Romans 5 3:4 meaning

  • Thread starter Thread starter Heaveniswaiting
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Heaveniswaiting

Guest
This verse which talks about rejoicing in your trials and suffering bc suffering produces endurance, then character and then hope…i just wanted to know what this exactly means? Is this hope referring to heaven?
 
Not necessarily, it can also mean God is saying good things come to those who wait.

Keep reading Roman’s 5: 3-5

Waiting for answers to our prayers will teach us many things. To be strong, to be patient, to appropriate things when things happen, and the verse especially teavhes us that. O matter the outcome we will love it, without shame because it came from God to even if it’s not what we wanted.

It could be talking about heaven or about a decision tou have to make, a change you need to make in your life or any prayers we might waiting on God to reply too.
 
Last edited:
Heaveniswaiting said:
This verse which talks about rejoicing in your trials and suffering bc suffering produces endurance, then character and then hope…i just wanted to know what this exactly means? Is this hope referring to heaven?
Click to expand...
Haydock Commentary
Verse 3
We glory in spirit in the afflictions, oppression, and persecution, which we suffer as Christians, esteeming them a great blessing. Thus the apostles went rejoicing from before the council, because they had been thought worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. (Acts v.) And St. James (chap. i.) says: Think it the greatest joy when you fall into various temptations: (i.e. tribulations) for these sufferings greatly serve to confirm the elect in the hopes which they have of enjoying the glory of the world to come. (Estius)

Verse 5
Having preented us with his gifts when we did not at all deserve them, having showered upon us the blessings of faith, charity, patience, and fidelity, we cannot but have the greatest confidence that after this pledge and assurance of his good will towards us, he well finish the work he has begun, and bring us to his heavenly kingdom. (Calmet) — Not only the gift of the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit himself, is given to us, who resides in our soul as in his own temple, who sanctifies it, and makes if partaker of his divine love. (Menochius)
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I checked this verse with the bible commentaries I have:

The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible (Scott Hahn):

5:1-5 The justified are endowed with theological virtues. By faith, they live in peace with God and have access to his grace; in hope, they long for the glory of God that awaits them; and through love, they show that the charity of the Spirit dwells in their hearts (CCC 1813). Equipped in this way, believers can become more like Christ through endurance and suffering (CCC 618). See note on 1 Cor 13:13.

Navarre Bible Commentary:

Reconciliation through Christ’s sacrifice, the basis of our hope

5:1–5. In this moving passage God helps us see “the divine interlacing of the three theological virtues which form the backing upon which the true life of every Christian man or woman has to be woven” (St J. Escrivá, Friends of God, 205). Faith, hope and charity act in us in turn, causing us to grow in the life of grace. Thus, faith leads us to know and be sure of the things we hope for (cf. Heb 11:1); hope ensures that we shall attain them, and enlivens our love of God; charity, for its part, gives us energy to practise the other two theological virtues. The definitive outcome of this growth in love, faith and hope is the everlasting peace that is of the essence of eternal life.

As long as we are in this present life we do have peace to some degree—but with tribulation. Therefore, the peace attainable in this life does not consist in the contentment of someone who wants to have no problems, but rather in the resoluteness full of hope (“character”) of someone who manages to rise above suffering and stays faithful through endurance. Suffering is necessary for us, because it is the normal way to grow in virtue (cf. Jas 1:2–4; 1 Pet 1:5–7); that is why it is providential (cf. Phil 1:19; Col 1:24) and leads to joy and happiness (1 Thess 1:6).

“A person who hopes for something and strives eagerly to attain it is ready to endure all kinds of difficulty and distress. Thus, for example, a sick person, if he is eager to be healthy, is happy to take the bitter medicine which will cure him. Therefore, one sign of the ardent hope that is ours thanks to Christ is that we glory not only in the hope of future glory, but also in the afflictions which we suffer in order to attain it” (St Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Romans, ad loc.)

A person who lives by faith, hope and charity realizes that suffering is not something meaningless but rather is designed by God for our perfecting. Perfection consists “in the bringing of our wills so closely into conformity with the will of God that, as soon as we realize he wills anything, we desire it ourselves with all our might, and take the bitter with the sweet, knowing that to be His Majesty’s will […]. If our love is perfect, it has this quality of leading us to forget our own pleasure in order to please him whom we love. And that is indeed what happens” (St Teresa of Avila, Book of Foundations, chap. 5).

continued….
 
