Romans 5:3

Rom_5:3

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.

The Christian process

I. Tribulation gives rise to patience, coming from a verb which signifies to keep good under (a burden, blows, etc.) , and might be rendered endurance.

II. Endurance, in its turn, worketh experience--the state of a force or virtue which has stood trials. This force, issuing victorious from the conflict, is undoubtedly the faith of the Christian, the worth of which he has now proved by experience. It is a weapon of which henceforth he knows the value. The word frequently denotes the proved Christian, the man who has shown what he is (cf. Rom_14:18)

, and the opposite (1Co_10:27).

III. When, finally, the believer has thus experienced the Divine force with which faith fills him in the midst of suffering, he feels his hope rise. Nothing which can happen to him in the future any longer affrights him. The prospect of glory opens up to him nearer and more brilliant. How many Christians have declared that they never knew the gladness of faith or lively hope till they gained it by tribulation! With this word the apostle has returned to the end of Rom_5:2; and as there are deceitful hopes, he adds that this, the hope of glory, runs no risk of being falsified by the event. (Prof. Godet.)

The Christian process

The text may be treated--

I. Analogically.

1. Sore was the tribulation which came upon the disciples as they thought upon Christs death and burial. But after a little patience and experience, their hope revived; for their Lord arose. After that hope had been begotten in them, the Holy Spirits Divine influence was shed abroad upon them. They were not ashamed of their hope, but fearlessly proclaimed Jesus, their hope of glory.

2. History repeats itself. The history of our Lord is the foreshadowing of the experience of all His people. First comes our tribulation, our cross-bearing. Out of our patience and experience there arises in due season a blessed hope: we are quickened by our Lords resurrection life, and come forth from our sorrow. Then we enjoy our Pentecost: The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Consequent upon that visitation our hope becomes clear and assured, and we are led to make a full outspoken testimony.

II. Experimentally. Here is a little map of the inner life. This passage can only be fully understood by those who have had it written in capital letters on their own hearts.

1. Tribulation worketh patience. Naturally it worketh impatience, and impatience misses the fruit of experience, and sours into hopelessness. When the heart is renewed by the Holy Spirit, but not till then, tribulation worketh patience. Angels cannot exhibit patience, since they are not capable of suffering. Job did not learn it in prosperity, but when he sat among the ashes and his heart was heavy. Patience is a pearl which is only found in the deep seas of affliction; and only grace can find it, bring it to the surface, and adorn the neck of faith therewith.

2. This patience worketh in us experience: i.e., the more we endure, the more we test the faithfulness of God, the more we prove His love, and the more we perceive His wisdom. He that hath never endured may believe in the sustaining power of grace, but he has never had experience of it. You must put to sea to know the skill of the Divine Pilot, and be buffeted with tempest before you can know His power over winds and waves. What better wealth can a man have than to be rich in experience?

3. Experience works hops, How wonderfully does Divine alchemy fetch fine gold out of baser metal. The Lord in His grace spreads a couch for His own on the threshing floor of tribulation, and there we take our rest. He sets to music the roar of the water floods of trouble. Out of the foam of the sea of sorrow He causeth to arise the bright spirit of hope that maketh not ashamed.

III. Doctrinally. The text is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven. The love of God (the Father)

is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength … Christ died for the ungodly. Behold the blessed Three in One! It needs the Trinity to make a Christian, to cheer a Christian, to complete a Christian, to create in a Christian the hope of glory. We have Divine love bestowed by the Father, made manifest in the death of the Son, and shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Christians grounds for glorying in tribulation

To see a man rejoicing, notwithstanding his sufferings, in the good of his portion, were nothing remarkable; but his glorying even in the very evil itself, one would be disposed, in the ignorance of any other cause, to ascribe to mental derangement. Now, what is the light in which the gospel teaches us to regard the evils of life? When the apostle says, We glory in tribulations, are we to understand that the evils of life, in place of being regarded as indications of Gods displeasure, are really to be looked upon by all men as tokens of His love and favour? Not so, we conceive, by any means. Affliction, even when viewed in the light of the gospel by the unrepentant, though it may be looked upon by them as the doing of a God who still waits to be gracious, cannot, while their relation to God is unchanged, be regarded as so divested of its penal character that they can at all glory in it. The best fruits it can as yet yield to them is that sorrow which worketh repentance, and it is only when it operates thus that it operates aright. There is, then, manifestly just one class of men who on reasonable grounds can glory in their tribulations, and that is those who have already turned to God and found reconciliation--to them alone it is given to extract anything like the oil of gladness out of the bitter herbs of temporal suffering; and so it is that we here find glorying in tribulations ranked by the apostle among the privileges of the justified. And it is worthy of being remarked, too, that it is not the first in the enumeration--that first peace of conscience, and joyful hope of sharing the promised glory, must have resulted from justification before a man can bring himself to regard his tribulations as a ground of rejoicing. We would now call attention to the grounds of his so glorying, as here stated by him.

1. Tribulation worketh patience. That patience, which is a Christian grace, is not mere mental composure in the midst of outward troubles, and fixedness of purpose when excited passion threatens to bear the spirit away from its firmest resolves, but it is all this from right religious views and principles. It is because the mind of a Christian is stayed upon God that it is kept calm and steady in the day of trouble. He has such confidence in the character of God, and has taken such a hold upon His promises, and understands, moreover, so well the design of His fatherly correction, that when affliction does come, instead of loosening his hold of God, it tends, on the contrary, to lead him to cleave to Him still more closely. It being granted, then, that tribulation worketh patience, what ground, it may be asked, has a man for rejoicing in tribulation because it so operates? The Christian is taught to regard the improvement of character--the having his mind and will brought into perfect conformity to the mind and will of God--as that above all things else to be desired by him. Any advance he can make in this way he looks upon as the greatest gain, not only on account of its present advantage, but especially because of its eternal recompense. Show him, then, that he has gained in character, that he has brought his will more nearly to coincide with the will of God, and he will be satisfied that he has cause to rejoice in the acquisition, whatever may bare been the sacrifice or suffering through which it was obtained. Now, how are such acquisitions made? First, we answer, by endeavouring, in the strength of Divine grace sought and relied on, to do the will of God, as made known in His holy commandments; and secondly, by endeavouring, through the same Divine aid, patiently to submit to Gods will as made known in His providential dispensations.

2. But the patient enduring of tribulation not only tends to the improvement of a character, but it also serves to test the character and so to manifest its genuineness. And this is the meaning of the apostle when he says that patience worketh experience. When a man is put into the furnace of affliction and comes out unscathed, then he has the best evidence to conclude that they are genuine.

3. The value to the believer of this judgment of self-approval will fully appear when we consider that it worketh hope, even a hope that maketh not ashamed. The connection between a believers judgment of self-approval and his hope of glory is very evident. The fact of his being a believer implies that he has faith in the unseen realities of the future world. He may believe this, however, without having any assured hope of being himself a partaker of the inheritance. He knows that it is promised to men of a certain character only; so it is clearly only when he has been enabled to pronounce judgment on himself favourably and decidedly that his hope of future glory will be brightened up into full assurance. He need not mourn though this earth be made darkness around him, who has the hope of heavens glory to cheer him; and if it be in the dark night of sorrow that the light of heavenly hope is made to shine most brightly, he need not be impatient for the coming of the dawn. The apostle, to give confirmation to his argument and to show that the process by which this gladdening hope is extracted out of the believers tribulations, is not one that is carried on independently of the aid of Divine grace, adds, Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. The Divine Spirit, by infusing love towards God into the believers heart, gives him assured grounds to regard himself a child of God; and being assured of this, and knowing that on this point there is no delusion or self-deception, then he knows for certain that his hopes can never be disappointed--that be they ever so bright they shall be far more than realised. (A. Stewart.)

Glorying in tribulation

Let us--

I. Expound the text.

1. We glory in tribulations, i.e. (see Heb_10:33), refers specifically to persecutions. We know how Paul himself was exposed to these. It was no easy thing to be a Christian in those early times. Our English word means to thresh corn with flails. Methinks that if the same flails were used now upon the threshing floors of Christian profession, we should very speedily know how much chaff, and how little wheat, is now heaped up there. But we need not limit the term to tribulations of that class. Afflictions may overtake us in many other forms. We may lose our health, our wealth, our friends, our domestic comfort and peace. Yet in these tribulations, as Christians, we glory, for we believe them to be sent or permitted of God to promote our good (Heb_12:5-15).

2. Tribulation worketh patience. It does so, of course, only when received in submissiveness and faith. On the ungodly it generally produces the contrary effect.

(1) The simplest idea of patience is that of passive continuance, as when we read of patiently waiting for the object of hope.

(2) A higher degree of self-control, or a power to govern our tempers in provocation (Ecc_7:8-9).

(3) Another notion is that of fortitude, or strong resistance against a pressure of adversity (Jam_1:3).

(4) But its crowning excellence is that it can do more than resist; it can overbear opposition and go on its way rejoicing. It is the same thing as perseverance (Heb_12:1). blow as tribulation works patience, we may well glory in it, for it is a good thing to be patient. By patience we are kept from ignoble sloth, children are converted into noble heroes, we are roused to new life and energy, and grow up from puny infancy to the full stature of the perfect man in Christ. The forest trees grow stronger the more they are beat upon by the tempest; your stalwart rowers pull harder just as they feel the current bearing more steadily against them; and the exposed warrior gets most inured to the battle and the breeze.

3. And patience, experience. The radical idea is that of testing or trying metal, to ascertain its purity. Patience gives us proof of--

(1) Our own sincerity and genuineness. You may imagine yourself converted, and be the subject of joyful feeling; but is all this real? The answer is got by the experiment of tribulation (Mar_4:16-17).

(2) The limited power of our adversaries. The young Christian, like the young voyager, is soon frightened by the tempest, but the experienced saint, like the veteran sailor, has discovered that the waves are not so mighty as they seem, and that the winds only hurry the vessel faster on its course.

(3) Jehovahs faithfulness (Psa_18:16-18; Psa_18:29; Hab_3:17-19; 2Co_12:5-9).

4. And experience, hope. Hope was mentioned before as the result of faith; here it is the fruit of experience. Each is the same in its nature and object; but it is reached by two distinct processes. First, our hope is based simply and nakedly on the declaration and promise of God (verse 1; Psa_119:49-50). But the hope of the text, while it rests upon the same word, also rests upon out experience of what the Lord has done for our souls. This has the double effect of satisfying us that we are the subjects of grace, and therefore those to whom the promise belongs; and also of convincing us, from what we have actually received, that God is faithful who hath promised, who also will do it.

5. This assured hope suffers us not to be ashamed, even in the midst of suffering and reproach.

II. Apply the text. It supplies--

1. A test of faithfulness. How do you deal with troubles? Do you meet them with fretfulness and impatience, or in a spirit of stoical pride or stolid indifference? If not, do you, as Gods children, bear them patiently and triumph in them? From experience, does hope spring? and does that hope make you bold in confessing Christ? Is the love of God shed abroad in your breast?

2. A lesson of wisdom. If our hearts are set on worldly things, then plainly we can have no delight in tribulations. Let us, then, study the nature and the worth of moral excellence and religious attainments. It were surely better for us to get the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, than to compass every object of earthly ambition.

3. A lesson of patience and trust. You know, as a child of God, that affliction is given you from above, that it is all ordered in wisdom, and superintended by infinite love. Therefore, be patient and hope unto the end. God will remove the crucible as soon as the liquid metal reflects His glorious image from its unsullied surface. Affliction is to Gods children what the shepherds dog is to the flock, which barks at the outsiders and drives the wanderers home again. Or it is the lapidarys grindstone, whereby the most costly gems are rounded and polished.

