Lee Moses
Salvation is not a once-and-for-all event. Although Jesus at the cross paid the price necessary for the salvation of every sinner past, present, and future (Heb. 2:9; 9:15; 1 John 2:2), not all will accept that gift He purchased (Matt. 22:1-14; Luke 13:23-27). And even among those who have been saved through their belief of and obedience to the Gospel (Rom. 1:16; 6:17), not all will remain saved. Crucial to securing one’s final salvation is patience. This is why Christians are admonished, “Giving all diligence, add…to temperance patience” (2 Pet. 1:5-6).
What is meant by “patience”? The common twenty-first century understanding of the word associates it with one’s ability to wait in a long line, or for a long time at the doctor’s office, without losing his cool. As a modern dictionary defines patience, “The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset” (New Oxford American Dictionary). So, we typically associate patience with “passive resignation.” However, the patience of which Peter wrote is not only passive.
The word Peter used in the original (ὑπομονή) is defined as “the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty,” with possible translations including “patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance” (Bauer, et al. 1039). This attribute is what an athlete needs to finish a long-distance race (cf. Heb. 12:1). This attribute is what someone suffering hardship needs to bear up under the strain and make it through the hardship (cf. 2 Thess. 1:4). And this endurance, this fortitude, this persistence, is the patience a Christian will need if he is to secure his final salvation: “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Heb. 10:36).
The Profitability of Patience
Moses was able to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and through a 40-year wilderness march to the promised land of Canaan. How? “For he endured, as seeing him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:27).
No man ever accomplished more with his life than did Jesus. And He gave a crucial reason for that when He prayed to the Father, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4, emph. LM).
Paul wrote of numerous once-faithful Christians who had fallen along the way. He at one time had a faithful companion and fellow-laborer named Demas. Demas assisted Paul in the Lord’s work even while Paul was imprisoned in Rome (Col. 4:14; Phile. 24). It was of this man that Paul a few years later wrote among the saddest words ever written: “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica” (2 Tim. 4:10). To the Galatians, Paul wrote, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” (Gal. 5:7). Similarly, Christians today can expect hindrances that would impede their continued obedience to the truth.
It is not easy for anyone to live a faithful life to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why Scripture likens the Christian life to a prolonged boxing match or to a long-distance race (1 Cor. 9:24-26). Jesus spoke of the Christian life as bearing a cross daily (Luke 9:23). Christians live in a world that tries to conform people to its anti-Christian mold (Rom. 12:2) and hates those who refuse (John 15:19). Christians must live in “this present evil world” (Gal. 1:4). When iniquity abounds, it is easy for a Christian’s once-fervent love to wax cold (Matt. 24:12). It is easy to grow weary in well-doing (Gal. 6:9).
The need for patience does not diminish as time goes by; if anything, that need only grows. Paul wrote, “That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience” (Tit. 2:2, emph. LM). One might view endurance as a trait more expected in young men. But older Christian men are to be “sound in patience,” or “healthy in [spiritual] endurance.” This is essential for anyone of any age to be accomplishing with his life what he could and should.
Every human being desires to lead a worthwhile, productive life. But whatever one’s life may yield, it will be hollow if it does not include fruits to the glory of God (Eccl. 12:13). Those who have been baptized into Christ and into his church are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). When Jesus illustrated as “good soil” those who would become Christians and live faithful Christian lives, He said, “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). Observe that to bring forth fruit—the product of a faithful Christian life—requires Biblical patience.
Patience for Persecution
In his first epistle, Peter had warned of the inevitability of persecution for the Christian. The recipients of that epistle were already suffering: “Ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations [‘trials,’ ASV]” (1 Pet.1:6). Peter instructed them, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (4:12). Christians today should not be surprised when persecution comes their way. Although the types and degrees of persecution may vary, it is part of the Christian experience of every place and time. As Paul and Barnabas “confirm[ed] the souls of the disciples” in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia, they “exhort[ed] them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22, emph. LM). Paul affirmed, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). As Dub McClish aptly points out, “A wicked world will always see to it that those who are determined to live as God directs will suffer for it” (198).
