Endurance
Illustration: The Battered Bastards of Bastogne
Most people recognize endurance to be our not quitting an endeavor; especially when we are experiencing an unpleasant, difficult, or dangerous situation. A perfect illustration of endurance was demonstrated by the 101st airborne division, in December 1944, when they held off ferocious German attacks on the Belgian town of Bastogne. The town of Bastogne was a vital transportation hub for the area, and it was imperative for the Germans to capture this town if their Battle of the Bulge offensive was to be maintained. The American soldiers were vastly outnumbered; and, they were lacking in ammunition, food, medical supplies and cold-weather gear. This situation was compounded by the worst winter weather in recorded history, which not only impacted human survival but made it impossible to resupplied the besieged Americans or provide them with tactical air support. In spite of hardships beyond our comprehension, the American soldiers of the 101st airborne division held their ground … they endured.
1. Life
Many Christians do not want to hear anything about endurance because it disturbs the calm waters of their health, wealth and happiness myth. A literal menagerie of prosperity-Svengali preachers have convinced people that God will make their life wonderful just as long as they belong to the right church and give it lots of money. One of the detached scriptures prosperity-Svengalis use in their fabricated myth, about Jesus promising to give us health, wealth and happiness, comes from the parable of the Good Shepherd. To be honest, in this parable Jesus does make the statement that He came so that we might have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:1-21) The Svengalis totally miss, however, the possibility that Jesus might have simply been stating that He is the source of an abundant spiritual life: for those who are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and who obey all that Jesus taught. (Matthew 28:16-20) The prosperity-Svengalis totally ignore the fact that we are not of this world; and thus, we have no need for an abundant worldly life. There is also the fact that we have died to self-interests; and, we cannot deny scripture repeatedly teaches we are to suffer trials and tribulations. When you take a holistic approach to the New Testament it is obvious that health, wealth and happiness are not the source of a Christian’s abundant life; instead, we endure the world and long to leave it. (Philippians 1:21-26)
Of course, we are not saying that Jesus has not given some Christians an abundant physical life; but, we have to be honest to the fact that all Christians do not experience such worldly abundance. Right now, at this very moment, there are Christians in Islamic lands who are enduring a life filled with hardship, physical sufferings, and even horrible deaths; just how abundant do you think their physical life is? Even those of us who are blessed with living in a pseudo-Christian nation do not experience a life constantly filled with good-time events. After all, Satan roams about this earth seeking to destroy all who are endeavoring to walk with Jesus. There is also the fact that we live in a fallen world where bad stuff just happens, thanks to the world being corrupted by its ruler: Satan. Most assuredly, Jesus does bring to the Christian an opportunity for a good life and the more truly yielded and obedient we are the greater the opportunity for blessings. Yet, we must acknowledge that we can neither escape experiencing the evils of this world nor can we avoid God’s testing the quality of our devotion by letting us experience reality. What is important, however, is that we do not let the hard times damage our faith … we must endure.
2. Spiritual Funk
It really does not matter if our suffering is the result of crap just happening, or it comes from our sin and slothfulness opening us up to an attack from Satan, or God testing us; the fact remains, suffering hardships sucks. Most assuredly, if we are the source of our suffering we need to fix the problem. There are those time, however, when crap just happens, and it is beyond our control to fix the problem. When this happens we can feel overwhelmed, and we may eventually let the situation dampen our spirit. Here then is the greatest danger. We may not allow ourselves to be defeated by the bad times; however, it is possible that the bad times will throw us into a spiritual funk. When we allow hard times to quench our spirit we have allowed hard times to damage our service to our Lord and Master. The most important aspect of endurance, for a Christian, is to maintain the right attitude of service in spite of the hard times.
Maintaining the right attitude of service during hard times is extremely difficult. Every Christian has probably encountered hard times, and these hard times have negatively impacted their spiritual enthusiasm. For example, teachers and preachers and especially pastors are very vulnerable to the ravages of a spiritual funk. When faced with a constant barrage of things like: people in the class stare off into space with the look of a stunned cow; or you are preaching your heart out and you notice a woman digging in her purse or a man cleaning his fingernails or someone staring out the window; and worst of all is working with a congregation to help them mature in Christ only to realize many are no more mature now than they were five years ago. Encountering this kind of thing Sunday after Sunday can wear on a person, and if we are not careful it will drive us into a spiritual funk. In my humble opinion, the most depressing aspect of ministry is dealing with kind and gentle people who are only physically in attendance … only the Lord knows where their spirit is. Of course, it is not just teachers and preachers and pastors who experience the Devils attack on our spirit. Satan and the evils of this world can attack us on the job, or in relationships, or in our health, or even in our family. When these attacks seem never ending our spiritual enthusiasm in negatively impacted and we can find ourselves in a spiritual funk … our endurance is being severely tested.
