Why did God tell Ananias that Paul would suffer for His name?
God told Ananias that Paul would suffer for His name because Paul had previously caused so much suffering himself. For years he had been unmerciful to fellow Jews who believed in Jesus, so the suffering he would endure was connected to the suffering he had precipitated.
Les teaches that there was a reason behind Paul's coming suffering, captured in the old saying, "what goes around comes around." For several years Paul had done the same thing to his victims; he was unmerciful to his fellow Jews because they had believed in Jesus of Nazareth. So God told Ananias in Damascus, "I will show this man how he must suffer for My name's sake," because Paul had precipitated so much suffering himself. Les also notes that Paul later suffered at the hands of Jews and Romans, shipwreck, beatings, stoning, and perils in journeys, though Acts records only some of these.