If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that life isn’t easy. We’re guaranteed to go through troubles at some point in our lives, even if we’re not experiencing troubles now.
Even though our culture lines up against us at every turn, here in the West, we don’t have to worry about the type of persecution that Jesus’ early followers suffered at the hands of the Roman Empire. But even if things do get worse for Western Christians, we have Jesus’ words to cling to.
In the Gospels, Jesus’ disciples pointed out how magnificent the temple in Jerusalem looked. Jesus took that opportunity to talk about the difficulties that Jewish and Christian people would face. We refer to this teaching from Jesus, which we can read in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as the Olivet Discourse because Matthew and Mark state that Jesus taught the disciples from the Mount of Olives.
The discourse is prophetic in nature, and some scholars believe that Jesus was predicting the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Other scholars say that Jesus was talking about the end times, Some others believe that some of what Jesus was talking about in the discourse referred to the destruction of Jerusalem, and other statements were about the distant future.
Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple, which did take place in 70 AD. He also mentions wars, famines, and more destruction to take place in Jerusalem. But He also gave His followers some reassurance and encouragement.
“But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives,” Jesus said in Luke 21:18-19 (ESV).
Naturally, Jesus didn’t promise that none of His followers would lose their physical lives; even we know that all too well today. Instead, He gave His followers — then and now — the assurance that their eternity — and ours — is secure.
Related: Sunday Thoughts: Past, Present, and Future in the Sermon on the Mount
“His pledge refers to ultimate destruction, that believers will not suffer the final condemnation of hell but that they will live on past the grave and one day receive resurrected bodies to live with God forever in a new heaven and earth (Rev. 20:1–22:5),” states a devotion I recently read about these verses. “This promise, of course, extends not only to the earliest followers of Jesus but also to every professing Christian until Jesus makes His final return to consummate His kingdom.”
Jesus promised them and us eternal life provided we endure in our commitment to Him no matter what we go through. We are to not give up, even when times are at their darkest or worst.
The devotion continues:
True saving faith in Jesus involves not a one-time decision for Christ but daily trusting in Him and bearing the fruits of repentance. We cannot earn our salvation, and we do not merit even the faith by which we receive Jesus and eternal life (Eph. 2:8–9). Still, we have a role to play in persevering in faith in that we are responsible to continually believe in Jesus. All those who have exercised true saving faith will persevere, for redemption cannot be lost. God works in His children to will and to work out their salvation, but only those who persevere to the end have exercised true saving faith (John 6:37; Phil. 2:12–13).
Endurance is a theme that we see throughout the New Testament. When Jesus sent the 12 Apostles out to spread the Gospel from town to town, He told them that “the one who endures to the end will be saved,” (Matthew 10:22, ESV). The Apostle Paul told the Roman church how “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us,” (Romans 5:3-5, ESV).
The author of Hebrews reminded his readers:
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 10:36-39 (ESV)
And Jesus sent a message to the church in Smyrna through the Apostle John, encouraging them to “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life,” (Revelation 2:10, ESV).
If we’re truly faithful to Jesus, we’re in it for the long haul. Times can get tough; we can deal with loss, sickness, rejection, and even persecution. But don’t give up because our endurance and faithfulness to Him will come with an eternal reward — and it'll be worth it all.
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