Hardship: God's Will?
Does God intend life to make us happy, or holy?
December, 2020
I was recently questioned about poverty, illness, and other hardships, as they relate to God's will. The challenge involved this month's spotlight verse, Romans 8:32. According to the other person, this verse means God intends for believers to have earthly, material prosperity. To say otherwise, according to the questioner, was to ignore this verse. They could not understand any reason why God would choose to withhold such things from a Christian, especially if He was willing to send His Son for our salvation.
The so-called "prosperity gospel" is quite possibly the most dangerous heresy in modern Christianity. It subtly twists the will of God, and the promises of God, according to sinful, selfish preferences. Rather than emphasizing God's truth, and the hope of heaven, prosperity preachers teach their followers to expect riches and happiness here and now. People taken in by that approach are therefore self-focused and self-concerned. Well-meaning or not, someone taken in by prosperity theology essentially believes God "owes" them such things. It's an insidious perversion of the gospel that sets Christians up for failure, and provides non-believers with legitimate criticisms about greed in the church.
What, then, do we make of statements like Romans 8:32? Doesn't the God who loves us enough to send His Son to die for us also love us enough to give us prosperity in life? The truth is that God loves us so much that He does not satisfy our every whim. God cares about all of our needs, and what we need has to be defined in the context of accomplishing His will for our lives. The fact that God cares about our needs does not mean He's always going to give us what we want, and the idea of being "prosperous" would fall into the second category.
Christ Himself said there are spiritual disadvantages—even dangers—to material prosperity. It can numb a person to their need for God. It makes them less likely to rely on Him (Matthew 19:23–24). Jesus noted in crystal-clear terms that His followers might be asked to forsake worldly things (Matthew 10:38; 19:29), and that those who refuse to let go of "prosperity" prove they were not believers (Luke 6:24–26).
Paul's experience included being persecuted (2 Corinthians 4:8), poor (1 Corinthians 4:11), and sometimes lacking physical health (2 Corinthians 12:7–10). All that, despite being the greatest missionary in history. The point of Paul's "I can do all things" statement (Philippians 4:13) was exactly that: through Christ he had the ability to endure hardships (Philippians 4:11–12). Paul called those who think godliness is a means to prosperity "depraved in mind and deprived of the truth" (1 Timothy 6:5). In that same passage, he continues to speak about how believers ought to be content with the very essentials for life, and not fall into the dangers of wealth-seeking (1 Timothy 6:6–10).
At no point did the early church claim that God's will was for His followers to be financially comfortable, or "prosperous" in the earthly sense. Christ literally said His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). That includes the idea of having material, physical abundance. God loves us, to be sure, and that love is why He does not act as a cosmic vending machine. It's why the prosperity gospel's intrinsically selfish, God-judging perspective is so dangerous.
Romans 8:32 was written by the same man who encouraged contentment with hardship. Part of his point is that we should not see poverty or persecution as signs that God does not love us. If He was willing to give us His Son, we should understand that those difficulties do not take Him by surprise. Nor should we think "He does not care," since He obviously does. Instead, we should trust there is some reason or purpose behind those struggles. They might not just be for a greater purpose—they might even be for our own eternal benefit!
-- Editor
