What do you do when life is unfair? Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. He was wrongly accused and imprisoned. If anyone had a right to be depressed or downcast, Joseph did. But instead of remaining confined in the prison of his circumstances, Joseph looked around. We can find this account in Genesis 40.

Joseph noticed the sadness of the cupbearer and baker who had also been imprisoned. Even though he had been falsely imprisoned, treated with terrible injustice, he was compassionate toward others.

Focusing on your own problems only makes them worse, not better. Too many of us are in a prison of sorts—prison of circumstances or a prison of choices (our own or those others have made for us).

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But focusing on our own problems is not a solution. I remember a number of years ago where a counselor at our church was leaving for a couple weeks on a trip. He was regularly counseling a lady through her sufferings and difficulties. He asked if someone could meet with her in his absence. I volunteered, mostly in order to gain some experience. This woman had a difficult life. But her biggest challenge was that she had seen a counselor (not my friend, but a secular one) who had taught her to focus on herself and get herself in a right place. I counseled, as did my friend, that she focus on others. What she needed was to see the hurt in others and focus her energy on helping someone else. But she couldn’t see past her own problems, her own suffering, her own prison. Every relationship she had, she had damaged, some irreparably. Her problems, difficulties and challenges were center-stage.

Regardless of the challenges you face or the issues you deal with (of your own making or someone else’s), the solution is not to live in them or focus on them. The solution, best applied when we realize we are loved and cared for by God, is to focus on how we can encourage someone else or improve their plight. The most delightful people to be around are the ones who care deeply about others and invest in them. They are the ones who focus their energy on you and your issues, rather than retreating deeper into their own prisons of unfair situations.

How do we notice? How do we focus on the needs of others rather than get caught up in our own circumstances? We are able to embrace a lifestyle of noticing, encouraging and serving when we apply the gospel to our situations and circumstances. The gospel—that Jesus suffered and died on a cruel cross and rose from the dead so we could be forgiven and made new—is the entry point into salvation as well as the maturing influence in our daily lives. The gospel teaches us that we are not isolated in our suffering, that our suffering is not permanent and that our suffering can be overcome. Jesus suffered separation and punishment for sin on the cross. Jesus suffered and died, but also rose to his permanent home in heaven. Jesus experienced resurrection and glory from the Father overcoming sin, suffering and death. Because Jesus suffered, we don’t have to feel alone in suffering. Because Jesus brought us into his family, our permanent experience is heaven, and we don’t have to be paralyzed by our suffering . Because Jesus overcame sin, suffering and death, we can overcome because we are victorious in him. And when we experience the blessings that come with the gospel, we have the privilege and right to encourage others with the gospel love we’ve experienced as well.  

When you focus on your situation, you become stranded. When you focus on your Savior, you can receive relief and release. Joseph was not defined by his prison—because he was defined by the Lord’s favor—as found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. What defines you? Your prison? Or the favor of God as you share with someone else?

During my ministry I’ve heard many errors stated by church members and attenders: I’d like to be baptized so I can go to heaven; I grew up in church so I know I’m a Christian; God made me this way, so how I feel about myself must be OK; suicide is the unforgivable sin; if I just have faith and pray enough, then God will give me my dreams; I don’t believe God will let those who have never heard the gospel go to hell.

Look at the statements closely.

They, along with many others I could’ve mentioned, are false claims built upon false teaching that is all too prevalent in today’s churches.

If you don’t think sound doctrine matters, just look at the recent public departure from the Christian faith like Joshua Harris and the questioning of faith like Marty Sampson. It is not my aim to pile on another article on their very public announcements, but their actions warrant a reminder to the church. In both cases, Harris and Sampson, question and disavow sound doctrine. In a responding post, lead singer of the band Skillet, John Cooper recently wrote:

My conclusion for the church (all of us Christians): We must STOP making worship leaders and thought leaders or influencers or cool people or “relevant” people the most influential people in Christendom. (And yes that includes people like me!) I’ve been saying for 20 years (and seemed probably quite judgmental to some of my peers) that we are in a dangerous place when the church is looking to 20 year old worship singers as our source of truth. We now have a church culture that learns who God is from singing modern praise songs rather than from the teachings of the Word. I’m not being rude to my worship leader friends (many who would agree with me) in saying that singers and musicians are good at communicating emotion and feeling. We create a moment and a vehicle for God to speak. However, singers are not always the best people to write solid bible truth and doctrine. Sometimes we are too young, too ignorant of scripture, too unaware, or too unconcerned about the purity of scripture and the holiness of the God we are singing to. Have you ever considered the disrespect of singing songs to God that are untrue of His character? 

You can see his entire post here.

In Paul’s pastoral epistles, he charged Timothy and Titus to know biblical doctrine and to teach it well because of the theological errors that abounded then and continue today. But if we teach the Bible as God’s inerrant truth, then we can expect opposition. We can expect to find theological error taught by former pastors, Sunday School teachers, traveling preachers, student camp pastors and television evangelists.

I’m not saying that everyone you listen to preaches error or that every error you might hear is a distortion of the gospel that requires immediate and direct correction. But I am saying that a healthy diet of sound doctrine will confront false beliefs and may even instigate theological conflict in the classes you teach and the churches where you preach.

Gospel preaching and orthodox theology are not always popular. Paul, Timothy and Titus faced opposition; we will also. That is why we must be students of the Word, interpreting the Bible correctly and faithfully exhorting those around us with the truth.

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When we face deceivers and opposition by those who are in theological error we “must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught,” and “give instruction in sound doctrine” and “rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9).

Adapted from Sunday School Lesson for the Biblical Recorder originally published here.