Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
18For I am considering that the sufferings of the present time [are] not worthy toward the about to be glory to be revealed into us.
This is another verse where I think one could write for hours and never exhaust the subject. Suffering. I remember early in my Christian life realizing how much I treasured every sermon I heard about how to handle trials and suffering and hardships. I remember feeling like I could never get enough of such teaching and encouragement. “All things work together for good to them that love God…” “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee…” “I know the plans I have for you, plans to do you good and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.” “No trial for the present seems joyous but grievous, but afterwards yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised by it…” “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials…”
I believe I could sit here typing for hours just quoting verses that address this subject of suffering. Interesting that Paul says right off the bat, “I consider.” That could also be translated something like “I reckon” or “I account.” Also interesting it is in the present tense, so really means “I am considering/reckoning/accounting…” What is he saying? He’s saying this is a mind game, an on-going, continuous mind game. When it comes to suffering, the battle is constantly won or lost in our minds. That is precisely why the Bible is so full, from cover to cover, of verses addressing this subject, why I found I could seemingly never get enough, and why to this day my soul nurses on those truths.
As I studied the verse before us, I realized why all of this is true. Here we have the subject of suffering “in the present time” compared to “the glory which shall be revealed…” As Paul says, our present sufferings aren’t even worth comparing with the glory ahead of us. You’d think the hope of heaven could send us all skipping down the street no matter what we were facing. However, here’s the rub: Our present sufferings are in our face. The glory ahead is a matter of faith. Our present sufferings are something we feel keenly. Now. Pain hurts…sometimes A LOT. What is the glory ahead? It is something I must believe in. I can’t feel it, can’t see it, can’t touch it. I can only believe in it. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). Faith. Faith is a mind game. As Paul says elsewhere, “If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, … think on these things, and the God of peace shall be with you” (Phil. 4:8,9).
This is precisely why the Bible is so full of verses on the subject. Pain is where we all live. It’s also interesting to me how, in this verse, Paul’s encouragement is for us to compare those present sufferings with the glory to be revealed, yet that is not the thrust of the rest of the Bible. What I mean is that actually there is comparatively little said in the Bible about that “glory to be revealed.” It is there. We have entire passages like Revelation 21 and 22 about heaven – glimpses of that future for our encouragement. Yet, think about it, when the Lord addresses hardships, what is His usual encouragement? It is much more present. “When you pass through the flames, I will be with you…” “Fear not, for I am with you.” “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me…” Almost without exception, His encouragement has to do with the right now, how I deal with the “right now” of pain and trouble.
He “knows our frames that we are but dust.” He knows how much we struggle to bear up under pain and what a battle we face trying to win that mind game of faith. Elsewhere He does say, “For our light and momentary afflictions are working for us a far more exceeding weight of glory… (II Cor. 4:16-18), yet He Himself gave us the Bible filled with “here and now” encouragement.
I like how Paul here calls our attention to our glorious future. I wish I could fill my mind more with those truths. In a sense, it makes me feel bad that I don’t draw more encouragement from it. However, what I find studying even this verse, is that we don’t need to beat ourselves up over the fact that the “coming glory” doesn’t seem to give me the encouragement I think it should. Though stated here and stated clearly, yet this is one of the few places where that’s the encouragement God offers us. I personally find it encouraging. The Lord is okay that I need “here and now” truth to help me with my “here and now” pain!
On the other hand, and as this passage would remind us, we do have a glorious future. There is a glory to be revealed, as the chapter will go on to describe, and, as it said in I Cor. 4, it is so glorious it makes our present sufferings “light and momentary,” while it itself is “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” – and so much so, the very next thought is “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.” Like Moses, we can “persevere, because we see Him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:27). Unquestionably one of the marks of adulthood is the ability to live for deferred goals, to accept hardships today for the sake of something we value in the future.
Really it is a considerable immaturity to be constantly unable to do that. People (us) make a lot of very bad decisions in life because we want it now. What that is, in reality, is the worst form of childishness. “Wanting it now” reduces a human being to nothing better than a racoon or a worm, simply reacting to its environment, with no ability to think things through, to look ahead, and to make choices based on the long-term consequences they’ll bring. The ability to live for deferred goals is part of the dignity of the human race, part of the image of God in us, part of that which was given us uniquely in all this material creation.
Isn’t it interesting that’s what faith does for us? The very “mind game” we’re struggling with is actually lifting us to the dignity we were created for! In a sense, it’s helping us to “grow up!” And that’s a good thing. As I sit here at age 65, I’m still looking forward to what life will be like when I “grow up!” Seriously, the very activity Paul describes in this one little verse, the fact that he is “considering his present sufferings and comparing them with a glory to be revealed” is the very exercise of human dignity!
I am constantly amazed how God’s glory is always our greatest benefit. What I mean is that uninformed people may object to the idea that we should live for God’s glory. They would suggest that somehow God is being selfish to think we should all live for His glory. What they don’t realize is this simple truth, that His glory is always, always, always our greatest good – just like here. The very “considering” of faith is making you and me the respectable, mature people we ought to be. (And that’s a good thing!)
Last of all, I want to note a little grammatical oddity in the passage, and that is, as I translated above, this glory is to be revealed literally “into” us. That word choice doesn’t work very well in English, but it is there in the Greek. If you look up various translations, you’ll see that some render it “to” and some “in.” I think we have to step back and realize, once again, they’re not just stating facts, but rather painting a picture. I would suggest this glory is so great, we will be so much a part of it, that it isn’t enough to say it will be revealed “to” us. In fact, it will also be revealed “in” us. It will be literally like a walk along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean! Heaven will not only be the place we live. It will be the very air we breathe!
So, what to do? We need to nurse on this hope all we can, let it help us grow up and act like adults, but then not get too beat up when we find ourselves struggling with the mind game of faith right here in this “now” time, too often attended with seemingly endless miseries and pain.
Lord, lift us, help us, make us the very royal children You created us to be!
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