All the suffering of our earthly lives cannot even begin to compare to the coming glory which will be experienced by God’s children because then we will experience his presence. In an in-depth linguistic study of the expression, not worth comparing with
(ouk axia pros), Gieniusz1 came to the conclusion that in the original Greek this phrase actually means cannot compete with.
He points out that two concepts—suffering and glory—are here being contrasted with one another. Paul is not comparing them as being lighter or heavier, but contrasting them so as to make clear that the present suffering is powerless over against the coming glory. In other words the hold of suffering over our earthly existence cannot compete with the power of the glory it will be conquered by. The suffering of the present cannot frustrate (Gieniusz translates the word as thwart
) the future.2
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.