4. Some solemn thoughts for the unconverted.

(1) Do you persecute the righteous? What you do against them will redound to their greater reward. It must, however, injure you.

(2) What effect has trouble upon you? You cannot avoid it, any more than can the godly.

(3) Whether in sickness or health, you have not the love of God in your heart. One wonders how you can live without it. And certainly you will find it hard to die without it. (T. G. Horton.)

Glorying in tribulation

It is joy, when between the millstones crushed like an olive, to yield nothing but the oil of thankfulness; when bruised beneath the flail of tribulation, still to lose nothing but the chaff, and to yield to God the precious grain of entire submissiveness. Why, this is a little heaven upon earth. To glory in tribulations also, this is a high degree of up-climbing towards the likeness of our Lord. Perhaps the usual communions which we have with our Beloved, though exceeding precious, will never equal those which we enjoy when we have to break through thorns and briars to be at Him; when we follow Him into the wilderness then we feel the love of our espousals to be doubly sweet. It is a joyous thing when in the midst of mournful circumstances, we yet feel that we cannot mourn, because the Bridegroom is with us. Blessed is the man who in the most terrible storm is driven in not from his God, but even rides upon the crest of the lofty billows nearer towards heaven. Such happiness is the Christians lot. I do not say that every Christian possesses it, but I am sure that every Christian ought to do so. There is a highway to heaven, and all in it are safe; but in the middle of that road there is a special way, an inner path, and all who walk therein are happy as well as safe. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Tribulation a ground of glorying

Not only so. The apostle has been speaking of the priceless advantages that flow from justification, peace, access into grace, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. Surely there is sufficient here to pay a man for becoming a Christian. But, not only so. This not only so is the Christians peculiar privilege. Make the most copious enumeration you will, and there will be a not only so. O the depth of the riches! Note--

I. The strange fact of our text.

1. Though a modest man, Paul was greatly given to glorying. And in his grounds we can generally justify him. We are not surprised that he should boast of himself. And there is leave for any man to do so who has good reason, provided it be done in the spirit of the apostle. We are not surprised that he should boast of the churches. Above all we are not surprised at his boast in the Cross, that grand symbol of the worlds redemption. But that he should glory in tribulations also must seem somewhat strange to the generality of men who regard them as distressing. You could understand him if he were speaking of the halls of mirth, of the pomp of palaces. He might reasonably glory in such things.

2. But the explanation is to be found in no defective mental or moral organisation. These are not the words of a madman speaking at random; nor of some hare-brained youth who goes through life saying I dont care; nor of a stoic whose false philosophy teaches him to despise alike the good and the ills of life. No, never was a nature more sensitive than Pauls. He does not mean that he gloried in the midst of his tribulations, notwithstanding his tribulations, treating them as matters of no account and even of contempt. They were the very ground of his glorying. Nor was his glorying mistaken. Our tribulations are but the instruments of the Lord of the harvest for purifying our souls. The uses of our griefs are Divine, and this must not only reconcile us to them, but enable us to glory in them. You see the strength of the apostles argument, He has got God, Therefore he has got all and can glory in all. Can connect a thing with God, whatever guise it wear, is at once to make it an angel.

II. The explanation of this strange fact. He justifies his assertion by setting forth the gradations by which tribulation works the highest good.

1. Tribulation worketh patience, or endurance. The more a Christian suffers in a Christian spirit, the greater capacity does he discover for endurance. So that his very afflictions become their own anodyne.

2. Patience worketh experience. The word signifies--

(1) Proof; patient endurance of suffering proves a mans spiritual mettle. The furnace must declare whether a mans religion is gilt or gold. A parrot might be taught to say Thy will be done. How will the man behave when every earthly comfort is withdrawn?

(2) Approbation. God sends tribulation first that it may test, and then, that He may say to us, Well done!

3. Experience, or approval, worketh hope. These tribulations drive us to the anticipation of another world. While sunny skies are over our head we think only of the present, but an overcast heaven sends our thoughts into the future. And hope maketh not ashamed. We sometimes see men with rueful countenances coming away from the door of a quondam friend. Ah! I did hope that man was my friend, is the exclamation. But he has put my hope to shame. Men never come away like that from Gods door. There is nothing like experience to fortify faith.

4. Because Gods love is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. Gods love, as the active principle in the heart, is the angel presence that banishes all impatience, all fear. The God I love sends my tribulations. Therefore will I glory even in tribulations. Only love can interpret the mysteries of God. I will close with a picture (Rev_7:9-14). Thus tribulation is the gateway of heaven. (J. Halsey.)

Tribulation and after

The apostle sets before us a ladder like to that which Jacob saw, the foot whereof resteth upon the earth, but the top ascendeth to heaven. Tribulation is the foot, but we mount as we see that it worketh patience; and we climb again, for patience worketh experience; and we ascend yet once again, for experience sustaineth hope; and hope that maketh not ashamed climbs up to the very heart of God, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. I might compare these verses to those songs of degrees which were sung by the people as they went up to the temple: as they halted at each stage of the pilgrimage, they sang a fresh psalm, and so David said, They go from strength to strength; every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. The pilgrim setteth out from the dull and desolate vale of tribulation, he journeys on to patience and lifts up his psalm under the shadow of the rock; he removes his tent and journeys on to experience beneath its wells and palm trees he refreshes himself; soon he marches on again from experience to hope, and never stayeth till the love of God is shed abroad in his heart, and he has reached the New Jerusalem, where he worships the ever blessed God and drinks full draughts of His eternal love. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Tribulations beautifying

It is rough work that polishes. Look at the pebbles on the shore. Far inland where some arm of the sea thrusts itself deep into the bosom of the land, and expanding into a salt loch, lies girdled by the mountains, sheltered from the storms that agitate the deep, the pebbles on the beach are rough, not beautiful; angular, not rounded. It is where long white lines of breakers roar, and the rattling shingle is rolled about the strand, that its pebbles are rounded and polished. As in nature, as in the arts, so in grace; it is the rough treatment that gives souls as well as stones their lustre. The more the diamond is cut the brighter it sparkles; and in what seems hard dealing, their Lord has no end in view but to perfect His peoples graces. He afflicts not willingly; He sends tribulation to work patience, so that patience may work experience and experience hope. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Tribulations: how to meet them

We should brave trouble as the New England boy braves winter. The school is a mile away over the snowy hill, yet he lingers not by the fire; but with his books slung over his shoulder, and his cap tied closely under his chin, be sets out to face the storm. And when he reaches the topmost ridge, where the powdered snow lies in drifts, and the north wind comes keen and biting, does he shrink and cower down beneath the fences, or run into the nearest house to warm himself? No: he buttons up his coat, and rejoices to defy the blast, and tosses the snow wreaths with his foot; and so erect and fearless, with strong heart and ruddy cheek, he goes on to his place at school. (H. W. Beecher.)

Tribulations: sources of joy

Our afflictions are like weights, and have a tendency to bow us to the dust, but there is a way of arranging weights by means of wheels and pulleys, so that they will even lift us up. Grace, by its matchless art, has often turned the heaviest of our trials into occasions for heavenly joy. We glory in tribulations also. We gather honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The genealogy of Christian hope

1. It is no uncommon thing amongst us, for a man, sprung from the lowest grade of society, to rise, by the mere force of industry and intelligence, to a level with the high born and the noble; but he would show himself unworthy of his success and elevation, were he ashamed of his mean parentage. On the other hand, it has a very graceful look when he shows no wish to hide, but rather a desire to display, the meanness of his parentage; when, e.g., amidst the gorgeous decorations of his mansion he places conspicuously the picture of some cottage, or some weather-beaten rustic, and says to his admiring guests in a tone of honest satisfaction--In that cottage was I born, or, That was my father.

2. And we are assuming the fact that what is brilliant is only the more brilliant when traced to its lowly origin, when we think that our text is of more than common interest. For what so glorious as Christian hope? And our text traces it back through its immediate ancestry, and stops--where? At what is lofty, radiant, attractive? Nay, at tribulation. Nor is he ashamed of that ancestry; for he glories in tribulation. We shall find it profitable and interesting to trace the struggles of hope; for they are like the struggles of a family raising itself by successive steps, till it has exchanged a mean for a dignified position. Let us examine--

I. How the one is dependent on the other. Remember that St. Paul speaks only of those who bear tribulation as Christians, who receive it as appointed them by God. With them--

1. Tribulation worketh patience! There is nothing else which can work it. Whilst things are all going smoothly it is difficult for him to ascertain whether we have patience or not. We can only know ourselves as to any particular quality, as God shall put that quality to proof. Courage must be tested by danger, virtue by temptation, constancy by solicitation. And further, the trial is adapted to develop and strengthen it. Courage grows by exposure to danger, virtue is confirmed by every victory over temptation, and constancy acquires steadfastness as it resists a solicitation. And all this is particularly true in regard of patience. It is beautiful to observe how persons who, by nature, were fretful, have been disciplined into patience through affliction. It is not necessary that an individual should be patient as a man, in order to be patient as a Christian; on the contrary, grace works its choicest specimens out of the most unpromising material. But patience is wrought out, not by tribulation in itself, but by tribulation bringing the Christian to reflection and to prayer. Therefore does the Christian glory in tribulation, even if he had to stop here. He knows that patience is required as one of the chief fruits of the Spirit, a main evidence of meetness for the heavenly inheritance; shall he be ashamed of the adversity whence he hath acquired so choice a grace?

2. Patience worketh experience. The putting something to the proof; in this case the ascertaining the precise worth, verity and power of the consolations and promises of God. Tribulation worketh patience, in that suffering brings the Christian into an attitude of submission; but when he has been schooled into resignation, he is not left without heavenly visitations. God allures him into the wilderness, but only that He may speak comfortably to him, giving him the valley of Achor for a door of hope. Promises, whose beauty can be but faintly apprehended so long as there is no pressing need of their accomplishment, come home to the heart in an hour of trouble patiently endured, as if they were made on purpose for such emergencies. Here then, is already a noble elevation. From tribulation we have passed through patience and experience; the man has become his own evidence to the truth of Scripture, to the Divinity of Christianity, to the sufficiency of the gospel. No longer obliged to solicit external testimony, he has tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. Experience is a vast advance upon patience; and we may look to find in the next generation all the honour and brightness of Christian nobility. Such, indeed, is the case, for experience worketh hope. How naturally does the one spring from the other! He in whom patience has wrought experience is one who, having put promises to the proof, has found them made good, and thereby proved to be of God. Surely now he who has tried the chart, and found it correct so far as he has had the power of trying it, has the best ground for relying on that chart with regard to ports which he has never yet entered. Accordingly you will find the righteous dwelling on their experience, and deriving from it their confidence. Thou hast been my help--there is the experience; in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice--there is the hope. It is the same with St. Paul. I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. Then what immediately follows? The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom. The one assertion is that of experience--the next is that of hope. Experience is a book in which there should be daily entries, and to which there should be daily reference. If we do not register our mercies, or if we never recount them, they are not likely to throw light upon coming events. He must be grateful for the past, who would be hopeful for the future. Answers to prayer, what encouragements to prayer! Promises fulfilled, what arguments for expecting their fulfilment! Mercies bestowed, what grounds for confidence that mercies will not be withheld! And thus it is that hope, the splendid, the beautiful grace--hope, with the stately step and the soaring wing--hope, whose special province it is to people the future with a brightness which compensates for all that may be gloomy in the present--hope, which makes the smile of health play around the couch of sickness--lights up the prison with the flash of liberty, pours abundance into the lap of poverty, and crowds the very grave with the burning processions of immortality--hope traces itself back to tribulation, like the coronet of the noble, whose ancestry may be found among the poor and the despised.