3. Enduring
We must realize that Satan is not always the direct source of hard times, which can drive us into a spiritual depression. If our actions or inactions are the source, then we need to wake up to reality; we need to get on our knees and seek help from our Lord and Master. On the other hand, in those times where our spiritual funk is unavoidable, we need to remember Jesus’ advice to those who have set out to serve Him. Jesus told us we have a hard road ahead of us. He told us that we will be like sheep in the midst of wolves; so we should be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. He warned us that things will not be easy, but we are to endure to the end. (Matthew 10:16-22) Jesus made it perfectly clear: we will experience hard times; they may just happen, they could be the result of our own mistakes, or perhaps God is testing us. Regardless of the source of our hard times, we must endure and not lose sight of service to Christ.
When we encounter hard times, which seem to drag on, it is imperative that we are so entrenched in our faith that we can endure. James said: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4) It is through endurance that we achieve perfection; but, without hard times there would be no endurance; therefore, we mush experience hard times to produce endurance … the working of which brings us to perfection. For example, if you wanted to be a cross-country runner but you only practiced on flat land you would fail as a cross country runner. If you are to successfully run cross-country you need to experience hills and other difficult terrain. It is only by experiencing and enduring hard times that you can improve your capabilities as a cross-country runner. It is the same way for a Christians. It is only through our experiencing and enduring hard times that we can work toward perfection and mature as Christians.
4. Aspects of Endurance
If we lived a life of constant health, wealth, and happiness we would become a weak and ineffective Christians: assuming we were somehow capable of maintaining our relationship with Jesus. Of course the need for enduring does not mean we adopt a persecuted-prophet perspective or conduct ourselves in such a zealot manner that we induce hardships. It does one no good to manufacture hardships so that they can practice endurance. The endurance Christ repeatedly urges Christians to demonstrate is our maintaining faith and service in the face of difficulties and opposition. We must remember that we are talking about endurance that leads to our achieving perfection, which brings us to the fact that we must fully understand the scriptural meaning of endure. To this end, let us examine a few facts about endurance.
a. Need for endurance. All true Christians are in a relationship with Jesus where we labor to mature through obedience to Jesus’ teaching and through fulfillment of our ministry of reconciliation. It is a tough mission and we have need of endurance, so that when we have done the will of God we may receive what is promised. (Hebrews 10:36) If we do not endure we do not receive what is promised.
b. Examples of endurance we can follow. We have the example of suffering and patience exhibited by the Old Testament prophets. (James 5:10-1) We can also look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who endured the cross so that we might live. (Hebrews 12:2) Then we have the example of the Apostles, and those in the early church, and those throughout history, and those brothers and sister suffering in distant lands today.
c. We need to remember that our endurance is being witnessed. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, … (Hebrews 12:1) We are not alone in our hardships. God and a multitude of spiritual beings know what we are going through and they are rooting for us.
d. We are to rejoice in the need for endurance. As strange as it sounds, we should be glad that we have an opportunity to endure hardships. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:1-5) Every hardship we endure should move us closer to being the kind of disciple Jesus wants us to be; and, the closer we get to Jesus the more peace and joy we will have in our life
e. We are to share the suffering of others. The body of Christ exists so that we do not have to experience suffering all by ourselves. We are to share one another’s suffering and through this sharing we enhance our ability to endure. We are to share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 2:3) This is another reason it is so vital that we belong to a fellowship of kindred souls who love and labor for one another.
f. We are encouraged to endure for our salvation. Few Christians understand how important it is to our salvation and our heavenly rewards for us remain in Christian faith and service to Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus is totally dependent on our love for Jesus; and, our love for Jesus is in direct proportion to our obedience to Jesus; and, our salvation is totally dependent on our relationship with Jesus.
Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (James 1:12)
You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)
At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. (Matthew 24:10-13)
Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. (1Timothy 4:16)
5. We must not fail to endure
Most assuredly Jesus has given us an abundant life; perhaps not exactly what the world calls abundant, but certainly abundant from a Christian perspective. Still, we must accept the fact we live in a fallen world ruled by Satan; and thus, we can neither escape experiencing the evils of this world nor can we avoid God’s testing the quality of our devotion by letting us experience reality. In all of this, the mark of a true Christian is the fact that we do not let the hard times damage our faith … we endure. For it is through our endurance that we sustain the hope of eternity in Jesus Christ.
Every Christian needs to remember that there is no turning back. Once we have set our hand to the plow in service to Christ we must endure the struggles and continue forward. (Luke 9:62) We need to remember that Israel was God’s chosen people but when they failed to obey they were broken off from the vine that is Jesus Christ. Now if God did not spare His chosen people when they rejected Jesus what do you think He will do to a gentile that does not bear fruit in keeping with repentance? He will cut off all those who do not continue in his kindness. (Romans 11:19-22) We all need to take care not to let there be in any of us an evil, unbelieving heart, which would lead us to fall away from the living God. Our salvation depends on our enduring hardships and holding onto our original confidence, firm to the end; (Hebrews 3:12-14), therefore, let us strengthen and encourage one another to endure the many tribulations we must face, if we are to enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)
There you have it: an abundant life does not negate the need for our exhibiting endurance. Endurance leads to Christian perfection and thus you cannot be a mature Christian without enduring hard times. And, in my opinion, you cannot build in gold, silver and precious stone without enduring hard times. I am of the belief that many will fail to enter into the kingdom of God for the lack of endurance, and some will enter into heaven naked and smoking like a singed chicken because their endurance was weak. (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)
