Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. I. GOD'S SUFFERING SONS. Sonship does not exempt from sufferings — sometimes it even causes them — as when we are called to suffer on account of religion, especially in times of persecution. But we need not look for "some great thing" to bring the text into conformity with daily experience. No sufferings are small that have power to affect the mind. The strife of tongues, the petty persecutions of home, the long continuance of some chronic disease, the anxiety connected with our occupation, may be doing for us what greater trials did for the martyrs. We may be sufferers in the intensity of emotion, even when the instruments of suffering may not be the prison and the stake. The gospel, then, does not imply immunity from suffering. And this fact teaches that suffering to the believer is — 1. Good and not evil — like medicine, which may be nauseous to the taste but healing in its effects. 2. Best when least deserved. "I could have borne it had I merited it," is the world's word. God's Word says, "If the will of God be so, it is better to suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing." To do wrong is a greater evil than to suffer wrong. 3. Confined to "this present time." II. THE COMPARISON WITH FUTURE GLORY. "I reckon" — as if it were a calm and deliberate mental process. If we allow our feelings to predominate we shall allow our experience of pain to prevail over the revelations of faith. The glory is yet future — it is not yet felt — whilst the suffering is felt. We need to bring into the comparison, in order to feel alleviation, those vast objects in the presence of which all temporal sorrow dwindles.We might compare, e.g., our own sufferings — 1. With the far severer sufferings of many of our fellow-Christians who are as dear to God as we are. 2. With our deserts and our deep sense of the evil of sin. 3. With our mercies and alleviations, and be ashamed to think of our ingratitude in permitting one sorrow to blind us to a thousand joys. 4. With the bitter sufferings which our Lord endured, and think of the double honour which is given us on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him but to suffer for His sake. 5. But the apostle brings before us the glory that shall be revealed in us, as if he would compare the poor accommodation of the roadside inn where the traveller passes the night, with the enduring blessedness of the home. One day in heaven will repay all the sufferings of earth. (P. Strutt.) Parallel Verses KJV: For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. |
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