
  1. Job 4:8, “According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity And those who sow trouble harvest it.”
Discipline of affliction
1. Hebrews 12:6, “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”
2. Revelation 3:19, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent.”
Affliction from God
1. Isaiah 45:7, “The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity. I am the Lord who does all these.”
2. Amos 3:6, “If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?”
3. 1 Thessalonians 3:3, “so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this.”
Miscellaneous
1. Job 5:6, “For affliction does not come from the dust. Neither does trouble sprout from the ground. 7 For man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward.”
Affliction not according to what we deserve
1. Psalm 103:10, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.”
Results of Affliction
1. Good
  1. Genesis 50:20, “And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
  2. Exodus 1:11-12, “So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.”