II. The apostles encomium on hope.

1. Is not hope commonly spoken of as most delusive? Does not poetry love to liken it to some bright meteor, which beguiles the traveller, leading him into danger, and then leaving him in darkness? Gather the character of hope from men of the world, and she is but an enchantress, whose spells are so soothing, and whispers so soft, that having cheated us a hundred times, we are nevertheless willing to be cheated again.

2. But Christian hope maketh not ashamed. It paints no vision which shall not be more than realised; it points to no inheritance which shall not be reached. How should it make ashamed, when it altogether rests itself upon Christ, who is not ashamed to call us brethren? This is the secret of its difference from every other hope; Christ is the source and the centre of our hope--Christ, in whom all the promises of God are yea, and in Him amen; and if Christ can deceive us, then, but not otherwise, may hope make ashamed. Therefore is it that the apostle elsewhere speaks of hope, in one place as an anchor, in another a helmet. He gives it attributes which fit it for the storms or the battle. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

A common evil and an uncommon result

I. A common evil. Tribulation. Mens tribulations are various.

1. Bodily.

2. Mental.

3. Social.

II. An uncommon result. In the case of most tribulation worketh irritation, hostility, conflicting passions. But in the case of the Christly man it worketh patience, which does not mean--

1. Insensibility. Some are praised for their patience who should be denounced for their stoicism.

2. Weakness. Some are praised for their patience who lack the capacity of strong feeling. Patience implies exquisite sensibility, and the highest power: the power of reflection and of self-control. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 5:3-4. And not only so — Not only do we possess the four fore- mentioned inestimable blessings; but we glory in tribulations also — Which we are so far from esteeming a mark of God’s displeasure, that we receive them as tokens of his fatherly love, whereby we may be enabled to do him more singular honour, and be prepared for a more exalted happiness. The Jews often objected the persecuted state of the Christians as inconsistent with what they concluded would be the condition of the people of the Messiah. It is therefore with great propriety that the apostle so often discourses on the benefit arising from this very thing. The apostles and first Christians gloried in tribulations: 1st, Because hereby their state was made to resemble that of Christ, with whom they died, that they might live; suffered, that they might reign, Rom 8:17; 2Ti 2:11-12. 2d, Because their graces were hereby exercised, and therefore increased. And, 3d, They were hereby purified and refined, as gold and silver in the furnace. See Isa 1:4-5; Zec 13:9. Knowing that tribulation — Under the influence of divine grace, without which it could produce no such effect; worketh patience — Calls into exercise, and so gradually increases our patience; even an humble, resigned, quiet, contented state of mind: suggesting those considerations which at once show the reasonableness of that duty, and lay a solid foundation for it. And patience, experience — The patient enduring of tribulation gives us more experience of the truth and degree of our grace, of God’s care of us, and of his power, and love, and faithfulness, engaged in supporting us under our sufferings, and causing them to work for our good. The original expression, δοκιμη, rendered experience, signifies being approved on trial. Before we are brought into tribulation, knowing God’s power, we may believe he can deliver; and knowing his love and faithfulness to his word, we may believe he will deliver: but after we have been actually brought into tribulation, and have been supported under it, and delivered out of it, we can say, from experience, he hath delivered; and are thus encouraged to trust in him in time to come. Thus Shadrach and his companions, before they were cast into the furnace, could say (Dan 3:17) to Nebuchadnezzar, Our God: whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and they could also add, He will deliver us. But after they had been cast into the furnace, and their faith in, and obedience to, their God had been put to that fiery trial, their patience wrought experience; and they could say, from experience, He hath delivered us, as was acknowledged by the haughty monarch himself, saying, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, &c., who hath delivered his servants that trusted in him. And experience, hope — That is, an increased and more confirmed hope than is possessed before experience is attained; namely, 1st, Of continued help, support, and deliverance. 2d, Of a comfortable issue of our trials in due time. 3d, Of eternal salvation at last, Mat 5:12, Joh 16:20-22. Observe, reader, as soon as we are justified, and made the children and heirs of God, chap. Rom 8:17, we hope, on good grounds, for the glory of God; but our faith and other graces not having then been tried, our hope of eternal life must be mixed with doubts and fears respecting our steadfastness when exposed to trials, (which we are taught in the word of God to expect,) and our enduring to the end. But when we have been brought into and have passed through various and long-continued trials, and in the midst of them have been so supported by divine grace as to be enabled to continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel, our expectation of persevering in the good way, and being finally saved, attains a confirmation and establishment: and our gratitude and joy, 1Pe 1:3, our patience, purity, and diligence in all the works of piety and virtue, 1Th 1:3, 1Jn 3:3; 1Co 15:58, are increased and confirmed in proportion thereto.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:3-4 See also Jas 1:2-4; 1 Pet 1:6-7. The similarities in these passages indicate early Christian teaching common to all three of these writers.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rom 5:3. Καυχώμεθα, we [rejoice] glory) Construe with Rom 5:11, see notes there.—ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν, in tribulations) Tribulations during the whole of this life seem to deliver us up to death, [Rom 5:12], not to glory, and yet not only are they not unfavourable to hope, but even afford it assistance.—ὑπομονὴν κατεργάζεται, worketh patience [patient perseverance]) namely in the case of believers; for in the case of unbelievers the result is rather impatience and apostacy. Patience is not learned without adversity; it [patience] is the characteristic of a mind not only ready [prompt in resolution], but also of one courageous [hardy] in endurance.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_5:3-4.[1154] Οὐ ΜΌΝΟΝ ΔΈ] scil. ΚΑΥΧΏΜΕΘΑ ἘΠʼ ἘΛΠΊΔΙ Τῆς ΔΌΞΗς Τ. ΘΕΟῦ. Examples of the usage (Rom_5:11; Rom_8:23; Rom_9:10; 2Co_8:19) may be seen in Kypke, II. p. 165; Vigerus, ed. Herm. p. 543; Heind. and Stallb. a[1155] Phaed. p. 107 B. Comp Legg. vi. p. 752 A; Men. p. 71 B.

ἐν ταῖς θλίψ.] of the tribulations (affecting us), as commonly in the N. T. ἐν is connected with ΚΑΥΧᾶΣΘΑΙ (Rom_5:11; 2Co_10:15; Gal_6:13). Comp Senec. de prov. iv. 4 : gaudent magni viri rebus adversis non aliter quam fortes milites bellis triumphant. As to the ground of this Christian καύχησις, see the sequel. On the thing itself, in which the believers victory over the world makes itself apparent (Rom_8:35 ff.), comp 2Co_11:30; 2Co_12:9; Mat_5:10; Mat_5:12; Act_5:41; 1Pe_4:12 f. Observe further, how with the joyful assurance of ample experience the triumphant discourse proceeds from the ἘΛΠῚς Τῆς ΔΌΞΗς, as subject-matter of the ΚΑΥΧᾶΣΘΑΙ, to the direct opposite (ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν), which may be likewise matter of glorying. Others (Glöckler, Baumgarten-Crusius, Stölting) erroneously render ἘΝ as in, which the contrast, requiring the object, does not permit, since ἐν τ. θλ. is not opposed to the ἘΝ ᾟ in Rom_5:2.

ὙΠΟΜΟΝΉΝ] endurance (in ratione bene considerata stabilis et perpetua permansio, Cic. de inv. ii. 54), namely, in the Christian faith and life. Comp Rom_2:7; Mat_10:22; Mat_24:13. Paul lays down the Ἡ ΘΛΊΨΙς ὙΠΟΜ. ΚΑΤΕΡΓΆΖ. unconditionally, because he is speaking of those who have been justified ἐκ πίστεως, in whose case the reverse cannot take place without sacrifice of their faith.

ΔΟΚΙΜΉΝ] triedness, 2Co_2:9; 2Co_8:2; 2Co_9:13; Php_2:22, quae ostendit fidem non esse simulatam, sed veram, vivam et ardentem, Melancthon. Triedness is produced through endurance (not made known, as Reiche thinks); for whosoever does not endure thereby becomes ἀδόκιμος. There is here no inconsistency with Jam_1:3. See Huther.

ἘΛΠΊΔΑ] namely, Τῆς ΔΌΞΗς Τ. ΘΕΟῦ, as is self-evident after Rom_5:2. The hope, it is true, already exists before the ΔΟΚΙΜΉ; nevertheless, the more the Christian has become tried, the more also will hope (which the ἀδόκιμος loses) consciously possess him. Comp Jam_1:12. Hope is therefore present, and yet withal is produced by the emergence of the δοκιμή, just as faith may be present, and yet be still further produced through something emerging (Joh_2:11). Comp Lipsius, Rechtfertigungsl. p. 207 f.

Observe further, how widely removed from all fanatical pride in suffering is the reason assigned with conscious clearness for the Christian καυχᾶσθαι ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσι in our passage. In it the ἘΛΠΊς is uniformly meant and designated as the highest subjective blessing of the justified person, who is assured of the glorious consummation (not in Rom_5:3 f. as conduct and only in Rom_5:2 as blessing, as Hofmann thinks). Comp the ἩΔΕῖΑ ἘΛΠΊς, which ἈΕῚ ΠΆΡΕΣΤΙ, in contrast to the ΖῆΝ ΜΕΤᾺ ΚΑΚῆς ἘΛΠΊΔΟς in Plato, Rep. p. 331 A.

[1154] See a climax of description, similar in point of form in the Tractat. םוטה 9, 15 (see Surenh. III. 309): Providentia parit alacritatem, alacritas innocentiam, innocentia puritatem, puritas abstinentiam, abstinentia sanctitatem, sanctitas modestiam, modestia timorem, timor sceleris pietatem, pietas spiritum sanctum, et spiritus sanctus resurrectionem mortuorum. In contrast with this, how fervent, succinct, and full of life is the climax in our passage! For other chains of climactic succession, see Rom_8:29 ff., Rom_10:14 ff.; 2Pe_1:5 ff.

[1155] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 5:3 . οὐ μόνον δὲ ἀλλὰ καὶ καυχώμεθα : and not only (do we glory on that footing), but we also glory in tribulations. Cf. Jas 1:2 ff. ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν does not simply mean “when we are in tribulations,” but also “because we are”: the tribulations being the ground of the glorying: see Rom 2:17 ; Rom 2:23 , Rom 5:11 , 1Co 3:21 , 2Co 12:9 , Gal 6:14 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_5:3, Rom_5:4

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. Not only do we rejoice in this hope of future glory, but we glory in tribulations also. Since our relation to God is changed, the relation of all things to us is changed. Afflictions, which before were the expressions of Gods displeasure, are now the benevolent and beneficent manifestations of his love. And instead of being inconsistent with our filial relation to him, they serve to prove that he regards and loves us as his children; Rom_8:18; Heb_12:6. Tribulations, therefore, although for the present not joyous, but grievous, become to the believer matter of joy and thankfulness. The words καυχώμεθα ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν do not mean that we glory in the midst of afflictions, but on account of them. They are themselves the matter or ground of the glorying. So the Jews are said to glory (ἐν) in the law, others glory in men, the believer glories in the Lord; so constantly. Afflictions themselves are to the Christian a ground of glorying; he feels them to be an honor and a blessing. This is a sentiment often expressed in the word of God. Our Lord says, Blessed are they who mourn; Blessed are the persecuted; Blessed are ye when men shall revile you. He calls on his suffering disciples to rejoice and be exceeding glad when they are afflicted. Mat_5:4, Mat_5:10-12. The apostles departed from the Jewish council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christs name. Act_5:41. Peter calls upon Christians to rejoice when they are partakers of Christs sufferings, and pronounces them happy when they are reproached for his sake. 1Pe_4:13, 1Pe_4:14. And Paul says, Most gladly therefore will I glory in (on account of) my infirmities, (i.e. my sufferings.) I take pleasure, he says, in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christs sake. 2Co_12:9, 2Co_12:10. This is not irrational or fanatical. Christians do not glory in suffering, as such, or for its own sake, but as the Bible teaches,

1. Because they consider it an honor to suffer for Christ.

2. Because they rejoice in being the occasion of manifesting his power in their support and deliverance; and,

3. Because suffering is made the means of their own sanctification and preparation for usefulness here, and for heaven hereafter.

