In Christ I Am Afflicted Part 2

Fourteen Kinds of Suffering

Author: Elaine Brown

I want you to think of this in two ways: number one, how is your counselee afflicted? Where is life hard right now for them? It's painful, it's difficult, it's a season of trial. And second, what categories of suffering are others experiencing that you know? Family, friends, neighbors, coworkers—what can you learn and how could you help them?

When Mark Driscoll wrote, “Who Do You Think You Are? Finding Your Identity in Christ.” In the chapter titled “In Christ I am Afflicted” he wrote about fourteen kinds of affliction. As a counselor I have found it very helpful to be able to identify what kind of affliction my counselee is going through.

The first is Adamic affliction. This is where, because of Adam and sin entering the world, the world is just a broken place. And Paul and the church at Ephesus were experiencing this; we experience it as well. It's why there is death. We say goodbye to people we love like we recently buried my son-in-law (Ted was only 45). It's why we get sick. It's why, as we get older, our bodies start to wind down. It's why the world just isn't the way that it's supposed to be. It's just the general result of sin, and that's Adamic affliction.

Number two, there is punishment affliction. For those who are not Christians, sometimes their affliction is punishment from God and that culminates in eternal hell where there is punishment affliction, where people who have sinned against God and don't turn from sin and trust in Jesus, they have affliction eternally.

Number three, there's consequential affliction. This is where, to use the language of Paul elsewhere, we reap what we sow. That you eat poorly and you're of ill health. You drink too much and you blow your liver out. You spend too much and you're in great debt. You don't get up and go to class and you flunk out of college. You don't show up to work on time and you're unemployed. You yell at your boyfriend or girlfriend, and lo and behold, they do not turn into a spouse. Alright, it's --you've made a mess of your own life. It's the consequences of your own sin and folly.

Number four, there is demonic affliction. This is where Satan and demons are harming one of God's people. This could be sickness, this can be torment, this can be night terrors, this can be hearing of voices, this can be demonic accusation. Paul is experiencing this while he's in prison, and the church is experiencing it. That's why in Chapter 6 of his letter to the Ephesians, he talks about this particular kind of demonic affliction.

Number five, there is victim affliction. This is where someone sins against you. As Mark states, “I (Mark) met a number of women recently who have gotten out of or are getting out of abusive relationships with violent men. This is where someone just sins against you. I was speaking to a woman and praying for a woman recently at Mars Hill, and the worst abuser in her whole life was her dad. The things he did to her were just very difficult to hear as a dad myself.” Victim affliction is where you didn't do anything wrong, they just harmed you. This is where people are attacked, this is where children are abused, this is where women are mistreated, and where men sometimes even do violent things to one another. It's victim affliction. Somebody did something that was just wrong. You didn't deserve it and in no way should you have had to endure it, but you were sinned against.

Number six, collective affliction. This is where you're part of a people who are suffering and so you're suffering with them. So, you're part of a nation that's at war, or you're in a community where tragedy has struck. Now, for Paul and the Ephesians, they're suffering in this way. He loves them and they love him. He can't be with them because he's in prison, so he's suffering, and they're suffering because they're suffering with him because they are identified with him. Is there anybody you really love and they're suffering, and so as a result, to some degree, you're suffering? I remember how our whole family felt when we heard of Ted's diagnosis of cancer and it was terminal.

There is number seven, disciplinary affliction. This is where, for a believer, God allows some affliction, not to punish them but to mature them. And so some of that is going on in the life of Paul as he is continuing to mature. Some of that is going on in the church at Ephesus to whom he is writing. This is also what the writer of Hebrews speaks of in chapter 12. And for some of you, the season you're in is under the loving hand of God. He's trying to mature you and correct you, so he's allowing some hardship to come upon you to inspire you, to motivate you to mature. As I look back on the 11 years of dysfunction with my children God was maturing me. I had made an idol of heart out of my children and He was showing me that I was to be dependent on Him and to remember that He is first and my children second.

Number eight, there is sometimes vicarious affliction (For example, if you are mad at your cat you take it out on your dog.), and that is people seem like they hate us, but what they really hate is the Jesus in us, that we love Jesus and they hate Jesus, and since we love Jesus, they hate us. As Mark writes, “For those of you who are reading this, you need to know that I (Mark) enjoy a lot of this and you will as well that we live in a day when it's now quite fashionable to be anti-Christian, and if you say that you love Jesus, it's quite fashionable to speak in an ill way toward those who do love Jesus. And so that kind of affliction, I think, it is increasing—vicarious affliction.” And then Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 that our war isn't against flesh and blood, that we're not to fight back with people, that it's really a spiritual battle, that we should love them, and that what they are fighting against is the Jesus who loves us. And it may seem like they're attacking us, but they're really offended by Him. How many of you have family members, friends, co-workers, and they just don't like you just because you're a Christian? That's it, and there's some affliction that comes to you for that.

