The answer
The apostle Paul teaches us that the believer needs to be aware of God’s saving plan in his life when he says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
God’s plan for us is supreme, for He does not merely change the course of events and circumstances to satisfy our personal desires, but He turns all things, without exception, to the edification of those who are truly faithful, so that even adverse circumstances work for His glory.
St. John Chrysostom makes the following comment on the preceding verse: “For he instructs them not to choose just what they may think, themselves, to be useful, but what the Spirit may suggest; for many things that seem to one’s self profitable, do sometimes even cause much harm. Quiet, for instance, and freedom from dangers, and living out of fear, seemed to be advantageous for them … So he that besought the Lord thrice to be freed from hazards … heard Him say, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Cor. 12:8–9) … And he exhorted all men to give up these matters to the Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is very mindful of us, and this is the will of God.”347
Elsewhere, St. John Chrysostom points out that while all the things that seem painful work for the good of those who love God; for those who do not love Him, even the things that seem good and holy will work against them, if they do not lovingly turn back to Him. Among his illustrations of this principle, he mentions the Jews who not only failed to benefit from the good law, but were even offended by the Lord Christ. He says, “For should even tribulation, or poverty, or imprisonment, or famines, or deaths, or anything else whatsoever come upon us, God is able to change all these things into the opposite … As then things seemingly harmful do good to these, so do even things profitable harm those who love Him not.”348
Abba Theodore says, “For just as it is said of men who are perfect and wise: ‘To them that love God all things work together for good,’ so of those who are weak and foolish it is declared that everything is against a foolish man (see Prov. 14:7), for he gets no profit out of prosperity, nor does adversity make him any better … But a man can be more easily overcome by prosperity than by misfortunes: for these sometimes restrain men against their will and make them humble and through most salutary sorrow cause them to sin less, and make them better: while prosperity puffs up the mind with soothing but most pernicious flatteries.”349
St. Jerome350 presents Job as a living example of those whose troubles turn to their own good. For the enemy left nothing unharmed in Job except for his tongue, perhaps so that he might blaspheme against God (Job 2:9); yet all this turned out to Job’s good, and God came to him and spoke to him as one who speaks to his friend.
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
347 St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 15 (NPNF I/11:453) amended.
348 St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 15 (NPNF I/11:452–453).
349 St. John Cassian, The Conferences 6.8 (NPNF II/11:365).
350 See St. Jerome, The Homilies of Saint Jerome, Volume 1 (1–59 on the Psalms) 6 (FOTC 48:48–49).