The last of these reasons is that to which the apostle refers in the context. We glory in afflictions, he says, because affliction worketh patience, ὑπομονή, constancy. It calls into exercise that strength and firmness evinced in patient endurance of suffering, and in perseverance in fidelity to truth and duty, under the severest trials. And this constancy worketh experience, δοκιμή. This word means,

1. Trial, as in 2Co_8:2, In a great trial of affliction, i.e. in affliction which is a trial, that which puts men to the test.

2. Evidence or proof, as in 2Co_13:3, Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me. Compare 2Co_2:9; Phi_2:22. This would give a good sense here: Constancy produces evidence of the fidelity of God, or of our fidelity.

3. The word is used metonymically for the result of trial, i.e. approbation, or that which is proved worthy of approbation: δοκιμή est qualitas ejus, qui est δόκιμος. Bengel. It is tried integrity, a state of mind which has stood the test. Compare Jam_1:12, Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, (ὃς ὑπομένει πειρασμόν;) for when he is tried (ὃτι δόκιμος γενόμενος) he shall receive the crown of life. Ὑπομονή, the endurance of trial, therefore, makes a man δόκιμος; in other words, it worketh δοκιμή. It produces a strong, tested faith. Hence the parallel expression, τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως, the trying of your faith. 1Pe_1:7. And this δοκιμή, well tested faith, or this endurance of trial produces hope; tends to confirm and strengthen the hope of the glory of God, which we owe to our justification through Jesus Christ.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tribulation itself giveth us divers and sundry ways occasion to rejoice, much less doth it make us miserable.

Afflictions accustom us to patience, and patience assureth us of the goodness of God, and this experience confirmeth, and fostereth our hope, which never deceiveth us.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

we glory in tribulation also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience--Patience is the quiet endurance of what we cannot but wish removed, whether it be the withholding of promised good (Rom 8:25), or the continued experience of positive ill (as here). There is indeed a patience of unrenewed nature, which has something noble in it, though in many cases the offspring of pride, if not of something lower. Men have been known to endure every form of privation, torture, and death, without a murmur and without even visible emotion, merely because they deemed it unworthy of them to sink under unavoidable ill. But this proud, stoical hardihood has nothing in common with the grace of patience--which is either the meek endurance of ill because it is of God (Job 1:21-22; Job 2:10), or the calm waiting for promised good till His time to dispense it come (Heb 10:36); in the full persuasion that such trials are divinely appointed, are the needed discipline of God's children, are but for a definite period, and are not sent without abundant promises of "songs in the night." If such be the "patience" which "tribulation worketh," no wonder that

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. And not only so] We are not only happy from being in this state of communion with our God, and the prospect of being eternally with him;

But we glory in tribulations also] All the sufferings we endure for the testimony of our Lord are so sanctified to us by his grace, that they become powerful instruments of increasing our happiness.

Tribulation worketh patience] υπομονην, Endurance under trials, without sustaining loss or deterioration. It is a metaphor taken from refining metals. We do not speak thus from any sudden raptures, or extraordinary sensations we may have of spiritual joy: for we find that the tribulations through which we pass are the means of exercising and increasing our patience, our meek forbearance of injuries received, or persecutions experienced, on account of the Gospel.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. Not only so, etc. That no one might scoffingly object and say, that Christians, with all their glorying, are yet strangely harassed and distressed in this life, which condition is far from being a happy one, — he meets this objection, and declares, not only that the godly are prevented by these calamities from being blessed, but also that their glorying is thereby promoted. To prove this he takes his argument from the effects, and adopts a remarkable gradation, and at last concludes, that all the sorrows we endure contribute to our salvation and final good.

By saying that the saints glory in tribulations, he is not to be understood, as though they dreaded not, nor avoided adversities, or were not distressed with their bitterness when they happened, (for there is no patience when there is no feeling of bitterness;) but as in their grief and sorrow they are not without great consolation, because they regard that whatever they bear is dispensed to them for good by the hand of a most indulgent Father, they are justly said to glory: for whenever salvation is promoted, there is not wanting a reason for glorying.

We are then taught here what is the design of our tribulations, if indeed we would prove ourselves to be the children of God. They ought to habituate us to patience; and if they do not answer this end, the work of the Lord is rendered void and of none effect through our corruption: for how does he prove that adversities do not hinder the glorying of the faithful, except that by their patience in enduring them, they feel the help of God, which nourishes and confirms their hope? They then who do not learn patience, do not, it is certain, make good progress. Nor is it any objection, that there are recorded in Scripture some complaints full of despondency, which the saints had made: for the Lord sometimes so depresses and straitens for a time his people, that they can hardly breathe, and can hardly remember any source of consolation; but in a moment he brings to life those whom he had nearly sunk in the darkness of death. So that what Paul says is always accomplished in them —

“We are in every way oppressed, but not made anxious; we are in danger, but we are not in despair; we suffer persecution, but we are not forsaken; we are cast down but we are not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8.)

Tribulation produces (efficiat) patience, etc. This is not the natural effect of tribulation; for we see that a great portion of mankind are thereby instigated to murmur against God, and even to curse his name. But when that inward meekness, which is infused by the Spirit of God, and the consolation, which is conveyed by the same Spirit, succeed in the place of our stubbornness, then tribulations become the means of generating patience; yea, those tribulations, which in the obstinate can produce nothing but indignation and clamorous discontent.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(3) But much more than this. The Christian’s glorying is not confined to the future; it embraces the present as well. It extends even to what would naturally be supposed to be the very opposite of a ground for glorying—to the persecutions that we have to undergo as Christians. (Comp. especially Mat_5:10; Mat_5:12, “Blessed are the persecuted;” 2Co_11:30; 2Co_12:9-10, “glorying in infirmities;” Act_5:41, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame;” 1Pe_4:12-13; “think not the fiery trial strange, but rejoice.”) Attention has here been called to Bacon’s aphorism, “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity of the New.” This is a very profound side of the Christian revelation.

(3, 4) A climax in which are put forward higher and higher grades of fortitude and constancy.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. but we glory] For the present, St Paul puts the eternal future out of view again, in order that present grace may be better explained.—“We glory:”—same word as “rejoice” in Rom_5:2. Wonderful is the force of this repetition, in connexion with tribulation!

tribulations] Lit. the tribulations; “our troubles.” See Rom_8:35-39 for a noble example of such rejoicing. See too Mat_5:11; Act_5:41; Heb_10:34; 1Pe_1:6-9; and esp. Jas_1:2-4.

patience] The patience of perseverance. See on Rom_2:7. “Tribulation” teaches the believer the possibility, and blessedness, of “patient continuance in well-doing.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also,.... The tribulations of the saints are many and various, through the hatred of the world, the temptations of Satan, their own corruptions; and are the will of their heavenly Father; what Christ has foretold, and they expect; and here particularly design such as are for Christ's sake, which being supported under, and carried through, they glory in: not that these are desirable in themselves, and to the flesh; but they glory in them as they are for Christ's sake, and in a good cause; as they are trials of grace, and of use for the exercise of it: and as they are in the exercise of grace, amidst these tribulations, and are comforted under them, and are helped to have regard to the heavenly glory. The ground of which glorying is, that these afflictions are the means of promoting patience, experience, and hope:

knowing this, that tribulation worketh patience; patience is a grace, of which God is the author; it is one of the fruits of the Spirit; the word of God is the means of its being first implanted; and afflictions are the means of promoting it, when they are sanctified; otherwise they produce impatience, murmurings, and repinings; there is great need of patience under them; and, by divine grace, they are the matter and occasion of exercising, and so of increasing it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

Ver. 3. We glory in tribulations] As an old soldier doth in his scars of honour. See Gal 6:17; 2Co 7:4. Feri, Domine, feri; nam a peccatis absolutus sum, saith Luther: Strike, Lord, and spare not, since I am acquitted by thee from my sins. Seca ambas, Cut of both, cried out that good bishop, when his hand was threatened to be cut off. A man that hath got his pardon is not troubled though he lose his glove or handkerchief, nor though it should prove a rainy day.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And not only so - We not only rejoice in times of prosperity, and of health. Paul proceeds to show that this plan is not less adapted to produce support in trials.

But we glory - The word used here is the same that is in Rom 5:2, translated, “we rejoice” καυχώμεθα kauchōmetha. It should have been so rendered here. The meaning is, that we rejoice not only in hope; not only in the direct results of justification, in the immediate effect which religion itself produces; but we carry our joy and triumph even into the midst of trials. In accordance with this, our Saviour directed his followers to rejoice in persecutions, Mat 5:11-12. Compare Jam 1:2, Jam 1:12.

In tribulations - In afflictions. The word used here refers to all kinds of trials which people are called to endure; though it is possible that Paul referred particularly to the various persecutions and trials which they were called to endure as Christians.

Knowing - Being assured of this. Paul’s assurance might have arisen from reasoning on the nature of religion, and its tendency to produce comfort; or it is more probable that he was speaking here the language of his own experience. He had found it to be so. This was written near the close of his life, and it states the personal experience of a man who endured, perhaps, as much as anyone ever did, in attempting to spread the gospel; and far more than commonly falls to the lot of mankind. Yet he, like all other Christians, could leave his deliberate testimony to the fact that Christianity was sufficient to sustain the soul in its severest trials; see 2Co 1:3-6; 2Co 11:24-29; 2Co 12:9-10.

Worketh - Produces; the effect of afflictions on the minds of Christians is to make them patient. Sinners are irritated and troubled by them; they complain, and become more and more obstinate and rebellious. They have no sources of consolation; they deem God a hard master; and they become fretful and rebellions just in proportion to the depth and continuance of their trials. But in the mind of a Christian, who regards his Father’s hand in it; who sees that he deserves no mercy; who has confidence in the wisdom and goodness of God; who feels that it is necessary for his own good to be afflicted; and who experiences its happy, subduing, and mild effect in restraining his sinful passions, and in weaning him from the world the effect is to produce patience. Accordingly, it will usually be found that those Christians who are longest and most severely afflicted are the most patient. Year after year of suffering produces increased peace and calmness of soul; and at the end of his course the Christian is more willing to be afflicted, and bears his afflictions more calmly, than at the beginning. He who on earth was most afflicted was the most patient of all sufferers; and not less patient when he was “led as a lamb to the slaughter,” than when he experienced the first trial in his great work.

Patience - “A calm temper, which suffers evils without murmuring or discontent” (Webster).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

We glory in spirit in the afflictions, oppression, and persecution, which we suffer as Christians, esteeming them a great blessing. Thus the apostles went rejoicing from before the council, because they had been thought worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. (Acts v.) And St. James (chap. i.) says: Think it the greatest joy when you fall into various temptations: (i.e. tribulations) for these sufferings greatly serve to confirm the elect in the hopes which they have of enjoying the glory of the world to come. (Estius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

We glory in tribulations also; as old soldiers do in their scars of honour: see Gal 6:17; 2Co 12:9-11. Believers do not only glory in their future happiness, but in their present sufferings and afflictions: yet not so much in affliction itself, as in the issue and fruitful effects thereof, of which he speaks in what follows.

Knowing, finding by experience, that tribulation worketh patience; not as if affliction of itself and in its own nature did this, for in many it hath a contrary operation; but God, who is the author and giver of patience, Rom 5:15, doth make use of it for this purpose; it is a means sanctified of God for the exercising, obtaining, and increasing thereof.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. Glory in tribulations—This is the greatest of triumphs, by which the Gospel may make us shout from amid the fires. Under the inspiration of this peace the martyrs did not merely endure, but exulted in suffering.

