Pathos

Making pain and suffering a part of life...

Pathos is a Greek word that is often described as one that inflicts emotions,  but also more particularly a more negative emotion. Rhetoric of the past often sees this as a means of persuasion that brings about conviction to the crowd.

Last week as well as yesterday morning, the word pathos was brought up and got me thinking about that I have been thinking a lot. In fact what was talked about was something that I have been thinking about for a while now. What I am talking about here is the theology of suffering.

Our understanding that suffering is something that Jesus went through a lot and preached about throughout the rest of the New Testament. Much of what we often like to pay more attention to in our walk with God is the part of comfort and peace but not the opposite of it. But Job makes is a point of how we look at God when He asks if we should only receive good but not trouble from God in Job 2. This is so because of the sinful nature that we are and one that we live in, the encounter of suffering is unavoidable. In fact, suffering is something that God encourages as Paul puts it in Philippians 3 to identify with Christ in His suffering. Suffering is needed so that the experience of resurrection can be made known in our lives as we begin to gain revelation of who God is and His nature of His kingdom and mission.