Endurance:
When going through a particularly challenging season, a well meaning friend advised me to ‘hang in there, it will all be alright’. Recoiling from this platitude, I wondered how he knew that the difficulty I was facing would turn out well - we have no guarantee that sickness will flee, that grief will subside, that the circumstance will change. Our Christian ancestors were very familiar with the call to endure, to persevere in faith. The word perseverance is found in many of the New Testament letters. The word may also be translated “steadfastness” or “endurance” and refers to the ability to withstand temptation, hardship, or persecution. For the Christian the basis of perseverance was not personal strength but trust and hope in the Lord. It’s not ‘hang in there’ but rather ‘abide in Christ’. And we do this because of our perspective of the fleeting nature of this life, compared with the vastness and blessings of eternity with Jesus.
The writer to the Hebrews says this:
‘A huge cloud of witnesses is all around us. So let us throw off everything that stands in our way. Let us throw off any sin that holds on to us so tightly. Let us keep on running the race marked out for us. Let us keep looking to Jesus. He is the author of faith. He also makes it perfect. He paid no attention to the shame of the cross. He suffered there because of the joy he was looking forward to. Then he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He put up with attacks from sinners. So think about him. Then you won’t get tired. You won’t lose hope. (Heb 12:1–3).
Commenting on this passage, Kent Hughes paints a vivid picture:
‘The scene is a great coliseum. The occasion is a footrace, a distance event. The contestants include the author and the members of his flock and, by mutual faith, us. The cloud of witnesses that fills the stadium are the great spiritual athletes of the past, Hall of Faith members—every one a Gold Medal winner. They are not live witnesses of the event, but “witnesses” by the fact that their past lives bear witness to monumental, persevering faith that, like Abel’s faith, “still speaks, even though he is dead” (Heb 11:4).
Everywhere one looks in the vast arena, there is a kind face nodding encouragement, saying, “I did it, and so can you. You can do it. You have my life for it!” Moses strokes his long beard and smiles. Rahab winks and gives a royal wave…’ (Hughes, R. K. (1993). Hebrews: an anchor for the soul (Vol. 2, p. 158). Crossway Books.).
G. Guthrie expands on the call to diligent faithfulness and discipline:
‘The writer calls his hearers to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” An ancient writer could use the word onkos to mean “mass, weight, heaviness, bodily fat,” or more positively, “fullness.” In line with the sports imagery of verse 1, the word could refer to a runner stripping of burdensome clothing or losing excess bodily fat. For success one had to get rid of anything that would “hinder breathing or the free movement of the limbs.”4 So the Christ-follower must lay aside “everything that hinders” if the faith race is to be run triumphantly. More specifically, we are to get rid of the “entangling sin”. (Guthrie, G. (1998). Hebrews (p. 397). Zondervan Publishing House)
Are we able to identify an ‘entangling sin’ in our lives? What action do we need to take?