5:5. The love which St Paul speaks of here is, at one and the same time, God’s love for us—manifested in his sending the Holy Spirit—and the love which God places in our soul to enable us to love him. The Second Council of Orange, quoting St Augustine, explains this as follows: “To love God is entirely a gift of God. He, without being loved, loves us and enabled us to love him. We were loved when we were still displeasing to him, so that we might be given something whereby we might please him. So it is that the Spirit of the Father and the Son, whom we love with the Father and the Son, pours charity into our hearts” (De gratia, can. 25; cf. St Augustine, In Ioann. Evang., 102, 5).

New Jerome Bible Commentary:

5:1-11. Once justified, the Christian is reconciled to God and experiences a peace that distressing troubles cannot upset, a hope that knows no disappointment, and a confidence of salvation.

5:1. The first effect of justification that Christian experiences is peace; reconciliation replaces estrangement.

5:2. The peace that Christians experience is derived from being introduced into the sphere of divine favour by Christ, who has, as it were, reconciled Christians by leading them into the royal audience chamber and the divine presence. The second effect of justification is confident hope. The statement is a typically Pauline paradox: the Christian who boasts puts the boast in something that is wholly beyond ordinary human powers – in hope. Yet hope is really as gratuitous as faith itself; in the long run the boast relies on God. What the Christian hopes for is the communicated glory of God, still to be attained, even though the Christian has already been introduced into the sphere of “grace.”

5:3. Divine favor, as the basis of Christian hope, is mighty enough to give confidence even in the face of “hardships,” that might tend to separate human beings from Christ’s love (see 8:35; 1 Cor 4:11-13; 7:26-32).

5:5. An illusion to Pss 22:6; 25:20 stresses that the hope of God’s glory is not illusory; it is founded on God’s love of human beings. Hence the Christian will never be embarrassed by a disappointed hope; implicit is a comparison with merely human hope, which can deceive.

A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture (Bernard Orchard):

5:1. ‘We have peace with God’: So Cornely, Sickenberger, Lietzmann, Boylan. The indicative can be defended on external and internal evidence. 2a. ‘Through whom by faith we obtained also our introduction into this grace …’: is a relative clause to be connected with 1. Its purpose is to remind us that our peace with God which is the first effect of salvation according to v 1 is no more our own doing than our ‘introduction to the faith’ (=to Christianity).

continued….
 
Last edited:
Both are the work of Christ. It should be noticed that the sentence does not introduce a new fruit of salvation. § d 2b. ‘and [through whom] we also rejoice in the hope of the glory of God’: unlike those without hope, Eph 2:12; 1 Thess 4:13, the justified can rejoice, looking forward to the glory to come. It is the hope which we usually call the second theological virtue. Its main, though not only, object is final salvation=everlasting happiness=eternal life=beatific vision. St Paul calls it ‘glory of God’. Fuller descriptions of it can be derived from 3:23; 8:18; 1 Cor 2:9; 15:43; 2 Cor 4:17 f.; Phil 3:21; Col 3:4; 2 Tim 2:10. From the grammatical point of view 2b is the second part of the relative clause begun in 2a from which it cannot be separated without doing violence to the text; cf. KNT. But the unfortunate result of this grammatical connexion need not be denied. It is not in accordance with the rules of clear writing to introduce in a second relative clause the point which finally turns out to be the centre of the whole passage. 3–4 is a parenthesis like 2a. It forestalls the common objection that the Christian hope of heaven is a sign of weakness leading to inactivity and indifference here on earth. According to 3–4 the Christian hope of heaven has the opposite effect: it makes men strong in tribulation which is the time when this hope is being tested and tried, cf. Mt 5:4; Rom 8:37; 2 Cor 1:3–11; Jas 1:3 f. 3. ‘And not only so’: a difficult ellipsis. Probably=We do not rejoice in the hope of the future glory only, but we rejoice also in the present tribulations, knowing that these tribulations strengthen that hope. Boylan treats this gladness in tribulation as a third fruit of sanctification.

Fr William Most commentary on Romans:

We notice too that when Paul says trouble gives patience, patience tested virtue, and virtue gives hope - the thought does not fit well with the Lutheran notion of infallible salvation by just once “taking Christ as your personal Savior.” In that framework, what need is there of patience, virtue, and of building hope?
 
Last edited:
Sorry @annad347 accidentally clicked on your profile rather than the OP
 
Sacra Pagina:

Peace with God on the basis of justification (vv 1–2). The section opens with a firm and confident statement of where believers stand in relationship to God. The justification believers have received (dikaiōthentes … ek pisteōs) has brought about a state of “peace” (eirēnē) so that, like ambassadors to the court of a previously hostile but now friendly power, they enjoy (v 2) “access” (prosagōgē) to the “favor” (charis) in which they stand. Paul will go on to draw out a deeper, more dynamic meaning in the concept of charis (esp. 5:15–21). But already, in implicit contrast to the hostility and fear that characterized relations prior to justification, he puts forward a rich sense of Christian living within the scope of God’s abiding favor.

The real focus, however, is on what lies ahead. With an irony that is surely intentional, Paul looks to the future (v 2c) in the language of “boasting” (kauchāsthai). Up till this point in the letter, “boasting” has appeared in a highly unfavorable light (2:17; 3:27; 4:2). It implied a confidence in eschatological acceptance by God that rested upon privileged status or human achievement, something which, according to Paul, has been fatally undercut by human sinfulness. But over against this, he can now propose a “boasting” that is truly valid because it rests solely upon the power and operation of God. So believers (literally, “we”) not only presently enjoy a privileged access to God’s favor but can also “boast” in the hope of (obtaining) the glory of God. …

Boasting in present suffering (vv 3–4). Boasting, however, does not look solely to the future. Boldly Paul indicates present suffering as also a grounds for boast (v 3b). With this paradoxical assertion (cf. the personal avowals in similar vein across 2 Cor 11:30–12:10; esp. 12:9–10) Paul confronts a significant aspect of present life of believers. In this time of the “overlap” of the ages, suffering, along with weakness and death, is a form in which the present, passing age impinges upon the bodily existence of those reconciled with God. Paul shares a widespread expectation that the sufferings of the elect would intensify in the time immediately before the final intervention of God (cf. esp. Mark 13:7–8, 19–20). He will confront this prospect more explicitly at the close of this entire section (8:31–39). For the present, he formulates a small, chain-like sequence (vv 3b–4) to provide some basis for the claim that even sufferings can provide an occasion to boast. In rhetorical terms, such sequences (“sorites”; cf. also 8:29–30; 10:14–15) attempt to build up an inexorable logic by making the object of one sentence the subject of the next.

continued…
 
Last edited:
So Paul attempts to argue the emergence of hope out of suffering via the middle terms “endurance” (hypomonē) and “(tested) character” (dokimē). If suffering can give rise to hope, then one can “boast” in suffering, equally as one “boasts in the hope of (obtaining) the glory of God” (v 2c).

Paul makes the sequence a matter of common agreement (“knowing” [eidotes]). Modern readers may well object that it is by no means obvious that the experience of suffering works in this way and that, in fact, what suffering regularly produces is, not hope, but bitterness and despair. Paul, however, presumes acceptance of the idea of “disciplinary” suffering widespread in the Jewish wisdom tradition (see Note). The Stoics also held that character is tested and refined by trial and suffering. Where Paul goes to surprising lengths is in his insistence that the end-product is hope. The ultimate grounds for this are christological, as statements later in the letter (esp. 8:17c) will make clear. Believers are united to Christ through baptism, their existence and destiny conformed inexorably to his (6:3–5). As his sufferings led, through God’s power, to his glory, it may be hoped that the same pattern will prevail in those united to him. On this logic, if one “boasts” in that in which one places confidence for salvation, to boast in suffering is tantamount to boasting “in the hope of obtaining the glory of God” (v 2c).

Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture:

5:3–4. From here Paul’s thoughts take a surprising turn. Divine glory is not the only thing in which Christians exult. They even boast of undergoing afflictions! Paul has not misspoken; he attaches tremendous significance to suffering, as is evident in his missionary preaching: “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22 RSV). For the Apostle, suffering is integral to God’s redemptive purposes. It is part of the Christian path because it sculpts us into the image of Jesus, who passed into glory by way of the cross.7 Paul will say more about the saving purpose of suffering in Rom 8. For now he outlines a process of Christian growth and maturation in four steps.8 Why is affliction an occasion for boasting? Because it produces endurance, meaning a steadfast will to do what is right and to hold fast to the faith in the midst of adversity. And perseverance, in turn, generates the proven character of one who has been tested and found faithful. Finally, having emerged from the fires of tribulation, our hope for heavenly glory is made the more firm. Of course, none of this would be possible on the paltry strength of fallen human nature. It is owing to the “grace in which we stand” (5:2) that virtues such as these are able to blossom and grow in our lives.
 
