This might sound strange, but there are good kinds of hurt.
Obviously, not all hurt is good, but some of it can be. Here’s what I mean.
What I’ve just said is very counter-cultural. A case could be made that our society is highly hedonistic. That’s where the pursuit of pleasure and happiness is the ultimate good. It follows that anything that doesn’t give you pleasure or happiness is “bad.”
But in John 15:12-14 Jesus says this to his disciples: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
When we live and love sacrificially, there are times when there will be some hurt. Francis Chan puts it even more firmly: “We cannot display Christ’s love without hurting.”*
Giving up something for someone else can hurt. Standing up for someone else can hurt. Helping someone carry a significant burden can hurt.
That may not be the way of our hedonistic culture, but it’s the way of Christ.
“My command is his: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Notes:
–*Francis Chan and Lisa Chan, You and Me Forever: Marriage in Light of Eternity (San Francisco: Claire Love Publishing, 2014), 76.
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–Bible quotes are from the NIV.
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