Endurance is Required

“But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,

“’Yet a little while,

    and the coming one will come and will not delay;

but my righteous one shall live by faith,

    and if he shrinks back,

my soul has no pleasure in him.’

“But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” (Hebrews 10:32-39 ESV)

The writer of the book of Hebrews, believed by many to be the apostle Paul, was writing to those who professed faith in Jesus Christ in a time period when Jewish followers of Christ were transitioning from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant which the Lord now had with his people Israel (now both Jew and Gentile who put their faith in Christ Jesus). So he was explaining to them how the New Covenant was not like the Old Covenant, but how God’s moral laws and his requirements for eternal life with God have not changed.

And so, while he was explaining the New Covenant versus the Old Covenant, he was also reinforcing the truth of the gospel which is that by faith in Jesus Christ we must be crucified with Christ in death to sin and now follow our Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands in holy living. And he gave all sorts of strong encouragements and warnings against falling away and drifting and wandering from the truth of the gospel at the risk of losing the salvation that they believed that they had attained by faith in Jesus Christ.

For he explained to them that genuine faith in the Lord Jesus results in obedience to our Lord in holy living but that disobedience to and rebellion against the Lord will result in facing the wrath of God, instead. And he used the example of the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness and who disobeyed the Lord and who walked in sin and in idolatry and in rebellion against the Lord, and how they were killed and how they did not enter into God’s eternal rest. For faith = obedience, and disobedience = unbelief.

But the Christian life has its ups and downs, and no matter how faithful to our Lord we may be, we are still human beings. And we will not be made perfect (complete) until Jesus returns and he takes his faithful bride to be with him for eternity. For only then will our salvation be complete and will we inherit eternal life with God, but only if we remain faithful to our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands and in holy living and not in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord. But we are a work in progress.

And so Paul is speaking still to all of us today who profess faith in Jesus Christ that we be careful that we don’t drift away from our pure devotion to the Lord and that we don’t rebel, like many of the Israelites did in the wilderness, and that we don’t fall back into sinful lifestyles and forget that we were bought back for God (redeemed) out of our lives of slavery to sin by the blood of Christ shed on that cross. And this is so that we will now follow our Lord in obedience, and so that we will honor him with how we live our lives.

But because we are humans, and we still live in flesh bodies, and because if we are genuine followers of Christ we will be hated and persecuted and cast aside as unwanted, and so we may get discouraged, we are being encouraged here to not lose heart, and to not lose faith just because life got so much harder. We must keep persevering. We must keep on keeping on in our walks of faith and in obedience to our Lord, and we must guard against falling back into our old ways of the flesh.

So, just because life has gotten much harder, and perhaps we are facing many obstacles in our way, or many persecutions, or many sufferings and trials and tribulations, we are not to lose heart, and we must not give up the fight. And we should not let other people nor our circumstances dictate for us how we are going to live. For Jesus never promised us that the Christian life would be easy and free from trials and tribulations and persecutions. In fact, he promised us the opposite of that if we follow him in obedience.

Therefore, we need to have God’s perspective on life, and we need to accept that the trials and tribulations that we face in this life are ultimately for our good, to teach us perseverance and endurance, and to strengthen us in our walks of faith and in obedience to our Lord. And they are given to us to test the genuineness of our faith, for if our faith is weak or not genuine at all, we will not survive the onslaughts of the enemy against us, but we will most likely fail, and perhaps give up altogether, for we will conclude it is too hard.

So, don’t let your circumstances or how other people treat you determine who you will become and dictate for you how you should live your life. Surrender your all to Jesus Christ, deny self, die daily to sin, and follow the Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands, regardless of how you are treated in return, and regardless of the trials and tribulations which will come to test you. For great will be your reward in heaven. But if you shrink back, and you choose your sin over obedience to Christ, you will face the wrath of God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Reach Out to Jesus

By Ralph Carmichael

Is your burden heavy as you bear it all alone?

Does the road you travel harbor danger yet unknown?

Are you growing weary in the struggle of it all?

Jesus will help you when on His name you call.

Is the life you're living filled with sorrow and despair?

Does the future press you with its worry and its care?

Are you tired and friendless, have you almost lost your way?

Jesus will help you, just come to Him today.

He is always there, hearing every prayer, faithful and true,

Walking by our side, in His love we hide all the day thru.

When you get discouraged, just remember what to do.

Reach out to Jesus, He's reaching out to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43bKx6sRL9M

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