Tribulation worketh patience—Rather translate, tribulation worketh endurance. Trial produces the hardness by which we endure trials to come.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 3-5. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations (or, our tribulations) also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost which is given to us. The peace, the joy, the hope, that come of faith might be supposed unable to stand against the facts of this present life, in which, to those first believers, only peculiar tribulations might seem to follow from their faith. Not so, says the apostle; nay, their very tribulations tend to confirm our hope, and so even in them we also glory. For we perceive how they serve for our probation now: they test our endurance; and proved endurance increases hope. And this hope does not shame us in the end, as being baseless and without fulfilment; for our inward experience of the love of God assures us of the contrary, and keeps it ever alive. The word dokimh ("experience," Authorized Version) means properly "proof," and is so translated elsewhere. The idea is that tribulations test, and endurance under them proves, the genuineness of faith; and approved faithfulness strengthens hope. (cf. Mat_24:13 Mar_13:13, "He that endureth (upomeinav , corresponding to upomonhn here) to the end, the same shall be saved By "the love of God" is meant rather God"s love to us than ours to God. What follows in explanation requires this sense. Of course, it kindles answering love in ourselves (cf. "We love God, because he first loved us"); but the idea here is that of God"s own love, the sense of which we experience, flooding our hearts with itself through the gift of the Holy Spirit. It may be observed that, though assurance of the fulfilment of our hope is here made to rest on inward feeling, yet this is legitimately convincing to those who do so feel. As in many other matters, so especially in religion, it is internal consciousness that carries the strongest conviction with it, and induces certitude.

The verses that come next set forth the grounds of our sense of God"s exceeding love to us.

God"s love in the heart.

The process of spiritual discipline which the apostle has described is not a process natural to men, but one supernatural and special to the sincere Christian. The tribulations of this life do not work the good of all who are visited by them; on the contrary, many are hardened by the trials which are sent to humble and soften and improve. But they profit by earthly discipline who cordially receive the gospel of Christ, and whose spiritual nature is brought under the influence of the cross. For to such God is a loving Father, and all things that happen to them are regarded as appointed by him. They are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, who brings before them in their troubles the prospect of the future, inspiring hopes which Divine faithfulness shall surely realize, "because the love of God hath been shed abroad in their hearts." Observe

I THE GIFT IMPARTED. "The love of God." This is probably not our love to God, but his love to us, which indeed ever, when recognized and felt, kindles the flame of affection within the breast of the Christian.

1. This love is properly part of the Divine nature and character. So distinctive is this gracious attribute of the Supreme Father, that we are told that "God is love." How different a representation of the Deity from those current among the unenlightened idolaters! How fitted to comfort and encourage the people of the Lord!

2. This love is regarded by Christians as especially revealed in Christ Jesus. In this Epistle, whilst the inspired apostle sets forth the Christ as revealing the righteousness of God, he also exhibits the Divine love as more conspicuously revealed in "the unspeakable Gift" than by any other means. In this representation, indeed, all the apostles are agreed. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins." In this language St. John teaches the same precious lesson. There was love in the advent, love in the ministry, love in the death, love in the ascension, of our Saviour; and there is love in his intercession and his reign.

3. This love becomes, by Divine grace, the possession of the true believers in Christ. It is not merely something to be admired for its unparalleled moral splendour and beauty and excellence. It is to be appropriated and held and enjoyed. This leads us to consider

II THE NATURE THAT IS FILLED BY THIS LOVE. It is "shed abroad in our hearts. " If we believe in the love of a fellow-creature, and return that love, there is in such experience something more than belief; there is strong and joyful feeling. The heart is the home of love. And love constitutes the riches of the heart. It is so, not only in the mutual relations of human beings, but in the relation between the soul and God. No doubt, mystics and sentimentalists, monks and nuns, saints in their ecstasies and revivalists in their fervour, have often used language extravagant, sickly, and sentimental concerning the love of God in the heart. But unquestionably the danger with ordinary English Christians lies in the tendency towards the opposite extreme. We are in no great danger from sentimental raptures. But we are in danger of regarding religion too much as an affair of belief and of duty. Love is not, indeed, to begin and end in the heart; it is to become a motive to action, a principle of endurance, an inspiration to cheerfulness and content. But that it may be all this, it must first be a feeling, a hallowed, spiritual emotion. The heart must contemplate the peerless love of God revealed in Christ, and must rejoice in the revelation. This love must be the most welcome theme of meditation, and must be present in the soul, not only in prosperity and happiness, but in the season of trial and distress. A natural question arises How can this come to pass? How can a nature, prone to sin and selfishness, come to take such pleasure in the pure love of a benevolent and merciful God? To answer this inquiry, we must observe

III THE AGENCY BY WHICH THE GIFT IS BESTOWED. "By the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." That the Holy Spirit should have access to our hearts is what we might reasonably expect should be the case. "The Spirit witnesseth with our spirits." This Divine agency of illumination and quickening and renewal ever accompanies the truths of the gospel, and accounts for their exercising an influence so great over human hearts. It would be dishonouring to God were we to claim for ourselves the natural and moral power to appropriate or even to appreciate Divine love. It is all of grace. For observe "the Holy Ghost is given unto us." This does not mean that the effusion of the Holy Spirit is capricious and arbitrary. On the contrary, laws though they may not be understood by us explain all the Divine action; and there is reason, even in the impartation of spiritual influences and the communication of celestial love. But it must be plainly understood that we have no just, legal claim upon God for his Spirit. We may use the means he has appointed. We may ask the Father for his choicest Gift. We may make ready a dwelling-place for the heavenly Guest. We may await the promise of the Father. Yet, when given, the Holy Spirit is given freely, and of sovereign clemency and favour. Let us bear in mind our daily need of the enjoyment of the Divine love in order to our happiness, and in order to the efficiency and acceptableness of our service. And let our sense of need lead us to daily supplications for that Divine and spiritual influence that can make real and sweet to us the love of God in Christ, that we may feel its constraining power, and may learn to live, not unto ourselves, but unto our Lord!

Vers. 3-5. Blessed fruit off a bitter tree.

The letters of St. Paul abound in strange and striking paradoxes. In another place he speaks of himself "as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Here he speaks of the Christian as "glorying in tribulation." He has been speaking of the effects of justification by faith, and ends by saying, "We rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (ver. 2). Our joy, however, is not confined to the future. True, there are cares and sorrows in this present life. But it does not therefore follow that we are to postpone all joy until we reach the spirit-land. "No!" says the apostle, boldly; "we glory even in our tribulations." The sorrows are there, "tis true, but the light of the cross of Jesus transforms them with a glory all its own, even as the sunshine makes a rainbow of the shower. "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby." Tribulation is a bitter tree, but look at the fruits which it is capable of yielding. "We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.

I THE BITTER TREE. It is hardly necessary to speak of the bitterness of tribulation. "The heart knoweth its own bitterness." We all know something of what sorrow means, and how bitter it is.

1. There is the bitterness of bereavement. What agony of spirit when one who has been the light of your eyes, the joy and comfort of your home, is taken from you! What bitterness of sorrow is to be compared with the grief of parents for their children? How heart-rending is grief like David"s, when he went up to the chamber over the gate, and as he went his sorrow overcame him, and he cried aloud, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" And so, when the Bible wants to picture grief of the intensest kind, it speaks of mourning as one mourneth for his only son, and being in bitterness as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zec_12:10) Parents who want to avoid the greatest of all grief, mourning over a child of whom they have no hope for eternity, should lose no opportunity of leading their children to the Saviour.

2. There is the bitterness of bodily suffering. Sleepless nights and weary days of tossing on a bed of sickness how they tend to take the sunshine out of life! And then there are those trifling ailments, bodily infirmities, for which, perhaps, you get little sympathy, but which keep your body constantly feeble and your mind constantly depressed. It needs a Divine power to bear a life of constant pain. No human strength could stand it unaided without giving way to irritation or despondency. Even the Saviour of the world tasted how bitter is the cup of bodily suffering.

3. There is the bitterness of disappointment. Some cherished possession is taken away from you, some valuable property is lost, your earthly means of support take to themselves wings and flee away, some object on which you had set your heart is snatched away out of your reach, or some friend whom you had implicitly trusted suddenly proves treacherous and unfaithful. The feeling of disappointment which such circumstances produce was in Esau"s mind when he came in to receive his father"s blessing, and found that Jacob his brother had heartlessly supplanted him. "When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry." Life"s disappointments how much we all know about this kind of bitterness! Yes; tribulation is indeed a bitter tree.

II ITS BLESSED FRUIT. Paul knew what he was talking about when he came to the subject of tribulation. He knew what persecution was. He knew what bodily suffering was. Five times he received thirty-nine stripes. Three times he was beaten with rods. Once he was stoned. Three times he suffered shipwreck. He had been "in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness." He knew what danger was. He had been "in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren." He knew what disappointment was. Like his Master, he too was forsaken in his hour of need by those who made profession of being his friends. He tells us that at his first appearance before Caesar no man stood with him. But whatever his trials had been when he wrote this, or whatever trials may yet be in store for him, he looks upon them all with a calm and peaceful, nay, with an exultant mind. "We glory in tribulations also." He knew what blessed fruit could be plucked off that bitter tree.

1. First of all, there was patience. "Tribulation worketh patience." Patience means really the capacity for enduring. If we speak of a patient man, we may mean one who can endure delay, and we say that he can wait patiently; or we may mean one who can endure suffering, and we speak of him as suffering patiently. The connection, then, between suffering and patience it is easy to see. It is by suffering that one learns how to suffer, that is, to be patient. And if we go into practical experience, we are pretty certain to find that the most patient Christian is the one who has suffered most. He was not always thus. Perhaps at first he was like the rough unpolished block of marble which I have seen in the Connemara marble works at Galway. He was disposed to resist the hand that was dealing with him in chastening. But the suffering came. It was repeated over and over again, like the incessant process of rubbing to which that rough-looking block is subjected. But by-and-by he came out of the suffering with the edges rubbed off his temper and the rebelliousness taken out of his spirit, even as the marble comes smooth and shining from the hard process through which it has to pass. Such is the use of suffering, to purify, to brighten the character, and produce patience in the soul. Indeed, the word "tribulation" conveys this same idea. It is derived from the Latin word tribulum, the threshing-instrument whereby the Roman husbandman separated the corn from the husks. That process was described as tribulatio. So it is in the spiritual world. Suffering and sorrow cleanse away the chaff the pride, the selfishness, the disobedience which is to be found more or less in all our natures. Let us think more of the result of the suffering than of the suffering itself, more of the patience it will develop than of the chaff which it will take away, and then we too shall learn, with St. Paul, to "glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience.

2. The second blessed fruit off this bitter tree is experience. "Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience." The word here translated "experience" really means in the original "proof," or "trial," or "testing." In the Revised Version it is translated "probation." This does not, perhaps, quite express the full meaning either; but the point is that the apostle had something more in his mind than what we ordinarily mean by the word "experience." His idea probably was that tribulation and our patience under it give proof or confirmation of two things. They afford. us proof of the character of God his faithfulness in fulfilling his promises, his love in sustaining us, and his power in giving us the victory over trial and suffering. And they afford us proof of our own character also proof that we are the sons of God, proof that we have been justified by faith. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." And then there is the precious promise, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation or, "trial: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." In such ways does God confirm us by suffering, and by our own patience under it. So he confirms our faith in him, and confirms our own Christian character. This is another blessed fruit off the bitter tree of tribulation.

