人类的痛苦

第三段作者提出问题：为什么我们的医治是一个痛苦的过程？作者给出了两个主要原因。
第一个答案是，我们一直以为意志属于自己，所以无论何时以何种方式，只要我们把意志交还给上帝，都是痛苦的。把侵占已久且膨胀的自我意志交还给上帝，意味着向己死。但这个不是容易或一次性可以完成的，所以向己死的必要性每天都存在。我们总以为已经打破了这个背叛的自我，但实际上它依然活着。完成这个过程不可能不经历痛苦。
第四段承上启下地表明，因向己死所引发的内在痛苦或死亡并不是全部，甚至比起一些它是微不足道的。作者接下来列举了三点来说明此情况。
you would like to know how i behave when i am experiencing pain, not writing books about it. you need not guess, for i will tell you; i am a great coward. but what is that to the purpose? When i think of pain — of anxiety that gnaws like fire and loneliness that spreads out like a desert, and the heart-breaking routine of monotonous misery, or again of dull aches that blacken our whole landscape or sudden nauseating pains that knock a man’s heart out at one blow, of pains that seem already intolerable and then are suddenly increased, of infuriating scorpion-stinging pains that startle into maniacal movement a man who seemed half dead with his previous tortures — it “quite o' ercrows my spirit”. if i knew any way of escape i would crawl through sewers to find it. but what is the good of telling you about 46 - mark 
my feelings? you know them already: they are the same as yours. i am not arguing that pain is not painful. Pain hurts. that is what the word means. i am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine of being made “perfect through suffering”47 is not incred- ible. to prove it palatable is beyond my design.
第十六段作者对于痛苦的描述真的太刻骨了。他写这些只是想表达他不是置身事外的冷眼旁观者，他和每个人一样都经历过或经历着痛苦。痛苦是一种煎熬，这正是痛苦的意义。但他想阐述基督教的一条教义，即因受苦难得以完全。当然，作者也指出，本书中他不打算证明这条教义的精辟。
第十七段提出，要衡量perfect through suffering这条教义的可信度时，需要遵守两条原则。
第一，我们必须记住当下正经受的苦难只不过是借着恐惧和怜悯得以延伸的整个苦难体系的中心点。
Whatever good effects these experiences have are dependent upon the centre; so that even if pain itself was of no spiritual value, yet, if fear and pity were, pain would have to exist in order that there should be something to be feared and pitied. and that fear and pity help us in our return to obedience and charity is not to be doubted. 
恐惧和怜悯能帮助我们归回顺服和怜悯的人。作者首先解释了怜悯。怜悯会让我们去爱那些原本我们觉得不可爱的人。作者也论述了恐惧。人民总是沉迷在自满自足的堕落中和不信神的光景里虚度光阴，直到遇到苦难。这种苦难不论是身体、感情还是战争，都会让人逃往他们最安全的避难所，找到至宝基督并依靠他。然而，当危机过去，我们又恢复本相，甚至逃避神。因为他让我们想起那些难过的时光。
and that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.
在该段最后，作者总结道，上面阐述的内容解释了为什么上帝只有看到我们悔改，或认定我们悔改无望，才会终止苦难。
第二，当我们思考痛苦本身时，我们必须小心翼翼，只去关注和讨论我们晓得的，不去关注我们不晓得的。这也是作者围绕的中心是人类，而不是动物。但即使是对人类，我们也只能通过观察事例得出证据。