Why does God allow suffering and evil?

¹Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’”

²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden,

³but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

⁴The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die,

⁵for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.

⁷Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.

⁸They heard the voice of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.

⁹Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

¹¹God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

¹⁵I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

¹⁶To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.

¹⁸It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.

¹⁹By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.

¹⁹For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

²⁰For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

²¹that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

²²For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

²³Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

²⁴For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?

²⁵But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.

²⁷He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

¹As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.

²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

³Jesus answered, “Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but, that the works of God might be revealed in him.

⁴I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work.

⁵While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud,

⁷and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing.

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.