3. The third blessed fruit off this bitter tree is hope. "And experience, hope." The proof which we have received of God"s goodness under past trials leads us to hope for still greater revelations of his goodness yet to come. The proof we have had of his wise and gracious purpose in purifying us by trial and suffering leads us to hope that "he who hath began a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." So the Christian is ever looking forward. When he bears the cross, he is looking forward to the crown. When he is suffering for his Master"s sake, he is looking forward to the time when he shall reign with him in glory. This subject of tribulation and its fruit might fittingly he. closed with some lines written by a young lady in Nova Scotia, who was an invalid for many years "My life is a wearisome journey; I am sick of the dust and the heat The rays of the sun beat upon me; The briars are wounding my feet; But the city to which I am going Will more than my trials repay; All the toils of the road will seem nothing When I get to the end of the way. "There are so many hills to climb upward, I often am longing for rest; But he who appoints me my pathway Knows just what is needful and best. I know in his Word he has promised That my strength shall be as my day; And the toils of the road will seem nothing When I get to the end of the way. "He loves me too well to forsake me, Or give me one trial too much: All his people have dearly been purchased, And Satan can never claim such. By-and-by I shall see him and praise him In the city of unending day; And the toils of the road will seem nothing When I get to the end of the way. "Though now I am footsore and weary, I shall rest when I"m safely at home; I know I"ll receive a glad welcome, For the Saviour himself has said, "Come: So when I am weary in body, And sinking in spirit, I say, All the toils of the road will seem nothing When I get to the end of the way. "Cooling fountains are there for the thirsty; There are cordials for those who are faint; There are robes that are whiter and purer Than any that fancy can paint. Then I"ll try to press hopefully onward, Thinking often through each weary day, The toils of the read will seem nothing When I get to the end of the way." "We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope. C.H.I.

Vers. 3-5. The joy of tribulation.

Paul has taught us that peace, nay glorying, may be ours, though this be a world of trial. He now teaches that we may glory in the very trials themselves. And this teaching he enforces by a chain of arguments. In other words, he taught in the previous verses that we are conquerors; now he teaches that we are "more than conquerors.

I TRIBULATION WORKETH PATIENCE. NO character can be truly formed without the opportunity of endurance; we must learn to resist. Tribulation affords this opportunity; it calls us to resist.

II PATIENCE. WORKETH PROBATION. Or, as the word means literally, "triedness." We must be as the genuine metal, which rings true. This can only be, in the case of character, as we have become true.

III PROBATION WORKETH HOPE. Triedness works hope in a double sense: the tested strength we have warrants confidence; and past triumphs are pledges of future. So a veteran soldier, by reason of victories that he has won, and because he is a veteran, looks forward to future victory.

IV HOPE PUTTETH NOT TO SHAME. The hope of victories to come is merged in the great hope of the crowning victory, the standing approved in God"s presence at last. But shall this be? Are we not most unfit for such a presence? And may we not, therefore, when we confront him at last, confront his wrath? So would our hopes belie themselves, and by them we should be put to shame! Nay, but this cannot be. For is not all the spiritual education, upon which partly we build our hope, an education of God? Does not he mercifully suffer tribulation to befall us, that we may endure? and that, enduring, we may be approved? and that, being approved, we may have hope? This hope is of him. But, beyond all this, does not he himself now assure us of his love? Is it not shown to us by the Spirit, which searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God? Nay, is it not transfused through all our nature, "shed abroad" by the Spirit given to us? Yes, truly, all our consciousness pulsates with the assurance of the tender mercy of our God; all the voices of our experience say to us, "God loves you." And can such a hope be put to shame? Never, while God"s Word lasts!

God is educating us; but in and through all, and above all, God loves us! Let us hold fast to this blessed fact. While yielding to the discipline, let us at the same time hold his hand, and be strong in his mighty love. T.F.L.

Vers. 3-5. Tribulation made subsidiary to hope.

Trouble is usually considered antagonistic to joy. A ready objection might occur, therefore, to the apostle"s declaration of Christian rejoicing. How was this possible, seeing the many hardships to which the profession of Christianity exposed its votaries? The text refutes such an objection.

I THE CHRISTIAN FACTORY. Tribulation is God"s method of disciplining his people. Sin having entered the world, bringing sorrow in its train, the very afflictions of life are forced by Divine grace to contribute to the improvement of those who undergo it religiously. This was evident in Old Testament times, but is still more visible under the dispensation of the Spirit, where chief stress is laid upon graces of character. The faith of the Christian is the material on which the machinery of trouble operates, spinning out of it the thread of patience. In the school of trouble are the meaning and the mercy of pain learnt; only those who have experienced opposition have been taught true resignation to God"s will, content not to hurry events or to quarrel with them, but confidently to await his time and issue. With the threads of patience is woven the cloth of probation. He who continues steadfast in the will of God proves for himself the truth of the promises, the accuracy of the Divine forecasts, and the success of the Divine methods. The long succession of days and nights produces its glad harvest, when the fruits of patience attest that not in vain did the sower sow. And the mill of God"s training ceases not its work, till out of probation is constructed the beautiful garment of hope, in which the Christian is gloriously arrayed. What can he do who has tested the faithfulness of God, but entertain unshaken confidence respecting all that yet awaits him? The evolution of grace is seen to produce ever better results as time passes, and the sure expectation is begotten of a grandeur of glory casting all past experience into the shade. Thus the apostle has returned to and demonstrated his previous statement.

1. Observe that tribulation is not in itself the object of rejoicing. The machinery seems often hard and cruel apart from its aim. Only when we look through the things seen to the unseen and eternal can we welcome trouble as working out a weight of glory, and it loses its fearsome aspect.

2. Then tribulation must have the Christian spirit to work upon, or its results may be disastrous. Not every substance will pass unharmed through the wheels and rollers, the spindles and shuttles. It may be torn in the process, or reduced to pulp. Trouble does not necessarily improve the worldly minded. Instead of softening, it may harden the heart; the man may become peevish and morose, soured by disappointment.

3. And the Christian may dread the allurement of prosperity more than the endurance of hardship. The chilling blast causes the traveller to wrap his cloak the closer around him; it is the heat which leads to throwing off his garment. Troubles drive us to the appointed Refuge; in our joys we are like Hannibal"s soldiers at Cannae, relaxing the bonds of vigilance and soberness. Times of persecution have often proved an invigorating, bracing season to the Church. Perhaps the hope of future glory appears more lustrous and enviable when in contrast with present danger.

II THE VALUE OF THE PRODUCT. Hope is cheerful, like the light wherewith God decks himself and adorns the landscape. Hope is the eye of the soul; its clearness and brightness tell of good health. But the point on which the apostle here insists is the reliable character of Christian hope. It is a robe of which the wearer will never have cause to be ashamed. It suits the wearer. There has been an inward preparation for the outward adornment. God"s love has been diffused through his breast. Assured that he is a beloved child, the anticipation of bliss and perfection is an appropriate Vesture for his peaceful, happy spirit. The man excluded from the wedding-feast because of an unsuitable dress showed thereby that his heart was not right; pride or obstinacy had rejected the garment freely offered. The workmanship of the robe displays the same gracious design that has filled the heart already with assurances of reconciling, redeeming love. The Spirit showing to the believer the things of Christ reveals the character and purpose of God, and the hope of glory is recognized as corresponding in every particular to this experience of the wondrous love of God. It is a durable garment, not flimsy in texture, looking well for a season, then suddenly giving way. The hope of many is like a palace of ice, glittering, but yielding to the rays of increasing light, or like a torch extinguished by the wind of death. But this hope, amid every change of circumstance, shall subsist in undecaying, yea, growing, splendour. S.R.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

We glory in tribulations also - Which we are so far from esteeming a mark of God's displeasure, that we receive them as tokens of his fatherly love, whereby we are prepared for a more exalted happiness. The Jews objected to the persecuted state of the Christians as inconsistent with the people of the Messiah. It is therefore with great propriety that the apostle so often mentions the blessings arising from this very thing.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Romans

THE SOURCES OF HOPE

Rom 5:2 - Rom 5:4.

We have seen in a previous sermon that the Apostle in the foregoing context is sketching a grand outline of the ideal Christian life, as all rooted in ‘being justified by faith,’ and flowering into ‘peace with God,’ ‘access into grace,’ and a firm stand against all antagonists and would-be masters. In our text he advances to complete the outline by sketching the true Christian attitude towards the future. I have ventured to take so pregnant and large a text, because there is a very striking and close connection throughout the verses, which is lost unless we take them together. Note, then, ‘we rejoice in hope,’ ‘we glory in tribulation.’ Now, it is one word in the original which is diversely rendered in these two clauses by ‘rejoice’ and ‘glory.’ The latter is a better rendering than the former, because the original expression designates not only the emotion of joy, but the expression of it, especially in words. So it is frequently rendered in the New Testament by the word ‘boast,’ which, of course, has unpleasant associations, which scarcely fit it for use here. So then you see Paul regards it as possible for, and more than possibly characteristic of, a Christian, that the very same emotion should he excited by that great bright future hope, and by the blackness of present sorrow. That is strong meat; and so he goes on to explain how he thinks it can and must be so, and points out that trouble, through a series of results, arrives at last at this, that if it is rightly borne, it flashes up into greater brightness the hope which has grasped the glory of God. So then we have here, not only a wonderful designation of the object around which Christian hope twines its tendrils, but of the double source from which that hope may come, and of the one emotion with which Christian people should front the darkness of the present and the brightness of the future. Ah! how different our lives would be if that ideal of a steadfast hope and an untroubled joy were realised by each of us. It may be. It should be. So I ask you to look at these three points which I have suggested.

I. That wonderful designation of the one object of Christian hope which should fill, with an uncoruscating and unflickering light, all that dark future.

‘We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’ Now, I suppose I need not remind you that that phrase ‘the glory of God’ is, in the Old Testament, used especially to mean the light that dwelt between the cherubim above the mercy-seat; the symbol of the divine perfections and the token of the Divine Presence. The reality of which it was a symbol is the total splendour, so to speak, of that divine nature, as it rays itself out into all the universe. And, says Paul, the true hope of the Christian man is nothing less than that of that glory he shall be, in some true sense, and in an eternally growing degree, the real possessor. It is a tremendous claim, and one which leads us into deep places that I dare not venture into now, as to the resemblance between the human person and the Divine Person, notwithstanding all the differences which of course exist, and which only a presumptuous form of religion has ventured to treat as transitory or insignificant. Let me use a technical word, and say that it is no pantheistic absorption in an impersonal Light, no Nirvana of union with a vague whole, which the Apostle holds out here, but it is the closest possible union, personality being saved and individual consciousness being intensified. It is the clothing of humanity with so much of that glory as can be imparted to a finite creature. That means perfect knowledge, perfect purity, perfect love, and that means the dropping away of all weaknesses and the access of strange new powers, and that means the end of the schism between ‘will’ and ‘ought,’ and of the other schism between ‘will’ and ‘can.’ It means what this Apostle says: ‘Whom He justified them He also glorified,’ and what He says again, ‘We all, beholding as in a glass’-or rather, perhaps, mirroring as a glass does-’the glory, are changed into the same image.’

The very heart of Christianity is that the Divine Light of which that Shekinah was but a poor and transitory symbol has ‘tabernacled’ amongst men in the Christ, and has from Him been communicated, and is being communicated in such measure as earthly limitations and conditions permit, and that these do point on assuredly to perfect impartation hereafter, when ‘we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ The Three could walk in the furnace of fire, because there was One with them, ‘like unto the Son of God.’ ‘Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting fire,’ the fire of that divine perfection? They who have had introduction by Christ into the grace, and who will be led by Him into the glory.

