"Supplement your faith with... Endurance" Wednesday of Lent 3 — March 26, 2025
26. March 2025
Lent 3 Midweek
2 Peter 1:2-11 - Endurance
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pe 1:10–11)
This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.
Peter takes pains to speak first of the sufficiency of Christ’s saving gifts for His people. “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” Then, built on that foundation, Peter continues with the virtues that necessarily flow from the gifts of Christ, worked by the Spirit. “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue…” Faith in Christ's power to save and sanctify is the foundation, and the virtues of the Christian’s life follow as His gift.
All God-pleasing virtues are a gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter describes this given-to life in a series of virtues beginning with faith and ending with love. Faith in Christ is the foundation from which all the Christian virtues flow, and love is the culmination and “greatest” result of faith (1 Cor 13:13). Thus, Peter speaks of the sanctified life established and founded upon God’s grace in Christ.
Tonight, we focus on the virtue of endurance, ὑπομονή, translated as perseverance, patient endurance, or steadfastness. If you look at the sacred icons in our stained glass, you’ll find a visible representation in the back of an anchor and rope. You could also translate ὑπομονή as “hold fast.” Unlike self-control, which has only a handful of uses in the Scriptures, ὑπομονή or perseverance is used frequently in the LXX and thirty-two times in the New Testament. Don’t worry, we won’t read them all! In summary, it’s used in OT and NT consistently, referring to (1) before God: to wait on God, to cleave to God, and (2) before the world: to endure, stand fast, and bear patiently.
Compared to the philosophers who recognize the need to endure, the Scriptures again give not only the ethical mandate to resist the world but also the means to do so by remaining with God. We rest confident and hopeful in God’s promise of deliverance, waiting for what we know will come. Steadfastness is less about the individual but about the entire community (e.g., God’s Israel) waiting for God’s covenant to be fulfilled. The wicked abandon hope in God when they abandon the gathering around God’s Word in corporate worship. Without preaching and teaching, we fail to remain with God where He has promised to be.
Cleaving to God in Christ is essential for us to endure and bear patiently life in this world without being ashamed. The Scriptures never call the pious, righteous man to endure in the power of his own steadfastness. The only way to stand fast is to cleave to God, the result of waiting on God. All the secular philosophers, psychologists, and self-help gurus who call for courageous steadfastness but think you can do so from an inner ability are deceived. With confidence in God, who keeps His promises, the Christian is given a strong but quiet character of patience that waits and endures.
Job is one of the oldest and most notable examples of pious endurance. Be steadfast, ὑπομονή, is used thirteen times as a verb and once as a noun, encapsulating eight different Hebrew words. The book proclaims that man’s own power is not strong enough for perseverance (Job 6:11). It is not possible for man, especially the ungodly, to stand against God (9:4; 15:31; 22:21). God Himself shatters all vain, worldly, and human hope and expectation (14:19). But Job waits his whole life for God to intervene (14:13; 17:13). Like Job, it seems all is against us—loss of wealth and family, physical suffering, and then Satan and his ambassadors torment us with deceiving words and temptations to sin. Job mourns loss yet worships God, refusing to curse God despite the provocation of his wife (another Eve?) But God proved Himself true to Job and Satan, giving Job the kind of steadfastness that can endure even the loss of all. And thus, “a stronger than [the Strong Man] comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils” (Lk 11:22). Job belongs to the LORD and though all be lost, Job cannot be.
Jesus reinforces this understanding of endurance when He preaches that the Word given to ears that hear will yield a crop a hundredfold. The seed is the Word of God and when planted in “good soil,” He says these “are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience [ὑπομονή]” (Lk 8:15–16). As with Job, we must be given new and clean hearts (Psalm 51) where the Word of God takes root and grows, bearing abundant fruit (godly virtues!)
During Holy Week, Jesus spoke in the temple, pointing out “how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations” (Lk 21:5). But seeing them, He proclaimed, “These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.” So they asked Him, saying, “Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?” (Lk 21:6–7). To this question, He catechized those disciples of the terror and wrath that will come upon the world because of unbelief. By telling them in advance, He encourages them not to be terrified.
But these things He speaks of are Job-level devastation. Nation against nation. Earthquakes. Famines. Pestilences. Fearful sights and great signs. And for those who believe in Christ, imprisonment and worse. But again, remain steadfast and expect to confess Christ, your only hope and future. And He also tells them not to worry about what to say, because “I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist” (Lk 21:15). If the threat of imprisonment and death is not enough, there will be betrayal from parents and brothers, relatives and friends. “You will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost” (Luke 21:17). It sounds like Job all over again! But then a Word of encouragement again, “By the endurance you have, you will gain [or possess] your lives/souls” (Lk 21:19).
As we saw in our previous weeks’ virtues, endurance/steadfastness/perseverance appears in Paul’s lists in Romans (2:7; 5:3-4), 1 Timothy (6:11), 2 Timothy (3:10), and Titus (2:2). His use all pertain to remaining with Christ in the face of worldly evil. However, let’s consider ὑπομονή as it is the frequent encouraging word in St. John’s Apocalypse. In John’s heavenly vision, He repeats the need for endurance in the faith, just like Peter does today, “Add to your faith…knowledge…self-control…perseverance.”
Hear the proclamation of the Spirit: “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary” (Rev 2:2-3).
Or, “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, […] Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’ (Re 3:7–13).
Referring to Leviathan rising up out of the sea, John sees and reveals that “he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
But never can John be left without encouragement. Like Jesus says, “See, I have told you all things beforehand.” Or as John then says, “If anyone has an ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (Re 13:5–10). Again, terrible things may happen to you. Even the Church of God seems to have been overrun by the blasphemies of the Sea Serpent. But be strong and courageous, steadfast and immovable, trusting in the promises of Christ.
Thus, in the very next chapter, we are given to see this steadfastness in God find its fulfillment. “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” […] Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them” (Re 14:6–14).
And who appears after Babylon falls and Beast is destroyed? Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, coming on a white cloud, a golden crown, and a sharp sickle, reaping the earth of the harvest, you His saints! Thus, we rest confident and hopeful in God’s promise of deliverance, waiting for what we know will come. Steadfastness is about the entire community (e.g., God’s Israel) waiting for God’s covenant to be fulfilled. Cleaving to God in Christ is essential for us to endure and bear patiently life in this world without being ashamed. The Scriptures never call the pious, righteous man to endure in the power of his own steadfastness. The only way to stand fast is to cleave to God, the result of waiting on God.
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pe 1:10–11)
This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.
Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin
