Verse explainer

What does Romans 8:18 really mean?

Paul isn't minimizing suffering — he's done the arithmetic and found that future glory outweighs present pain by an incomparable margin.

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.

BSB

I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us.

The plain meaning

Paul has just said believers are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ — "if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him" (v. 17). Verse 18 is the immediate follow-on: yes, suffering is real, but weigh it honestly against what is coming. The word "reckon" (logizomai) is Paul the careful reasoner presenting a considered verdict, not wishful thinking. The suffering in view is the full range of present-life trials, including the intense persecution the early church was enduring. The glory, by contrast, is described as something still to be "revealed in us" — not merely witnessed from a distance but disclosed within and upon the saints themselves. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown capture it cleanly: set the sufferings over against the coming glory, and they "sink into insignificance." John Gill notes the asymmetry runs in every direction — quality, quantity, and duration — since present afflictions are temporary while the glory is eternal. The verse is not a call to stoic endurance or to pretend pain doesn't hurt; it is a call to hold both things in view at once and let the larger reality reframe the smaller one.

The common misreading

"Suffering doesn't matter — just focus on heaven." People sometimes deploy this verse to wave away real pain — their own or someone else's — as though Paul is saying present suffering is trivial or shouldn't be felt deeply. That flattens what Paul actually does. He doesn't say suffering is unreal or unfelt; in the very next verses (vv. 19-23) he describes the whole creation groaning, and believers groaning inwardly, waiting for redemption. He has catalogued his own sufferings extensively elsewhere (2 Cor. 11:23-27). The word "reckoned" (logizomai) is the language of honest accounting, not denial. What Paul says is that when you place present suffering and future glory on the same scale and weigh them honestly, they are not in the same category — not comparable in quality, not comparable in duration. That is a different move from dismissing pain. The verse is meant to give endurance to people in real suffering by giving them a larger frame, not to give bystanders a way to tell hurting people their pain is nothing. Read in context — vv. 17-25 — the whole passage acknowledges groaning as the normal posture of this age, while insisting the groaning is not the final word.

What the commentators say

John Gill18th c. · PD

Gill argues the incomparability runs in every dimension: in quality, the sufferings are light against the weight of glory; in duration, they are momentary against what is eternal; and there is no proportion by way of merit either, since no amount of suffering could causally produce such a glory. He also notes the present time is the only suffering time for the saints — once removed from this life, afflictions cease entirely.

Adam Clarkeearly 19th c. · PD

Clarke anchors the comparison in what the glory actually is — the enjoyment of God himself, as the context of vv. 16-17 makes plain. Measured against that, a lifetime of suffering is, as he puts it, "but as for a moment" when compared with eternity. The case, he says plainly, is perfectly clear once you hold the two objects side by side.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown19th c. · PD

JFB reads v. 18 as Paul's direct answer to the condition set in v. 17 — that co-heirs must suffer with Christ. The reply is not a denial but a proportional judgment: place the sufferings on one side of the scale and the coming glory on the other, and the sufferings sink into insignificance. The force is comparative weight, not dismissal of pain.

The word behind it

λογίζομαι logizomai

"I reckon" or "I consider." The verb is used in accounting and logical reasoning — to calculate, reckon up, arrive at a conclusion after deliberate weighing. Paul is not guessing or offering comfort-talk; he is presenting a reasoned verdict. The same word appears in Romans 4 for Abraham's faith being "reckoned" as righteousness. Here it signals that the incomparability of glory to suffering is Paul's carefully reasoned conclusion, not mere optimism.

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