Now, brethren, it seems to me to be of great importance that this, the loftiest of conceptions of that future life, should be the main aspect under which we think of it. It is well to speak of rest from toil; it is well to speak of all the negations of present unfavourable, afflictive conditions which that future presents to us. And perhaps there is none of the aspects of it which appeals to deeper feelings in ourselves, than those which say ‘there shall be no night there,’ ‘there shall be no tears there, neither sorrow nor sighing’; ‘there shall be no toil there.’ But we must rise above all that, for our heaven is to live in God, and to be possessors of His glory. Do not let us dwell upon the symbols instead of the realities. Do not let us dwell only on the oppositions and contradictions to earth. Let us rather rise high above symbols, high above negations, to the positive truth, and not contented with saying ‘We shall be full of blessedness; we shall be full of purity; we shall be full of knowledge,’ let us rather think of that which embraces them all-we shall be full of God.

So much, then, for the one object of Christian hope. We have here-

II. The double source of that hope.

Observe that the first clause of my text comes as the last term in a sequence. It began with ‘being justified by faith.’ The second round of the ladder was, ‘we have peace with God.’ The third, ‘we have access into this grace.’ The fourth, ‘we stand,’ and then comes, ‘we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’ That is to say, to put it into general words, and, of course, presupposing the revelation in Jesus Christ as the basis of all, without which there is no assured hope of a future beyond the grave, then the facts of a Christian man’s life are for him the best brighteners of the hope beyond. Of course, that is so. ‘Justified by faith’-’peace with God’-’access into grace’; what, in the name of common-sense, can death do with these things? How can its blunted sword cut the bond that unites a soul that has had such experiences as these with the source of them all? Nothing can be more grotesque, nothing more incongruous, than to think that that subordinate and accidental fact, whose region is the physical, has anything whatever to do with this higher region of consciousness.

And, further than that, it is absolutely unthinkable to a man in the possession of these spiritual gifts, that they should ever come to a close; and the fact that in the precise degree in which we realise as our very own possession, here and now, these Christian emotions and blessings, we instinctively rise to the belief that they are ‘not for an age, but for all time,’ and not for all time, but for eternity, is itself, if not a proof, yet a very strong presumption, if you believe in God, that a man who thus ‘feels he was not made to die’ because he has grasped the Eternal, is right in so feeling. If, too, we look at the experiences themselves, they all have the stamp of incompleteness, and suggest completeness by their own incompleteness. The new moon with its ragged edge not more surely prophesies its completed silver round, than do the experiences of the Christian life here, in their greatness and in their smallness, declare that there come a time and an order of things in which what was thwarted tendency shall be accomplished result. The tender green spikelet, pushing up through the brown clods, does not more surely prophesy the waving yellow ear, nor the broad highway on which a man comes in the wilderness more surely declare that there is a village at the end of it, than do the facts of the Christian life, here and now, attest the validity of the hope of the glory of God.

And so, brethren, if you wish to brighten that great light that fills the future, see to it that your present Christianity is fuller of ‘peace with God,’ ‘access into grace,’ and the firm, erect standing which flows from these. When the springs in the mountains dry up, the river in the valley shrinks; and when they are full, it glides along level with the top of its banks. So when our Christian life in the present is richest, our Christian hope of the future will be the brighter. Look into yourselves. Is there anything there that witnesses to that great future; anything there that is obviously incipient, and destined to greater power; anything there which is like a tropical plant up here in 45 degrees of north latitude, managing to grow, but with dwarfed leaves and scanty flowers and half shrivelled and sourish fruit, and that in the cold dreams of the warm native land? Reflecting telescopes show the stars in a mirror, and the observer looks down to see the heavens. Look into yourselves, and see whether, on the polished plate within, there are any images of the stars that move around the Throne of God.

But let us turn for a moment to the second source to which the Apostle traces the Christian hope here. I must not be tempted to more than just a word of explanation, but perhaps you will tolerate that. Paul says that trouble works patience, that is to say, not only passive endurance, but brave persistence in a course, in spite of antagonisms. That is what trouble does to a man when it is rightly borne. Of course the Apostle is speaking here of its ideal operation, and not of the reality which alas! often is seen when our tribulations lash us into impatience, or paralyse our efforts. Tribulation worketh patience, ‘and patience experience.’ That is a difficult word to put into English. There underlies it the frequent thought which is familiar in Scripture, of trouble of all kinds as testing a man, whether as the refiner’s fire or the winnower’s fan. It tests a man, and if he bears the trouble with patient persistence, then he has passed the test and is approved. Patient perseverance thus works approval, or proof of the man’s Christianity, and, still more, proof of the reality and power of the Christ whom his Christianity grasps. And so from out of that approval or proof which comes, through perseverance, from tribulation, there rises, of course, in that heart that has been tested and has stood, a calm hope that the future will be as the past, and that, having fought through six troubles, by God’s help the seventh will be vanquished also, till at last troubles will end, and heaven be won.

Brethren, there is the true point of view from which to look, not only at tribulations, but at all the trials, for they too bring trials, that lie in duty and in enjoyment, and in earthly things. They are meant to work in us a conviction, by our experience of having been able to meet them aright, of the reality of our grasp of God, and of the reality and power of the God whom we grasp. If we took that point of view in regard to all the changes of this changeful life, we should not so often be bewildered and upset by the darkest of our sorrows. The shining lancets and cruel cutting instruments that the surgeon lays out on his table before he begins the operation are very dreadful. But the way to think of them is that they are there in order to remove from a man what it does him harm to keep, and what, if it is not taken away, will kill him. So life, with its troubles, great and small, is all meant for this, to make us surer of, and bring us closer to, our God, and to brace and strengthen us in our own personal character. And if it does that, then blessed be everything that produces these results, and leads us thereby to glorying in the troubles by which shines out on us a brighter hope.

So there are the two sources, you see: the one is the blessedness of the Christian life, the other the sorrows of the outward life, and both may converge upon the brightening of our Christian hope. Our rainbow is the child of the marriage of the sun and the rain. The Christian hope comes from being ‘justified by faith, having peace with God . . . and access into grace,’ and it comes from tribulation, which ‘worketh patience,’ and patience which ‘worketh approval.’ The one spark is struck from the hard flint by the cold steel, and the other is kindled by the sun itself, but they are both fire.

And so, lastly, we have here-

III. The one emotion with which the Christian should front all the facts, inward and outward, of his earthly life.

‘We glory in the hope,’ ‘we glory in tribulation,’ I need not dwell upon the lesson which is taught us here by the fact that the Apostle puts as one in a series of Christian characteristics this of a steadfast and all-embracing joy. I do not believe that we Christian people half enough realise how imperative a Christian duty, as well as how great a Christian privilege, it is to be glad always. You have no right to be anxious; you are wrong to be hypochondriac and depressed, and weary and melancholy. True; there are a great many occasions in our Christian life which minister sadness. True; the Christian joy looks very gloomy to a worldly eye. But there are far more occasions which, if we were right, would make joy instinctive, and which, whether we are right or not, make it obligatory upon us. I need not speak of how, if that hope were brighter than it commonly is with us, and if it were more constantly present to our minds and hearts, we should sing with gladness. I need not dwell upon that great and wonderful paradox by which the co-existence of sorrow and of joy is possible. The sorrows are on the surface; beneath there may be rest. All the winds of heaven may rave across the breast of ocean, and fret it into clouds of spume against a storm-swept sky. But deep down there is stillness, and yet not stagnation, because there is the great motion that brings life and freshness; and so, though there will be wind-vexed surfaces on our too-often agitated spirits, there ought to be deeper than these the calm setting of the whole ocean of our nature towards God Himself. It is possible, as this Apostle has it, to be ‘sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.’ It is possible, as his brother Apostle has it, to ‘rejoice greatly, though now for a season we are in sorrow through manifold temptations.’ Look back upon your lives from the point of view that your tribulation is an instrument to produce hope, and you will be able to thank God for all the way by which He has led you.

Now, brethren, the plain lesson of all this is just that we have here, in these texts, a linked chain, one end of which is wrapped around our sinful hearts, and the other is fastened to the Throne of God. You cannot drop any of the links, and you must begin at the beginning, if you are to be carried on to the end. If we are to have a joy immovable, we must have a ‘steadfast hope.’ If we are to have a ‘steadfast hope,’ we must have a present ‘grace.’ If we are to have a present ‘grace,’ and ‘access’ to the fullness of God, we must have ‘peace with God.’ If we are to have ‘peace with God,’ we must have the condemnation and the guilt taken away. If we are to have the condemnation and the guilt taken away, Jesus Christ must take them. If Jesus Christ is to take them away, we must have faith in Him. Then you can work it backward, and begin at your own end, and say, ‘If I have faith in Jesus Christ, then every link of the chain in due succession will pass through my hand, and I shall have justifying, peace, access, the grace, erectness, hope, and exultation, and at last He will lead me by the hand into the glory for which I dare to hope, the glory which the Father gave to Him before the foundation of the world, and which He will give to me when the world has passed away in fervent heat.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here the apostle mentioneth a fourth benefit flowing from justification by faith; and that is, glorying in their present sufferings. He told us before, that justified persons, being at peace with God, rejoiced in hopes of future glory; but, says he, that is not all, they glory in their present tribulations also.

Here note, 1. What sort of sufferings they are which the saints glory in; they are tribulations, that is, such trials and persecutions as did befal them for the profession of the gospel: In these a child of God may rejoice, yea, boast and glory, as a soldier doth of his marks, wounds and scars received in the wars, but not in those sufferings, afflictions and trials which we bring upon ourselves, as punishments for our sins; these we have no more reason to glory in, than a corrected child has to glory in his whipping; What glory is it when we are buffeted for our faults?

Note, 2. To what a height and heroic pitch the spirit of a justified believer may be raised under sufferings for Christ; He may glory in tribulation: It is an high strain of spiritualness in bearing affliction, when a Christian can say, I love to bear: Though I love not that which I suffer, and that which I bear, yet I love to bear what I suffer. But it is a higher pitch than this, to say with the apostle, I rejoice in my sufferings, Col 1:24. For joy is a degree beyond love; yet is it a degree higher still, to take pleasure in reproaches and distresses for Christ’s sake, 2Co 12:10 for pleasure is a degree beyond joy; but to glory in tribulations, is beyond them all; ’tis more than to love, more than to rejoice, more than to take pleasure in them.

Oh the power of faith in Christ, and love unto him, to support and uphold the soul! yea, cause it to glory under the sharpest sufferings and tribulations for him!

Note, 3. That it is not in the tribulations themselves that believers glory, but in the sweet issue, happy fruits, and gracious effects of them; finding that by the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, tribulation worketh patience; that is, exerciseth and increaseth patience, and patience begetteth and giveth experience of God’s gracious presence with us, of his assistance of us, and of his faithfulness towards us, in and under all our afflictions: And experience of these things worketh in us hope of reward.

Here observe, How one grace generates and begets another: graces have a generation one from another, though they have all but one generation from the Spirit of Christ.

Observe also, That it is not tribulation in its own nature, but when sanctified by the blessed Spirit, that by a happy gradation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope: For when affliction is not sanctified, but meets with a stubborn spirit, Lord, what dreadful effects doth it produce! Then tribulation excites impatience, impatience causes perplexity, perplexity despair, and despair confusion.

Note, 4. The effect and property of the believer’s hope. It maketh not ashamed; his hope will not make him ashamed, neither will he be ever ashamed of his hope: Frustrated hopes fill men with confusion and shame: The justified person shall not find his hopes of glory frustrated, but exceeded; and the reason is added, why the Christian hope will not deceive or shame him, namely, Because the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost; that is, the Holy Spirit doth, in time of tribulation, testify his love to the hearts of the people, which causes them to glory in tribulation.

