A while ago a friend of mine posed the question: “How can we differentiate between what is God’s chastening and, say, a trial that’s for our sanctification?”
It is a good question, and one that I have pondered a lot since my friend raised it. “How can we know, when we suffer, if God is chastening us for some sin, or whether He is just refining us for our sanctification apart from any particular sin?”

I suppose the simple answer would be:

Why not both?

That is often the case. So let’s begin there.

But by this I don’t mean it is always equally both. Sometimes it may be clearly and specifically because of a particular sin. At other times, it may be equally clearly not because of a particular sin.
But even where it is not because of a particular sin, there are still useful lessons to be learnt about our sinful hearts.

Consider Job.
“You have heard of the perseverance of Job” (Jas 4:11), the epitome of suffering in the Bible.
Job was a “man blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil”, whom God even owned as such before Satan. (Job 1:1,8) His suffering is never attributed to his sin, even though his three “friends” tried in vain, and with increasingly heartless desperation, to persuade him otherwise.
By way of response, Job became increasingly vehement in protesting his innocence. And “innocent” he was: “blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil”.

But then, after all parties have exhausted themselves, and the tumult and shouting dies, God speaks. He “answers Job”, beginning with these words: “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:1-2).
Before God is finished, Job responds to God’s: “Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?”,  with: “Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth.”

But God is not finished refining His servant and proceeds for another two chapters.
Then, at the end of it all, Job cries out: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6)

“Abhor myself”? “Repent in dust and ashes”?
But isn’t the purpose of this, perhaps the oldest book in the Bible, to make the point that innocent Job suffered, not because of any particular sin on his part?
Didn’t Jesus say as much about a blind man when the disciples asked the cause of that man’s suffering: “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” – and Jesus responded: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” (John 9:1-3)?

While all suffering since the Fall is because of sin, not all Job’s suffering was because he had sinned. Even so, through it all he learned afresh just how great a sinner he was.
God chastened him, but not because of any particular sin he had committed. God refined him; but in being refined, Job came to a fresh realisation of how sinful he was.

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
– Hebrews 12:11

Part of that “peaceable fruit of righteousness” was that Job inherited twice the number of sheep, camels, oxen and donkeys that he had before. And twice the number of children – if you count those who were already in glory, those for whom Job had regularly “risen early in the morning to offer burnt offerings” in case they “had sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”
But even more precious and peaceable was the “fruit of righteousness” that came through a better understanding Job now had of his own heart, and hence of the marvellous grace of God.

Suffering because of sin

Yet there are many cases in the Bible where suffering is attributed to that person’s particular sin. The person concerned usually knows this is so; or else, he soon learns it is so.
A few examples:

• The first ever to sin were left in no doubt that their suffering came about as a result of their sin. (Gen 3:16-19)
• When Cain murdered his brother, he likewise was left in no doubt that his subsequent suffering was punishment for his sin. (Gen 4:10-12)
• Even godly Moses knew his sin at Kadesh had excluded him from the Promised Land. (Deut 32:48-52)

But can we always be equally clear? In the above cases God not only chastened those who sinned, but specifically told them the reason they would suffer wasbecause of their sin.
But what if God does not speak?

When David wanted to number Israel – something even godless Joab could see was wrong – we don’t read the Lord spoke. Rather: “God was displeased with this thing; therefore He struck Israel. So David said to God, ‘I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing.’”. (1 Chron 21:7-8) The suffering itself convinced David.
Interestingly, in the parallel passage in 2 Sam 24, there is no mention of suffering before David was convicted – just: “And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done.’” (v 10) Whether before, or after, David suffered, the inner voice of God, his conscience, spoke to him.

