📜WEB · Romans 8:18
What does Romans 8:18 mean?
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us."
— Romans 8:18 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;
and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.
For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
Explanation
Romans 8:18 finds Paul making a comparison between two realities: the sufferings believers experience now and the glory that God will reveal in the future. In plain language, Paul is saying that whatever hardships Christians face in this life—no matter how severe—simply cannot be weighed on the same scale as the glory that is coming. It's not that the sufferings are minimized or dismissed as unimportant, but that they are put into proper perspective when measured against what God has promised to reveal.
To understand this verse, it helps to know the context of Paul's letter to the Romans, written to a church he had not personally founded, in a city that was the center of the Roman Empire. Paul is writing to Christians who would face real suffering—social ostracism, persecution, and eventually, under emperors like Nero, execution. Romans 8 as a whole is a chapter about life in the Spirit, assurance of adoption as God's children, and the hope of future redemption. Verse 18 sits right before Paul describes creation itself groaning as it waits for renewal (verses 19–22), and before he speaks of the Spirit interceding for believers in their weakness (verses 26–27). So this verse functions as a hinge, introducing the theme of hope amid present affliction that carries through the rest of the chapter.
Theologically, this verse teaches that Christian hope is fundamentally future-oriented and rooted in what God will do, not merely in present circumstances. Paul does not deny suffering—he uses the word "sufferings," acknowledging its reality and weight. But he sets that suffering against
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