Last edited:
Heaveniswaiting said:
This verse which talks about rejoicing in your trials and suffering bc suffering produces endurance, then character and then hope…i just wanted to know what this exactly means? Is this hope referring to heaven?
Click to expand...
As well as the good effects on one’s character, I’m thinking Paul also had in mind these words of Our Lord:
Matthew 5:10 - 12
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
 
Last edited:
Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, (NABRE, Ro 5:3,4).

Thanks for this thread on the above verses.

I consider that Christians were being badly treated and Paul is encouraging them to persevere with hope in the future.

The references to standard Catholic commentaries are very useful for me as they allow me to compare them and see which ones I prefer and have access to.

I have print copies of Sacra Pagina and the New Jerome Bible Commentary, but do not use them at present. The electronic commentaries I have are ‘A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture’ and ‘The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible’, and looking at all the commentaries mentioned in this thread I think I have sufficient for a Catholic Bible study.

I also have ‘The Catholic Study Bible’ (Senior), which I find excellent, but was not referenced in this thread.

However I would welcome comments.
 
NoelFitz said:
However I would welcome comments.
Click to expand...
The commentaries I use are:

Hard copies
Navarre Bible Commentary (both Old and New Testament)

Electronic copies
A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture (Bernard Orchard)
Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary
The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (Scott Hahn)
The Great Biblical Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide, available for free here:
http://www.catholicapologetics.info/scripture/newtestament/Lapide.htm
Fr William Most commentaries, available for free here:


Sacra Pagina (historical-critical method slant)
New Jerome Bible Commentary, (historical-critical method slant), electronic copy available for 14 day hire for free here:


Biblia Clerus
http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerus/index_eng.html

The newest commentaries I have started buying are from the “Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture” series, edited by biblical scholar Mary Healy and published from around 2010 onwards. (I have bought electronic copies of Matthew and Romans so far). Their website is:

https://www.catholiccommentaryonsacredscripture.com

I am not a biblical scholar so I use the most easy to understand bible studies suited for the lay person. However, having said that if I use all the above resources, I can usually get a fairly decent understanding of a particular verse in question.

Scott Hahn, Steve Ray and Jimmy Akin on their respective websites also have bible study recommendations:

Scott Hahn:


Steve Ray:


Jimmy Akin:
http://jimmyakin.com/2006/01/scripture_comme.html

Fr William Most reviews some commentaries here:


This thread on Catholic Answers forums also reviews a number of commentaries too:
40.png
Best Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture? Sacred Scripture
All of the forum posts regarding commentaries appear to be closed, so, here’s a new one so we can discuss it in 2020… The 17-volume Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS) series for the New Testament is finally complete. Deacons and clergy, would you agree that this is THE BEST Catholic Commentary on the NT currently available? I know of Bible study groups using it as an additional resource. Found on Amazon if you search for: Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture New Testament Set …
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
TominAdelaide said:
The commentaries I use are:
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for your detailed contributions.
I use Verbum with some extra resources I have bought.
I have a hard copy of ‘The Navarre Bible, New Testament’, but not a commentary.
I also have the four electronic commentaries you have, CCHS, Haydock, ICSBNT and GBCCaL.
I was not familiar with the work of Fr Most.
I have looked at CCSS (Healy and Williamson). This confuses me, as I see it is available as 9, 14 and 17 volumes. It is advertised as due to Healy and Williamsom, but also many others, including Scott Hahn, claim authorship, perhaps only of parts. I am not sure of prices, and I may contact Logos/Verbum for a price, but if I get it will I have time to read it?

In summary I am happy with my commentaries, but will consider getting at least part of the CCSS.
 
NoelFitz said:
It is advertised as due to Healy and Williamsom, but also many others, including Scott Hahn, claim authorship, perhaps only of parts
Click to expand...
Yes, I believe Dr Healy and Mr Peter Williamson are editors for the series as a whole and different biblical scholars have actually authored each work. For example, the commentary on Matthew I have was written by Curtis Mitch & Edward Sri and the copy of Romans I have was authored by Scott Hahn.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top