Learn hence, That in time of affliction, especially of persecution for the sake of Christ, good men have a more sensible feeling of God’s love shed abroad in their hearts by the blessed Spirit, both to prepare them for trials, and to support them under them. St. Peter calls this a joy unspeakable; it has the very scent and taste of heaven in it, and there is but a gradual difference betwixt it and the joys of heaven: No sooner doth the Holy Spirit, shed forth the love of God into the believer’s heart, by clearing up his interest in the promise, and his title to eternal glory, but the soul is prepared to rejoice in affliction, yea, to glory in tribulation; and it will be as impossible to hinder it, as it is to hinder a man from satisfaction when he is most delighted and pleased: We glory in tribulation, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. “And not only so, but let us indeed glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh out endurance.” Tribulation is from the Latin tribulum which means the flail with which the farmer in olden time thrashed. Hence the pertinency of this reference to Satan beating us over the head, back, and limbs like the farmer beating out his wheat. We are exhorted to rejoice in all this because God will overrule it to our good, making it an exceedingly valuable means of grace in perfecting our susceptibility of enduring all the hardships, rebuffs, disappointments, troubles and trials which the enemy can bring against us, thus developing a most invaluable qualification for the immeasurable responsibility awaiting us in boundless eternity.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And not only so, but we also rejoice in our tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh stedfastness ;

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. We glory in tribulations also. The peace of Christ is so sweet, and the hope of the saint so glorious, that the Christian can even exult in present sufferings, since he has assurance that even these minister to his eternal joy. Various steps of progress are named here in order. Affliction works out patience, and patience secures approval. Such is probably the meaning of the word rendered in the Common Version “experience.” So Macknight and Schaff render it. Patient endurance of affliction secures the divine approval.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Not only this

The word "this" refers to the ideas described in Romans 5:1-2.

we ... our ... us

All occurrences of "we," "our," and "us" refer to all believers and should be inclusive. (See: Inclusive "We")

certain hope

This is the certainty that God will fulfill all his promises for those who trust in Christ.

that hope does not disappoint

Paul uses personification here as he speaks of "confidence" as if it were alive. AT: "we are very confident that we will receive the things that we wait for" (See: Personification)

because the love of God has been poured into our hearts

Here "hearts" represents a person's thoughts, feelings, or inner person. The phrase "the love of God has been poured into our hearts" is a metaphor for God showing love to his people. This can be stated in active form. AT: "because he has loved us greatly" or "because God has shown us how much he loves us" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor and Active or Passive)

translationWords

joy

suffer

endure

confidence

love

God

Holy Spirit

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

3. οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλὰ. Rom 5:11, Rom 8:23, Rom 9:10; 2Co 8:19; cf. 1Ti 5:13. With the ellipse only in S. Paul; not only is the hope of the future revelation a ground of boasting, but also the process of θλίψις, by which, under conditions of the present life, it is being worked out; cf. Joh 16:33; Act 14:22. The idea is fully worked out in 2Co 4:8-12.

ἡ θλίψις. Rom 12:12; 2Th 1:4.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3.] And not only so (not only must we triumph in hope, which has regard to the future), but glorying in (not amidst; the θλ. is the ground of triumph) [our] tribulations, knowing (because we know) that tribulation works endurance (supposing, i.e. we remain firm under it), and endurance, approval (of our faith and trust, 2Co 2:9; 2Co 9:13: not, ‘proof’ (δοκιμασία), as Grot.; nor ‘experience,’ as E. V.,—‘δοκιμή est qualitas ejus, qui est δόκιμος.’ Bengel,—the result of proof), and approval (fresh) hope; and hope (but for αὕτη ἡ ἐλπ. as Olsh.) shames (us) not (by disappointing us; ‘mocks us not’); because God’s love (not ‘the love of God,’ i.e. man’s love for God,—as Theodoret, and even , misled by the Latin; see reff., and compare the explicit τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀγάπην εἰς ἡμᾶς, which answers to this in ver. 8) is (has been) poured out (‘effusa,’ not ‘diffusa’ (Vulg.), which latter word perhaps misled Aug., owing to whose mistake the true interpretation was lost for some centuries, although held by , Chrys., and Ambrose. See Trench on St. Augustine, ch. v. p. 89:—i.e. ‘richly imparted’) in our hearts (ἐν may be taken pregnantly, ἐκκέχ. εἰς καὶ μένει ἐν,—or better, denotes the locality where the outpouring takes place,—the heart being the seat of our love, and of appreciation and sympathy with God’s love) by means of the Holy Spirit (who is the Outpourer, Joh 16:14; 1Co 2:9, 1Co 2:10) which was given to us (Olsh. rightly refers the aorist part. to the Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Spirit).

‘Prima hæc est in hac tractatione Spiritus Sancti mentio. Nimirum ad hunc usque terminum quum perductus est homo, operationem Sp. Sancti notanter denique sentit.’ Bengel.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3-5. The two leading types of the Old-Latin Version of the Epistle stand out distinctly in these verses. We are fortunately able to compare the Cyprianic text with that of Tertullian (non solum … confundit) and the European text of Cod. Clarom. with that of Hilary (tribulatio … confundit). The passage is also quoted in the so-called Speculum (m), which represents the Bible of the Spaniard Priscillian (Classical Review, iv. 416 f.).

Cyprian. Cod. Clarom.

Non solum autem, sed et gloriamur in pressuris, scientes quoniam pressura tolerantiam operatur, tolerantia autem probationem, probatio autem spem; spes autem non confundit, quia dilectio Dei infusa est cordibus nostris per Spiritum Sanctum qui datus est nobis.

verum etiam exultantes Tert.; certi quod Tert.; perficiat Tert. (ed. Vindob.); tol. vero Tert.; spes vero Tert. Non solum autem, sed et gloriamur in tribulationibus, scientes quod tribulatio patientiam operatur, patientia autem probationem, probatio autem spem; spes autem non confundit, quia caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum Sanctum qui datus est nobis.

perficit Hil.; prob. vero m Hil.; spes vero Hil. (Cod. Clarom. = m).

Here, as elsewhere in Epp. Paul., there is a considerable amount of matter common to all forms of the Version, enough to give colour to the supposition that a single translation lies at their root. But the salient expressions are changed; and in this instance Tertullian goes with Cyprian, as Hilary with the European texts. The renderings tolerantia and pressura are verified for Tertullian elsewhere (tolerantia Luk 21:19; 1Th 1:4: pressura Rom 8:35; Rom 12:12; 1Co 7:28; 2Co 1:8; 2Co 4:17; 2Co 6:4; 2Co 7:4; Col 1:24; 2Th 1:4; Rev 2:22; Rev 7:14), as also dilectio (to which the quotation does not extend in this passage, but which is found in Luk 11:42; Joh 13:35; Rom 8:35, Rom 8:39; 1Co 13:1 ff., &c.). We note however that Hilary and Tertullian agree in perficit (perficiat), though in another place Hilary has allusively tribulatio patientiam operatur. Perhaps this coincidence may point to an older rendering.

3. οὐ μόνον δέ (ἑστήκαμεν ἀλλὰ καὶ καυχώμεθα, or ἑστηκότες ἀλλὰ καὶ καυχώμενοι): in this elliptical form characteristic of St. Paul and esp. of this group of Epistles (cf. 5:11; 8:23; 9:10; 2Co 8:19).

καυχώμενοι B C, Orig. bis and others: a good group, but open to suspicion of conforming to ver. 11 (q. v.); we have also found a similar group, on the whole inferior, in 3:28. If καυχώμενοι were right it would be another example of that broken and somewhat inconsecutive structure which is doubtless due, as Va. suggests, to the habit of dictating to an amanuensis.

Note the contrast between the Jewish καύχησις which ‘is excluded’ (3:27) and this Christian καύχησις. The one rests on supposed human privileges and merit; the other draws all its force from the assurance of Divine love.

The Jewish writers know of another καύχησις (besides the empty boasting which St. Paul reprehends), but it is reserved for the blest in Paradise: 4 Ezr. 7:98 [Bensly = vi. 72 O. F. Fritzsche] exultabunt cum fiducia et … confidebunt non confusi, et gaudebunt non reverentes.

ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσι. The θλίψεις are the physical hardships and sufferings that St. Paul regards as the inevitable portion of the Christian; cf. Rom 8:35 ff.; 1Co 4:11-13; 1Co 7:26-32; 1Co 15:30-32; 2Co 1:3-10; 2Co 11:23-27. Such passages give us glimpses of the stormy background which lies behind St. Paul’s Epistles. He is so absorbed in his ‘Gospel’ that this makes very little impression upon him. Indeed, as this chapter shows, the overwhelming sense of God’s mercy and love fills him with such exultation of spirit that bodily suffering not only weighs like dust in the balance but positively serves to strengthen his constancy. The same feeling comes out in the ὑπερνικῶμεν of 8:37: the whole passage is parallel.

ὑπομονήν: not merely a passive quality but a ‘masculine constancy in holding out under trials’ (Waite on 2Co 6:4), ‘fortitude.’ See on 2:7 above.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tribulations. Sharp contrast of glory and tribulation. Tribulations has the article; the tribulations attaching to the condition of believers. Rev., our tribulations.

Patience [υπομονην] . See on 2Pe 1:6; Jas 5:7.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 3, 4. “And not only so, but we triumph on account of tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh constancy; and approval; and hope.” — This passage being, strictly speaking, the answer to an unexpressed objection, it is natural that it should recur (end of Rom 5:4-5) to the idea of hope. The participle καυχώμενοι, and even triumphing, which is found in B C, would correspond very well with the digressive character evidently belonging to these verses. But it is probable that this form has been borrowed from that of Rom 5:11.

The phrase we triumph, literally translated, would be: in afflictions. But this translation would not render the idea of the text in our language [French]. It would express the circumstances in the midst of which the believer triumphs, while the Greek phrase denotes the object itself of which he boasts; comp. 1Co 1:31: “to triumph in the Lord,” for: on account of the possession of the Lord; 2Co 12:9 : “to triumph in his weaknesses,” for: to extract triumph from his very weaknesses. Thus Paul means here: to make his afflictions themselves a reason of triumph. This strange thought is explained by what follows; for the climax which is about to be traced proves that it is tribulations that make hope break forth in all its vigor. Now it is this feeling which is the ground for καυχᾶσθαι (to glory). — The words knowing that introduce the logical exposition of the process whereby affliction becomes transformed in the believer into hope. First, affliction gives rise to constancy, ὑπομονήν. This Greek word, coming from ὑπό and μένειν, literally: to bear up under (a burden, blows, etc.), might be translated by endurance. From want of this word [in French] we say constancy.

Ver. 4. Endurance in its turn worketh approval, δοκιμήν. This is the state of a force or virtue which has withstood trials. This force, issuing victorious from the conflict, is undoubtedly the faith of the Christian, the worth of which he has now proved by experience. It is a weapon of which henceforth he knows the value. The word δόκιμος frequently denotes in the same sense the proved Christian, the man who has shown what he is, comp. Rom 14:18, and the opposite, 1Co 10:27. We find in the New Testament two sayings that are analogous, though slightly different: Jas 1:3, where the neuter substantive δοκίμιον denotes, not like δοκιμή here, the state of the thing proved, but the means of proof, tribulation itself; and 1Pe 1:7, where the same substantive δοκίμιον seems to us to denote that which in the faith of the believer has held good in suffering, has shown itself real and effective, the gold which has come forth purified from the furnace.

When, finally, the believer has thus experienced the divine force with which faith fills him in the midst of suffering, he feels his hope rise. Nothing which can happen him in the future any longer affrights him. The prospect of glory opens up to him nearer and more brilliant. How many Christians have declared that they never knew the gladness of faith, or lively hope, till they gained it by means of tribulation! With this word hope the apostle has returned to the end of Rom 5:2; and as there are deceitful hopes, he adds that the one of which he speaks (the hope of glory, Rom 5:2) runs no risk of being falsified by the event.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.