How do I help a friend who is suffering?

¹¹Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.

¹²When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.

¹³So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

¹Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.

²It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick.

³The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.”

⁴But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.”

⁵Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

⁶When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was.

⁷Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.”

⁸The disciples told him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and are you going there again?”

⁹Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

¹⁰But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.”

¹¹He said these things, and after that, he said to them, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.”

¹²The disciples therefore said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”

¹³Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep.

¹⁴So Jesus said to them plainly then, “Lazarus is dead.

¹⁵I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.”

¹⁶Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go also, that we may die with him.”

¹⁷So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already.

¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away.

¹⁹Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.

²⁰Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house.

²¹Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.

²²Even now I know that, whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”

²³Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.

²⁶Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”

²⁸When she had said this, she went away, and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here, and is calling you.”

²⁹When she heard this, she arose quickly, and went to him.

³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him.

³¹Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”

³²Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”

³³When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,

³⁴and said, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.”

³⁵Jesus wept.

³⁶The Jews therefore said, “See how much affection he had for him!”

³⁷Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?”

³⁸Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

³⁹Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?”

⁴¹So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me.

⁴²I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”

⁴³When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.”

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;

⁴who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

⁵For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.

⁶But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.

⁷Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort.

⁸For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.

⁹Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,

¹⁰who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us;

¹¹you also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift bestowed on us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on your behalf.

¹Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted.

²Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

³For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

⁴But let each man test his own work, and then he will take pride in himself and not in his neighbor.

⁵For each man will bear his own burden.

⁶But let him who is taught in the word share all good things with him who teaches.

⁷Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

⁸For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

⁹Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up.

¹⁰So then, as we have opportunity, let’s do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith.