Part 4 of 7
While God’s redemptive faithfulness is expressed through His covenants, our response of faithfulness is expressed in the Scriptures through perseverance. We are said to be faithful when we have persevered. If we don’t persevere, we’ll eventually break our covenant with God. Consider 2 Peter 1.3-9.
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance[1]; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins[2]
Let’s note first that it is God’s divine power[3] at work within us that gives us all we need for a godly life. Without this power, we’re not going to be able to live out our part of a covenantal relationship with Him or persevere to the extent needed (which I’ll discuss in a few moments). This power is given to us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3.16) and helps us attain all steadfastness and patience (Colossians 1.11). It is His power which will enable us to persevere in the midst of significant trials or opposition. We will not be able to persevere as God intends simply through self-reliance. God’s power is the only way we will be able to persevere. Keep this in mind as you read through this section.
Perseverance is about growth and increase as well as “staying the course” under stress, opposition, affliction, and/or persecution. One increases in character as one endures suffering. Perseverance is learned over time and cannot be learned quickly.
Colossians 1.20-22 says.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. [4]
Notice here that Christ’s ability to present us to God as “holy and blameless and above reproach” is conditioned on our continuance “in the faith”, being “stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel.”
In the Bible, perseverance is “steadfast, unmovable” (1 Corinthians 15.58) and is something we are called to pursue (1 Timothy 6.11). Perseverance is associated with being patient during afflictions (Revelation 13.10, Romans 5.3-4[5], 12.12). Trusting in the Lord and perseverance are associated in Psalm 26.1, 57.7, 108.1 and 112.7. Older folks are to be sound in faith, love, and perseverance (Titus 2.2), which lends credence to the notion that perseverance is learned over time. Those who are described as “good” soil in Luke 8 will produce a crop a hundred times more than what was sown because they persevered (Luke 8.15).
Perseverance is associated with victory and having authority over the nations (this is a reference to our participation in the divine council in the new heaven and the new earth) in Revelation 2.26. Eternal life is promised to those who persevere (Romans 2.7).
Perseverance is the persistence to endure suffering. Believers will suffer for their faith (Philippians 1.29) but through this suffering, we will gain more of Christ (Philippians 3.8) and will grow in perseverance (James 2.4). If Christ was called to suffer so that He could be perfected (Hebrews 2.9-10), then His disciples should expect similar in their own lives as part of God’s preparation for us to reign with Him in eternity.
The idea of overcoming[6] is closely associated with perseverance in the Bible. In the Johannine literature, this word group is sometimes translated as patient endurance.[7] This is more evident in Revelation, where we find God rewarding those who “overcome” (the more recent NIV translation uses the English word “victorious”) with rewards in heaven.
In the letters to the seven churches (Revelation chapters 2 and 3), we find God asking those church members to face into their sin and “overcome” both their sin and persecution. He tells them (and us too) that if we overcome, we will be given significant rewards, such as.
- Eat from the tree of life (2.7)
- Will not be hurt by the second death (2.11)
- Given some of the hidden manna, a white stone with a new name known only to us as individuals (2.17)
- Authority over the nations and the morning star (2.26-27)
- Clothed in white garments and God’s promise to not erase our name from the book of life. Furthermore, God will confess our name before God and His angels[8] (3.5)
- God’s name will be written on us and we will be made a pillar in the temple of God (3.12)
- Be granted the right to sit down with God on His throne (3.21)
I will readily grant that these rewards seem surreal and odd. But in heaven, they must be important. These rewards are connected to our faithfulness and perseverance in the face of opposition, temptation, and persecution until the end of our lives, when God can say that we have overcome.[9]
Hence, perseverance is developed through suffering and trials. Consider these two passages:
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.[10]
and
But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.[11]
The trials of various kinds mean exactly that: some trials are highly difficult, some are not. Some trials are short in duration, some last for years. Some trials are a result of our own words and actions, some are not. Some trials are financial, some are not. Some trials attack our faith and cause us to make costly, personal decisions in order to remain true to Christ. Some do not. Some trials are primarily a spiritual battle. Some are not. As you can discern, trials come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common: they test our faith.
So, the obvious question is this: how do these trials test our faith? I believe they test our faith in at least these two ways.
First, our faith is tested when our experiences in the trial doesn’t match what we believe about God. The temptation is to change our beliefs in God in order to align with our experience rather than staying faithful to God in our beliefs while not being able to fully explain what we have experienced. Ravi Zacharius writes:
The abundance of evil, and the extent to which so much of it seems apparently gratuitous, compels the thinking person to question the coexistence of a good God with a world of evil. Which of us has not looked at a deformed child, swallowed hard with pity, and pondered the purpose behind it? Which of us has seen a mother who has lost her child and not wondered why? To live is to sooner or later experience or witness pain and suffering. To reason is to inevitably ponder “Why?” I do not know of any question that is asked more, nor of any obstacle to belief that is more persistent.[12]
Suffering and trials will always temp us to doubt God. This is why understanding our world from God’s viewpoint – which is given to us in the Bible – is visceral to staying true to God and persevering to the end.
Secondly, connected to this mismatch between experience and belief is what I call the notion of “grinding”: usually, these types of trials consume us. They are pivotal in our life journey. The net effect is that we either allow God to grind away those parts of us – including deeply held, but flawed beliefs – to make us more like Christ or we hold onto those parts of us and, in effect, rebuff God’s attempts to “perfect” us.
This is the entire point of the Hebrews passage I quoted above: if God had to put Christ through suffering in order to perfect Him, why would we think that God won’t need to do this with us? The answer is obvious: He does need to do this with us and will do it in order to develop perseverance and maturity in us.
Now, two other points. First, if you don’t know your Bible well, then you’ll easily be misled into false beliefs by your trials. This is where our culture’s notion that truth, as a concept, is inherently relative is so dangerous. Our culture believes that what is true for you may not be true for me. The Bible’s concept of truth is that it is objective, knowable and does not vary from person to person even though experiences do vary.
People who are lazy in studying the Bible are people who are easily misled. They will alter their beliefs to the point of being out of alignment with the Bible and yet they will think they believe the truth. In the end, they generally fall away from the faith.
Secondly, if you don’t know God well, then you’ll have a strong tendency to develop wrong beliefs about Him which are out of character for His heart. You’ll assign Him motives, intentions and/or emotions which are clearly contradictory to how He has presented Himself in the Bible. Later on in this book, we’ll learn that this was the problem of the wicked servant in Matthew 25.14-30 in the parable of the talents. He had a wrong view of his master’s persona and intentions, so he couldn’t align his actions with his master’s instructions. In the end, he was thrown out of his master’s presence.
Perseverance is about successfully passing these tests of our faith by remaining true to God’s word and true to what He has revealed about Himself in His word.
If God has called you to own and run a business, then He has called you to live for Him in the marketplace. As part of our faithfulness to God and developing perseverance, God will allow trials to come into your life through your business.
At times, you will find yourself working hard and feeling like you’re not getting anywhere. This is when you must endure. Perhaps there will be a major illness in your family. This is when you need to keep going, trusting in God. Perhaps your customer concentration became too dependent on one customer and they chose another vendor. Perseverance is needed. Perhaps a new technology threatens one of your core products. Not only is innovation needed, but also perseverance. Maybe one of your investors or partners changes in some way and is no longer a good “fit” for your business and now you’re faced with what could be compared to a nasty divorce. You’ll need to persist. Perhaps an employee will embezzle enough money to put your entire business in jeopardy. You’ll need to forgive and overcome your desire for vengeance. Maybe a key employee will take your IP and start their own, competitive business. You’ll need patient endurance. Perhaps you’ll face bankruptcy. Getting back to profitability—right-sizing your business—will require endurance and persistence.
Perseverance is the only way you’ll be found faithful by God.
[1] ὑπομονή steadfast endurance. The sense of this word is the inward fortitude necessary to withstand hardship or stress. From μένω to remain, to stay, to reside and the preposition ὑπο, under or by. Hence, to remain under.
[2] NIV 2 Peter 1.3–9
[3] The gospel has power for those who believe (1 Corinthians 1.18). Our faith rests in the power of God, not the wisdom of men (1 Corinthians 2.5) and God will raise us up through His power (1 Corinthians 6.14). The weapons we fight with are powerful (2 Corinthians 10.4) and God’s power is perfected in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12.9). His indwelling power (Ephesians 3.16) will do more through us than we ever thought possible (Ephesians 3.20). We can know the same power which resurrected Christ from the dead (Philippians 3.10) and this same power will transform our bodies in eternity (Philippians 3.21). God has given us the spirit of power (2 Timothy 1.7) and we endure suffering under the power of God (2 Timothy 1.8). All things are upheld by God’s powerful word (Hebrews 1.3) and God has rendered powerless the one who held the power of death (Hebrews 2.14).
[4] ESV Colossians 1:21–23
[5] The verse here says “…because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character (NIV)…”. What is interesting to me is that suffering, when properly endured, will building a person character (δοκιμή, the quality of being proven to be dependable or reliable.) If you’re interviewing candidates and you need someone reliable, listen for times when they have endured suffering and grew because of that suffering.
[6] vικάω to defeat; to win a victory over as in a contest or military conflict
[7] ὑπομονή, remain under; the power to withstand hardship or stress, especially the inward fortitude necessary. NIV and ESV: patient endurance. NASB perseverance. LEB steadfastness
[8] Confessing a name before others is important to God. This reminds me of Matthew 10.32 where Christ said that everyone who “confesses me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven” (NASB). See Luke 12.8 as well. It is so important that our salvation is dependent on such confession: “…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 7.16 (NASB).
[9] When I was growing up, I was taught that salvation was a “once-saved, always saved” theology. We called it “eternal security”: you couldn’t lose your salvation simply because you sinned – even if you sinned greatly. Once you were saved, you were saved. Your eternal destiny was secure. In this context, it didn’t matter what you did after accepting Christ. there was no sin or combination of sins that could cause you to lose or give up your salvation. Once you were saved, you were always saved, period. For those who did live a life of sin after confessing that “Jesus is Lord”, then we were taught that their confession wasn’t real. It must have been fake because their lives, after confession, didn’t align with their confession.As I have studied the New Testament, I’ve come to think differently about this idea of eternal security. I no longer believe this view of security is accurate. It doesn’t account for the sheer number of conditional clauses which describe our salvation as connected to our perseverance. It doesn’t account for the seven times in Revelation where we’re told to overcome if we expect to receive rewards in heaven. Hence, what I have come to embrace is different: God preserves as we persevere. I think this phrase more accurately summarizes the balance between God’s activity in our hearts and lives with our responsibility to be faithful to Him.
[10] ESV James 1:2–4
[11] NASB Hebrews 2:9–10
[12] Zacharias, Ravi.Cries of The Heart (p. 64). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