Today, believing and practicing Christianity in such places as Afghanistan or North Korea immediately places one’s life at risk. In the western world, the persecution may be far more subtle; but in some ways that can make it all the more insidious. When Peter felt others pressuring him to deny Christ, it is not clear that his life was in any imminent danger. Yet as he made himself comfortable among those unfavorable to Christ, their probing questions proved more than he could take (Mark 14:54, 66-72). Similarly, we may find ourselves surrounded by scorners who fail to see any evidence for God in His creation (2 Pet. 3:3-4; cf. Rom. 1:19-20). We may find ourselves surrounded by those who cannot grasp the notion of keeping oneself pure before God, and can only respond with insults and derision (1 Pet. 4:4). We may find ourselves surrounded by religiously-minded people who take great offense at the notion that salvation is only found in one church, the church of Christ (Acts 2:47; Eph. 5:23). Their ridicule and derisive statements—or, in some cases, even their honest questions—might prove more than we can stand.
Jesus made clear that those who fail to endure such trials are poor spiritual soil, who ultimately will fail to bring forth fruit acceptable to God: “They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away” (Luke 8:13). To endure whatever persecution comes our way obviously demands endurance, Biblical patience.
The apostle Paul suffered terrible persecution: multiple and prolonged imprisonments, floggings, and even stonings, just to name a few (2 Cor. 11:23-27).
Despite such persecution, he could avow, “We faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). At the end of his life, again in prison, abandoned by Demas and other close associates, and facing certain death, he could say with confidence, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7). Paul provides a stellar example of Biblical patience through persecution: “But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses” (2 Cor. 6:4). All Christians will need Biblical patience if they are to please God through the persecution they will inevitably face.
The Path to Patience
How does one acquire this Biblical patience under consideration? Peter wrote, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience…” (2 Pet. 1:5-6). Each attribute “adds” to the next. All these attributes preceding patience contribute to patience.
Particularly is this true when those attributes are exercised in the face of the aforementioned persecution and other trials. Paul wrote, “We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience” (Rom. 5:3). James similarly wrote, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations [or ‘trials,’ LM]; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience” (Jam. 1:2-3). Those trials can build our spiritual endurance, which makes perfect sense. An athlete in training will put himself through mental and physical agony that he may be able to endure the rigors of the competition for which he is training. If he thinks he is going to prepare himself adequately without challenging himself or pushing his body, he is deceiving himself. This is a large part of why Christians can “count it all joy” when trials come their way. It will make them better prepared for whatever further trials lie ahead, especially when they have exercised the temperance, or self-control, that Peter enjoins.
Knowledge is another of the prerequisites to patience that Peter listed. When a Christian knows the teachings of Scripture, he understands the need for patience. He understands that he will face trials and temptations. Jesus told His apostles, “These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended [‘be caused to stumble,’ ASV]. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service” (John 16:1-2). Jesus told them that terrible things would happen to them. But this knowledge could prevent them from stumbling when those things came to pass. When we expect difficulty, we likewise can be better prepared for it; we will not “think it strange” when fiery trial comes our way.
A knowledge of Biblical history can provide invaluable in building steadfastness against trials. As James was exhorting his readers to patience, he said, “Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job…” (Jam. 5:10-11). One could note numerous examples to which a Christian can turn. Consider Elijah’s battles against wicked King Ahab, Jezebel, and the prophets of Baal. We earlier noted that Paul provides an example of Biblical patience. Biblical history also provides examples of failures in patience, including the Israelites of Moses’ generation who fell in the wilderness. And we are told, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:11-12).
Of course, knowledge works hand-in-hand with faith, another of Peter’s prerequisites of patience. When one knows the character of God, one knows he can put his absolute trust in Him. So if God has promised something worthwhile for our efforts, a Christian life is worth living. We have incentive for patience. But what has He promised?
The Promise for the Patient
There is good reason behind every godly thought, word, and action in a Christian’s life. In addition to the reason that it is right, in addition to the reason that it is what God requires, is the reason that the Christian will be rewarded. “[God] will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life” (Rom. 2:6-7). What reward could be greater than eternal life? Christians live and labor “in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Tit. 1:2). But regardless of how many good deeds a Christian may have done in his life, there is something a Christian needs to receive that promise: “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Heb. 10:36).
But that promise helps produce patience. Faithful Christians have a “patience of hope”; that is, a patience that comes as a result of their hope (1 Thess. 1:3).
“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Heb. 4:11). “And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (6:11-12).
Works Cited
Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
McClish, Dub. “The Christian and Persecution.” Studies in 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude. Ed. Dub McClish. Denton, TX: Valid Publications, 1998. 198-207.
