Skip to main content

Great Endurance


The Apostle Paul was no stranger to difficulties. In II Corinthians 6 he lists some of the struggles that he faced: “in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger (v.4b-5).” A few chapters later he elaborated: “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure (11:24-27).” 

This was all before he was bitten by a venomous snake! His critics accused him of living in secret sin; like the friends of Job, they reasoned that the Lord must be punishing Paul, but Paul (like Job) maintained his innocence. The suffering he faced was the mark of his ministry, that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (II Timothy 3:12).” 

So how was Paul able to keep going? In every city where he ministered, Paul acquainted himself with the synagogue and soon availed himself of the prison. Where did he find the willpower to press on? He told us in the beginning of the verse mentioned above—“as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way, by great endurance…(6:4a)” 

The Greek word that is translated as great endurance is a rich word, one that has no good English equivalent. We really need a sentence to translate it, not just a synonym. It carries the idea of standing strong in the face of immense hardships, and in literature was often used to speak of being able to endure because of the ability to see the finish line up ahead. 

I have never run a marathon because I’m not crazy (I’m kidding!). But in all seriousness, these runners will push their bodies to go 26.2 miles. This requires great endurance, and it is something that is built up over a period of time, often many years. I can imagine a runner who has gone 26 miles already, and he wants nothing more than to stop. His feet have blisters. His lower back aches. His muscles are cramping. He is nearing dehydration. Just as he is about to convince himself that he cannot take another step, he looks ahead and he sees it: the finish line. He can hear the crowds cheering him on, and he reaches deep within himself and decides that he can go just a little bit more. Two tenths of a mile. Put one foot in front of the other. 

John MacArthur has defined this great endurance as having “joy in anticipation of future glory.” The glory of the runner is crossing the finish line. Even while his body hurts, he has joy in knowing that he is almost there. Now the screaming in his mind is drowned out by joy. He can enjoy the homestretch in anticipation of future glory. 

Isn’t that how life should be? Yes, it is hard. This is a cursed world, after all. We have run 26 miles and feel like there is nothing left in the tank. Everything in us is saying to give up, but we can run our race with great endurance, in anticipation of future glory. Christians understand what lies ahead, our eternal home with the Lord. So don’t give up, look up. Notice the finish line up ahead, and listen as you are cheered on by a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before. 

Keep putting one foot in front of the other, and in joy we anticipate crossing the finish line and hearing these words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”   

‭‭‬‬‬‬‬‬


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The “Christians Hate Gays” Myth

During these Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) hearings before the Supreme Court I keep hearing how much Christians hate gay people. This was news to me since I am a Christian and I don’t hate gay people. I also go to church with over 1000 other Christians, and if any of them hate gay people, they sure haven’t told me. Before moving to South Carolina I worked at or attended several churches in Texas; prior to that I spent a decade going to church in Florida. Guess what? No one hated gay people. In fact, I don’t know any Christians who hate anybody. The very uniform of a believer is his love, and if a person does not show consistent love, then he is not actually a believer. Are there non-believers who hate gay people and claim to be Christian? Of course. But that doesn’t represent Jesus or His church. Equating  hateful sign-wavers with Christianity is like equating a kindergarten baseball team to the New York Yankees. They may claim to be playing the same

Famous Frauds in Homosexual Science Part 2: Twin Studies

A second piece of shoddy science has been heralded as proving people are born gay. This time, instead of cadavers, living twins were studied. This study compared male identical twins to male fraternal twins; in each set of twins, at least one man was homosexual. 22% of the fraternal twins showed both brothers to be gay, compared to 52% of the identical twins. Since identical twins are closer genetically than fraternal twins, this study claimed that genetics play in to homosexuality, or that people are born gay. But an obvious question that arose from this study is, why did 48% of the identical twins only have one gay brother? If they are so close genetically, then 100% of the identical twins should have two gay brothers. This study does more harm than good to the argument from genetics. There are other factors to be considered. One is that the men doing the study (Richard Pillard and Michael Bailey) could have intentionally picked fraternal twins that the

The Rose of Sharon and Lily of the Valley

If you have spent much time in church you have probably sung some songs with lyrics like these: “He leads me to his banqueting table, his banner over me is love… Jesus is the rock of my salvation, his banner over me is love.” “Sweetest rose of Sharon, come to set us free.” “He’s the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star…” But are those songs biblical? They come out of the writings of the Song of Solomon, but are we to understand those lines as describing Christ? The Song of Solomon is a collection of love poems that were written between two people who were deeply in love and about to be married. While we know that King Solomon is one of the writers, the other’s name has escaped us, and we know her today simply as the Shulamite woman. Some people believe that since this woman is not named then she never existed; some teach that this book is pure allegory, only existing to serve as symbolism. King Solomon, they say, represents