Bible Dictionary
AFFLICTION
Affliction is bodily pain, mental distress, oppression, or trouble. Scripture presents suffering as sometimes punitive, but also as a test, discipline, purification, or occasion for faithful and redemptive endurance, supremely seen in Christ.
Biblical Usage
The Bible associates affliction with sickness, poverty, oppression, injustice, war, invasion, conquest, exile, and persecution. It may be punitive, probational, disciplinary, purificatory, or redemptive. The suffering of Christ gives the idea of redemptive suffering its central New Testament expression, while believers are called to endure affliction in hope.