To endure is to bear patiently whatever the revolving years may bring us. It is to accept quietly and cheerfully the intractable elements of life. It is to pass through difficult or tragic hours free from any embittering of spirit, for to grow bitter is always to be beaten. We say “what can’t be cured must be endured” — but that is not the endurance of the Scriptures. Such endurance is a joyless thing. Battling the current pandemic, losing jobs, a collapsing world economy, undergoing quarantine, treating patients, enduring the scorching sun in a face mask — none of it is a joyful experience.
The endurance the Bible speaks of is of a happier character. Paul and Silas, in the prison at Philippi, did not accept things in a joyless way. They were happy; there was joy within their hearts; they sang so loudly that the prisoners heard them. And that is the endurance of the Scripture: the bearing of things in a happy kind of fashion — an acceptance with a note of triumph in it.
Let us look at the sources of this endurance in the Bible.
Faith
A burning and bright faith within the heart. That is the thought in the apostle’s mind when he tells us to take the shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16). A shield is not a weapon of offence. It is different from a sword or spear. A shield is a protective piece of armour. It guards the soldier amid blows and striking arrows from the enemy.
And Paul means that if we are to be guarded amid the blows and arrows of life, there must be radiant faith within our hearts. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Faith finds the soul of goodness in all things.
Faith is one great secret of endurance.
Love
For love endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7). Wherever there is love within the heart there is the power to endure. Love is what will cause husbands and wives to bear with one another’s weaknesses. Love is what will make us delete all records of wrongs done to us.
God is patient. He is patient because He loves. He bears with and pardons us hundreds of thousands of times, and endures our folly and our shame, just because His love endures forever. Love is one great secret of endurance, and our Lord empowers His children to endure by the new love He rekindles in our hearts. He shows us the true nature of God. He reveals to us how unlovable we were, yet He still loved us (Romans 5:8). He sends into our hearts His gracious Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22). What hatred or indifference can love not endure? Love endures all things.
Vision
Moses endured as seeing Him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27). To see the invisible when skies are dark is always to have the power to win through. Every inventor, every explorer, every artist wrestling with his dreams, endures as seeing the invisible. Never was there endurance like the Master’s. It was radiant with peace and joy. It did not fade even in Gethsemane. It was equal to the agony of Calvary. And at the back of it, from first to last, inspiring and sustaining it, was the clear vision of His Father: redemption.
We too can practise the same. We can do it when life is very difficult. We can do it when the way is dark. We can do it when we cannot understand. And doing it, we come to be so sure that:
He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Matthew 24:13