Number nine, there's empathetic affliction. This is someone we love who is hurting and so we're hurting too, Again for Paul and the church, that's the case. He's hurting and they're hurting because they love him and he loves the church. When my son-in-law Ted was dying of cancer, I didn't have cancer, but he did, and because I loved him, his suffering is my suffering. And as we're church family, and you're in Life Groups together and doing life together, the more people you know, the more opportunities there are for this kind of affliction. The Bible says that we are to mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15), and that's what it's talking about. It's talking about your love for someone and the church, and when they're hurting, you're hurting for them, and you're hurting with them.

Number ten, there's testimonial affliction. This is where you're being afflicted but it's primarily as an opportunity to show people who Jesus is and what he's done, and that is most certainly the case with Paul. He has not sinned or done anything wrong. He's been preaching and teaching about Jesus, so they arrest him and throw him in jail, but it's testimonial affliction. It gives him a bigger platform to talk about Jesus, so there's a greater purpose for his affliction.

Number eleven, there's providential affliction. This increases the worship of God. Someone goes through a hardship, but they endure it in such a way that other people come to know and love the God they're devoted to. That was the case with Joseph in the Old Testament. Opposed, thrown in jail, but then he rises up to power and he's a great testimony to God and many people are saved. So it is with Paul. He is, here, having an opportunity to glorify God in his sufferings, and in so doing perhaps more people will become Christians, and that increases worship of God. Think about the martyrs.

Number twelve, there is preventative affliction. This is where God allows some hardship, but it's to warn us and spare us from a greater hardship. So all of a sudden you realize, man, my side hurts, better go to the doctor. You find out your appendix is bursting and that pain was a warning of God's love for you. All of a sudden, you're having a hard time breathing and you have pains in your chest, and you go to the doctor and they say, “You're having a heart attack” or, “You've got a blockage.” Oh, so that was preventative affliction. It was uncomfortable, but it spared me from a greater misery, and so in that way it was really a gift from God. What would the consequence be if you did not listen to your body?

Number thirteen is a category I would put a lot in, and it's mysterious affliction. And here's the answer: we don't know. We don't know why we are suffering, we don't know what's going on. We don't know. Now, those who are Bible teachers, theologians, and Biblical counselors, sometimes we struggle and strain to just say; “I don't know, “ but let me say, that's a perfectly good answer. Alright, when the Bible says in Romans, you know, it asks the rhetorical question, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Romans 11:34) He's not waiting for one of us to raise our hand and say, “Oh, I know.” I don't know. People can ask “why, why, why?” and often the answer is “I don't know.” The Bible says, “We see in part, we know in part.” (I Corinthians 13:12) When we're with Jesus, it'll all make sense. Until then, we have to wait for the answers that we seek.

And then number fourteen, there's apocalyptic affliction, and that is that as we get closer to the end of the world, and the dawning of the kingdom of God, and the return of Jesus, and the judgment of the living and the dead, there will be intense opposition and affliction toward God's people, and things give every account in Scripture of getting harder, and more difficult, and worse.

So how do we use the previous fourteen categories of affliction? We use them to help us diagnose the type of affliction our counselee is enduring. It is wrong to think all affliction is because of sin in someone's life. The best Biblical example is Job. Job was suffering but not because of sin in his life, probably his affliction would fall under demonic and testimonial.

If you want to help your counselee understand their suffering so that they can understand how to, in the grace of God, endure it, then as a counselor, it is helpful for me to understand suffering so that I can comfort and bring counsel to others. I need to be able to navigate a counselee into the Word of God to provide a right diagnosis for whatever suffering they are enduring.

Remember, here's what's amazing: our God chose to enter in and experience affliction, suffering, pain, poverty, rejection, and death. And the good news is that he has been where we are, he has been through where we are going, he conquered death, so that he's alive to help. Then as we learn and grow, we can be a help to others.

And this is why sometimes the most powerful ministries are born out of the deepest affliction. Someone has gone through something terrible, and then by the grace of God they've learned some things, and as they tell their story, others flock to them and say, “That sounds like my life. Could you help me?” Afflicted for others' good. Amen!!!

I don't know whether you will agree or disagree with Mark Driscoll's fourteen categories of affliction, but I hope it will help you to better diagnose what affliction your counselee is suffering and better navigate them into the Word of God to meet that suffering of others with the sufficiency of all that God has given us in Christ.