“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. - Romans 5:3–5 (ESV)
As we take a look at our passage, we find why Paul, in verse 8 used the present tense telling us the God demonstrates His love through Christ’s death for us while we were still lost and separated from Him. Paul teaches us in this passage that “suffering produces endurance.” We cannot learn to endure, to hang on to our confession unless it is tested. If it is never tested, we may not be certain it is strong enough. Paul continues that our “endurance produces character” in us. Our character is the mental and spiritual qualities which make us strong in our faith to face trials. With strong character developed from successful endurance, we can bear the trials and temptations. And “character produces hope.” A hope that will not shame us for trusting God. The goal of everything God takes us through is this kind of hope. He wants us to feel steadfastly hopeful through all tribulations. Our hope does not disappoint because God’s love has been poured into our hearts. The tense of this verb means that God’s love was poured out in our hearts in the past (at our conversion) and remains present and active.
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Material for this blog was gleaned from Dr John Piper’s Desiring God
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