Persevere With One Another

Daniel Friess, Elder

If you missed Pastor Dave’s sermon on November 1, you should really go back and listen. It’s an important message for all of us. One point from Pastor Dave’s sermon on Sunday that I keep chewing on are “perseverance testimonies.” God is greatly glorified when He miraculously, immediately delivers us from the presence of infirmity, sin, and temptation (a “deliverance testimony”), but He is just as greatly glorified by the faithful child who perseveres through temptations and trials to receive the crown of life (James 1:12).

As I’ve been thinking about the Christian walk, there are a few reasons why it’s important for us to hold perseverance testimonies in high regard.

1)      Miraculous deliverance from trials, sin, and temptation (the “deliverance testimony”) is not the norm in the Bible. It’s easy to remember the stories of God leading the Israelites out of Egypt, giving sight to the blind, and converting whole communities in Acts and then to expect that this is what following God looks like. Look more carefully, and you’ll see that Israel was plagued with idolatry that they carried with them out of Egypt, many of the people whose bodies were healed didn’t actually trust Jesus to save them from sin, and the epistles were often written to the churches in Acts who were struggling to keep it together. Trusting and following God through life is hard work and requires perseverance. This is what the stories of the Bible encourage us in.

2)      Perseverance through sin and trial is how God works in us. Read James 1, Romans 5, and Hebrews 12. Our struggles against our sin and trial are a testimony of God’s strength in our weakness, and they are working an important work in us. There is no shortage of verses and passages of the New Testament encouraging us to keep the faith (Philippians 4), wrestle against the sin still present in our bodies (Romans 7), persevere in following Jesus and holding others accountable (2 Thessalonians 3:6-15). God’s desire isn’t for us to be free from the presence of sin in this life. His desire is for us to grow up together in all ways (Ephesians 4:14-16).

3)      Expecting that everyone will be delivered from temptation (as opposed to persevering through it) will result in us denying our own struggles. We can and should pray with the confident knowledge that God can completely and supernaturally overcome the natural sin in our flesh. However, what we rest in is not so temporal. We rest a) in knowing that He provides a way to overcome sin in our temptation, and b) in knowing that we are cleansed from all unrighteousness, even while we still struggle with it in this life. While we’re in the flesh, we will have sin to kill (Colossians 3:5-10).

4)      Expecting that everyone will be delivered will result in us being critical of others. When Jesus teaches not to judge lest we be judged, he teaches that we all have things in our eyes (Luke 6:37-42). The sins my brother struggles with may not be the same as the ones that I struggle with, but a proper understanding of my own flesh will give me compassion for him, even when he stumbles. We must remember that “exhort” means “to call alongside,” not “to bring up to my level.”

Keep these ideas in your mind as you read what Paul says to the Ephesians. God expects us to strive to live the way we’re called to live and to be gracious with one another as we persevere in doing so.

But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:20-32)

Consider this an exhortation, because I need brothers and sisters beside me while I wrestle against trials and temptations.