1 Peter 1:6

The declaration 'wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations' holds together present rejoicing and present grief in a characteristically Petrine both-and structure: the inheritance described in verses 3-5 is the ground of joy, while present trials are real and acknowledged. The phrase 'if need be' (ei deon estin) introduces divine necessity into the permission of suffering — trials are not accidental but divinely purposed, as verse 7 explains: 'that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory.' The metallurgical metaphor of gold-testing and faith-testing appears also in Job 23:10, Proverbs 17:3, and Zechariah 13:9, forming a consistent wisdom tradition about divine pedagogy through suffering. James 1:2-4 develops the identical logic of joy-in-trials.