Albert Barnes Commentary Romans 5:3

"And not only so, but we also rejoice in our tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh stedfastness;" — Romans 5:3 (ASV)

And not only so. We not only rejoice in times of prosperity and health. Paul proceeds to show that this plan is no less adapted to produce support in trials.

But we glory. The word used here is the same one that is translated in verse 2 as "we rejoice"—kaucwmeya. It should have been rendered that way 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 Savior directed His followers to rejoice in persecutions (Matthew 5:11–12; compare to James 1:2, 12).

In tribulations. In afflictions. The word used here refers to all kinds of trials that people are called to endure, though it is possible that Paul referred particularly to the various persecutions and trials 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 from 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 2 Corinthians 1:3–6; 11:24-29; 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 murmur and become more and more obstinate and rebellious. They have no sources of consolation; they consider God a hard master and become fretful and rebellious in exact 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 no 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.