And not only [that], but we also boast in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works endurance;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and endurance, experience; and experience, hope;
This verse sits in the middle of a chain that begins with rejoicing in trouble. Endurance leads to something, and that something leads to hope. The word in between is "character" in the ESV and "experience" in older translations. So the first question is what that word means.
The Greek word behind it carries two ideas at once: experience gained, and being approved.
The Bible TreasuryThe first effect, then, of tribulations is patience or endurance. (The Greek word, hupomone, seems to mean both bearing up patiently under the present evil and holding out to the end.) But patience and endurance produce experience, or being approved. The Greek word here (dokime) seems to show both. If we are impatient in our troubles, we gain only human experience. That kind is necessary, but it humbles us and tends to weigh us down — and it should. But if we learn in God's school to be still and patient under His hand, and to listen to His voice, we gain divine experience that lifts us up. We learn what God is.
This is not about looking inside ourselves. That comes later in the letter. What is proved here is God.
William KellyAgain, "patience [works out] experience." This is not yet the experience of what is inside us. The letter takes that up fully later, from Romans 5:12 through to Romans 8. Here endurance works out what God is along the road, and we miss it as far as we allow impatience.
Put positively, trouble becomes the place where we prove God's care for ourselves.
Hamilton SmithThe result of enduring in tribulation is that we gain experience. Endurance gives us real proof that God cares for us and takes an interest in us, keeping the soul through tribulation. So in tribulation we come to know God by experience. We prove for ourselves the grace, the tender sympathy and the mercy of our God.
The process is slower than we would like, and that slowness is part of the point.
J. N. DarbySee what trouble produces — "tribulation works patience." My will needs to be broken. I will expect to get something and never have it. I may have to cry to God for three weeks and fast, as Daniel did. I have to learn patience, and in it learn how rash my heart is, wanting everything at once… [Moses] was learning experience, and experience works hope. What blocked the hope and dimmed it is broken away in the process. Earthly hope has died away, and the heavenly hope has become more real and bright. And in it I learn what God is.
The change often begins in confusion rather than clarity.
The Epistle to the RomansIn His dealings with us God is surrounded by cloud and darkness. Here faith should find its opportunity, yet it often finds confusion and perplexity instead. Even so, this forces us to admit that we are nothing, and to creep close to the side of the One who still walks with us. Forced to let God be God, we then experience a moral government that is a Father's… [His ways] produce no fear and no doubt, but a brightening hope that steadies as it brightens.
Hope grows because the God we are travelling toward is the God we have been meeting on the way.
C. CrainWe are next told that "experience works hope." On the path that leads to the glory we experience what the God of glory is — and how that glory brightens! By patient endurance we learn for ourselves the love, the care and the tender mercies of Christ, who never fails to care for us as He guides us on our way. How it makes us say, "What will it be to be with Him!"
These are not three stages you leave behind one by one. They work together and feed each other.
A. PridhamWhen a tested believer experiences Christ's faithfulness and sufficiency, hope flows more strongly in the soul. And hope, stirred like this, works back again to renew patience… So these three — patience, experience and hope — each produce or support the other. They work side by side, and together they confirm the confidence and the rejoicing of the child of God.
One caution keeps all of this from turning inward. Our feelings in affliction are not the foundation.
The Bible TreasuryThe result of tribulation is experience, and that works hope. Experience in affliction is an inner thing, and it does produce experience, but this inner feeling is not what we can lean on. The only support given to our faith is the love of God — the love He showed us in Christ. It is there that experience and faith meet.
- Proof — the word behind "experience" means tested and approved. Trouble does not just teach us. It proves something.
- Proof of God — what is proved is His care and faithfulness along the road, not our inner state. The letter takes that up later.
- Proof takes time — the will has to be broken, and impatience is what forfeits the lesson.
- Proof brightens — earthly hope dies away, the heavenly hope grows real and steady, and hope renews patience in return.
- Proof is not our footing — we stand on the love of God shown in Christ. That is where faith and experience meet.