For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory,
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 17. Worketh. In the Greek, κατεργαζεται, which the English Bible of the year 1577 falsely renders by prepareth, unwilling to allow, with the apostle, that tribulation worketh eternal glory. The ardour with which the apostle speaks is sufficient to inspire the most timid with courage. A life full of crosses, labours, persecutions, injuries, and so forth he calls momentary and light, if compared with the eternal, immense, and incomprehensible glory prepared for us. Saint Augustine—All earthly substance, compared with the happiness of heaven, is rather a loss than a gain. This life, when put in comparison with that to come, is rather a death than life. Saint Gregory in Evangel.