And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
And not only [so] but we glory in tribulations also - not, surely, for their own sake, for as such they are "not joyous but grievous;" but
Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. To 'work' anything, in the sense of 'producing' it, is a favourite Pauline word-used by Peter but once, and by James only twice, but by Paul 21 times, 11 of which are in this Epistle. The "patience" which tribulation worketh is the quiet endurance of what we cannot but wish removed, whether it be the withholding of promised good (as Romans 8:25), or the continued experience of positive ill (as here). There is, indeed, a patience of unrenewed nature which has something noble in it, though in many cases it is the offspring of pride, if not of something lower. Men have been known to endure every form of privation, torture, and death, without a murmur, and without even visible emotion, merely because they deemed it unworthy of them to sink under unavoidable ill. But this proud, stoical hardihood has nothing in common with the grace of patience-which is either the meek endurance of ill, because it is of God (Job 1:21-22; Job 2:10), or the calm waiting for promised good until His time to dispense it comes (Hebrews 10:36); in the full persuasion that such trials are divinely appointed, are the needed discipline of God's children, are but for a definite period, and are not sent without abundant promises of "songs in the night." If such be the "patience" which "tribulation worketh," no wonder it is added.