When David sinned with Bathsheba he tried in vain, for the best part of a year, to cover up his sin – until God graciously sent Nathan, the prophet to condemn him.
What a relief that must’ve been for David! What torment of soul he had been in for months! No wonder he responded immediately to Nathan’s: “You are the man!!”
Though the Lord had not yet afflicted him physically for his sin (that would come after, 2 Sam 12:10-14), in the meantime his afflicted conscience had given him hell:

When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.
– Psalm 32:3-4

If only David had prayed sooner:

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
– Psalm 139:23-24

We, too, must be praying that prayer, sincerely and earnestly.
Only the Christian can pray that prayer sincerely and earnestly, because only the Christian can face his sin as it really is. He can do so, because only the Christian, facing his sin and repenting, can cry in relief:

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
– Psalm 32:1-2

How do we know if our suffering is chastening because of sin?
By praying, and listening for God to speak.
God speaks though our conscience. Even unbelievers are never devoid of conscience, though they try their hardest to shut it down. (Rom 2:14-16)

God speaks to us through His Word

However, since the Fall, conscience, along with the rest of us, has been corrupted.
We may mislead ourselves into thinking something is wrong, when it isn’t. (Acts 10:9-16)
More common though, is that we try and convince ourselves something is not sinful when it is. See, eg. here.

There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
– Proverbs 14:12

Our fallen conscience needs to be rightly informed. We must immerse ourselves in God’s Word so that we understand properly what is right and what is wrong:

The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
– Hebrews 4:12

God spoke audibly to Adam and Eve, to Cain, to Moses (as well as to other saints) so that they understood their chastening was because of their sin.
And God speaks to you and me today. If we want to understand whether God is chastening us because of a particular sin, we need to pray, and listen to God speak in His Word.
(For a helpful article by John Piper see here.)
If we neglect the Word, we neglect hearing God speak.

In particular, we need to hear God speak His Word of peace when we have repented and been forgiven. The tender-hearted believer may continue to beat himself up over sins long ago repented of and forgiven.
Satan is the great “Accuser of the brethren”.[1] He once took delight in “accusing them before our God day and night”. (Rev 12:10) Now, “cast down”, he takes delight in accusing us on earth of our past sins – sometimes even seconding “brethren” to join him in his evil deeds.
In this, especially, we need to listen to God speak in His Word. Eg. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
(For a helpful article on this by Randy Alcorn see here.)

Suffering and Learning

But whether our suffering is chastening for some particular sin, or just refining us for our sanctification apart from any particular sin, we can always learn from it.
And learn we must. As C.S. Lewis said:

“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”[2]

The Westminster Confession helps us understand, not only that there is a wide variety of reasons we suffer, but there is an equally wide variety of lessons to be learnt.

For example, in Chapter 5 Providence, § 5:

The most wise, righteous, and gracious God, does often times leave for a season His own children to manifold temptations and the corruption of their own hearts,

• • to chastise them for their former sins,
  • or, to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled;
  • and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself,
  • and, to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin,
  • and, for sundry other just and holy ends.

And, in Ch 18 The Assurance of Grace and Salvation, § 4:

True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as,

• • by negligence in preserving of it;
  • by falling into some special sin, which wounds the conscience, and grieves the Spirit;
  • by some sudden or vehement temptation;
  • by God’s withdrawing the light of His countenance and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and to have no light:

Yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived, and by the which, in the meantime, they are supported from utter despair.

Not least, we learn through suffering to humble ourselves before God. The great apostle Paul pleaded three times for his suffering to end. But he learnt in the end to accept that it was for his good:

Lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
– 2 Corinthians 12:7

I can testify too that, in my case, my sins and failures in the ministry, have left me bereft of being “exalted above measure” by any “success” in the ministry, but rather that I am a sinner wholly dependent for acceptance with God upon His grace found in the blood of Christ.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
– 2 Corinthians 12:9

I close with these well-known lines from J. Edwin Orr[3]:

Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
Try me, O Saviour, know my thoughts, I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from ev’ry sin and set me free.

[1] The name Satan means Accuser, Adversary
[2] C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
[3] Born (1912) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, married and with a daughter, named Eileen – what is there not to like about Edwin Orr? After spending some years as a baker, he began evangelizing in Britain and in Europe; then in Australia, China, Canada, South America, and the U.S. He wrote extensively on the history of religious revivals.