According To His Purpose

” …to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Rom. 8:28

I didn’t include the beginning of this verse, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,” because it tends to be one of the most often quoted verses of comfort that creates nothing but unwanted and untimely despair for the afflicted Christian. I say that because the one who often hears this verse is the one who is undergoing a particular trial or difficulty; feeling quite upset and possibly angry at the time about their situation, and then the well-meaning brother or sister blurts this verse out in an attempt to encourage the poor and downcast soul. Consider Job. O, Lord, have mercy on us. Teach us to sit in the dust and ash with the brother. If anything, the ash in the air will help us keep our mouths closed.

This verse is intended to be correctly taught before the trial arrives, and once taught, the Holy Spirit will resurrect its remembrance for our application and comfort. However, I must say too that it is often misused because we don’t always suffer affliction or loss as a matter of being under a ‘call according to His purpose.’ Sometimes, God will chasten us for doing precisely the opposite; that is, sinning, and through which God responds. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” (Heb. 12:6) That’s not to say that God doesn’t use His chastening to work that for our good, but it could have been avoided. No, what is stated in this passage is directed towards the suffering that we will face in varying degrees for honoring and obeying God according to His purpose. What is His purpose for us? The highest end for man is to, “glorify God and to fully enjoy Him forever.” (Westminster Confession of Faith, The Larger Catechism.) As for us, this passage in Romans provides us comfort in knowing that He works all things together for good when we pursue His end and purpose, which may lead to extreme difficulty and affliction; even physical death. The passage leads us to cry out in faith and assurance, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” and “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”  (verses 35, 36)

The bottom line is this: do you know your chief end and purpose? If you do, and it is to glorify God and to enjoy Him evermore, then do you know that you will suffer, in varying degrees and situations, affliction? As our Lord explained to us, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:8) While we do not live to provoke anyone, but rather to love our neighbor, do we understand and accept by God’s grace whatever our end may be, or where it may take us? If so, then we are those who demonstrate that they love God, and in that, we can be assured that all things will work together for good… not ourselves alone, but those whom God brought into our paths and neighborhood.