Order of Operation: Perseverance

As discussed previously, 2 Peter gives an order to follow after coming to the Faith. So far, we’ve established that the first step is to make a conscious effort to do good and avoid evil. After that, we must look to the Bible to gain greater knowledge and understanding of what is good, so we can refine our efforts towards that goal. In the last message, we identified self-control as the trait that we need to develop to ensure that we are able to consistently and continuously avoid the things that can inhibit our abilities to do good. The next step is to add perseverance to our self-control. Perseverance is defined as steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.[1] The Bible tells us that perseverance is necessary.

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. – Hebrews 10:36

Life throws a lot at us. After working to develop self-control, many of the smaller temptations will be easy for us to avoid, and they will barely register as obstacles along our path to righteousness. However, the small temptations are not the only things we will encounter. There will be times when we find ourselves in dire situations where doing the wrong thing will give us a way out. There will be times where we are at low points and we feel like doing the wrong thing is the way to rise above our problems. Sometimes we’ll find ourselves in positions where doing the right thing might even hurt us in the short run. At those times, our self-control will truly be tested, but those are precisely the times when we must be most committed to doing God’s will. That is what perseverance is all about. Persevering through all of our hardships is another of those things that sounds easier said than done. If it puts the self-control we have developed to the test, how can we be strong enough to still do the right thing? That’s the good thing about perseverance, the more we persevere, the easier it is to persevere. As we learn to push through the small things, we are equipping ourselves to push through the bigger things. Perseverance is something that grows with use, so those hardships that we face actually make us better and stronger in our commitment to God’s way. As Paul told the church in Rome:

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance – Romans 5:3

The same is also true when we find ourselves in crises of faith. Remaining steadfast in our faith through those crises helps us to strengthen our faith and thus our commitment to God. James said:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. – James 1:2-3

It’s easy to see why the ability to persevere is so important to our faith. It would be nice if, through developing self-control, we instantly reached a state of perfect discipline. In such a state, no matter what we faced, we’d never fold and would always do what we know to be right. Unfortunately, it is rare that anyone ever reaches such a state and certainly not without a lot of time and dedication to developing it. That means that even with a general desire to do good, knowledge of what is good, and the self-control necessary to stay on a righteous path, we may still stray sometimes. As Believers, our desire is to avoid sinning, so it is easy to look at those times when we fall short as failures. To some extent they are, but we cannot allow our failures to stop us from striving towards our ultimate goal - becoming like Jesus. Perseverance isn’t just about resisting sin. It’s also about developing the strength to go back to God when we’ve strayed from Him. It may be hard to find our way back to the right path, but once we do, that perseverance will be rewarded with a greater ability to resist those same pitfalls in the future. The more we can recover from our failures, the greater our chances of not failing again in the future. Of course, as we become able to avoid sin altogether we become stronger as a result. Perseverance is the mechanism that sustains our spiritual growth. Through the cycles of recovering from our failures and succeeding at resisting temptation and sin, we become strong in the Lord. Eventually, we can get to a point where very little can shake our faith or commitment to righteousness because we have become what God wants us to be. It’s just as James said when he continued the statements referenced above:

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete; not lacking anything. - James 1:4

We’ve talked before about reaching for perfection (i.e., becoming like Jesus). Doing that is tough for humans, but through perseverance, it is not impossible. As we will see, it should be our expectation.



[1] www.dictionary.com

Chris Lawyer

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