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<...Go back

Can you explain perseverance?


Introduction. I believe the noun "perseverance" is only found once in the King James. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Eph. 6: 18). The Greek word translated perseverance (proskarteresis) means endurance and continuance.

The need to continue. The scriptures are replete with teaching concerning continuing in the will of the Lord. James wrote: "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed" (Jas. 1: 25). Paul wrote to the Colossians about being presented "holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight" (Col. 1: 22). Paul then supplies a condition: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel..." (Col. 1: 23).

What happens to those who do not continue? Jesus said, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9: 62). Peter said thus regarding those who turn back and do not continue: "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness..." (2 Pet. 2: 21). He proceeded to compare them to "the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire" (vs. 22).

Conclusion. The scriptures teach that one is either spiritually advancing or in a state of regressing (Heb. 5: 11-14). The writer of Hebrews compares those who do not persevere to "thorns and briers" that are "rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned" (Heb. 6: 8). Peter enjoined "adding" the virtues mentioned in 2 Peter 1: 5-10. By "doing these things," Peter explained, "ye shall never fall" (2 Pet. 1: 10). God's blessings are for those who endure, "He that endureth to the end shall be saved" (Matt. 10: 22; Heb. 10: 38, 39).
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