An Enduring Faith

By Pastor Chad

There are some places in the world where you would be arrested for reading and professing what is to follow. Today, Christians are being persecuted–including being killed–because they profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. In Nigeria, Christians are being slaughtered by radical Islamic extremists. Hundreds of churches have been burned down, homes have been destroyed, and Christians have been kidnapped and tortured (Open Doors Project). We are blessed in the United States with the freedoms we have. Many of our brothers and sisters in other countries are not afforded the same rights.  

Throughout the history of Christianity, Christians have been persecuted. To paraphrase the church father, Tertullian, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The original readers of the book of Hebrews (or the original listeners of the message written down) also experienced hardship because of their allegiance to Jesus. We read, “But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated” (Hebrews 10:32-33). The preacher encourages and admonishes his hearers by reminding them of what they have suffered for the sake of Christ. Since they have suffered so much, and endured, the preacher is urging the Christians not to flag in their faith. Indeed, the early church endured quite a bit of hardship. A Jewish convert would have endured ostracism, prison, and possibly death. Gentile converts would have faced the same.

What is amazing is that many of these believers were joyful in their suffering. How can that be? How can anyone be joyful about suffering persecution and adversity? The early believers were joyful because they knew what was ahead. As the author of Hebrews writes, “[Y]ou joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one” (10:34). In other words, Christians were willing to endure hardship and opposition because they knew the glory and joy of heaven. 

I have had the opportunity to visit persecuted or oppressed churches in a couple of places around the world. I can testify that, although they deal with some of the same doubts as others, there is a beauty to their life and faith I have not seen elsewhere. Furthermore, there is a hope within their hearts that is impossible to obtain other than through the fires of persecution. 

You likely are not dealing with any significant persecution in your life, but we all deal with hardships (at least from time to time). In such cases, the same encouragement applies: “[W]e are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Hebrews 10:39). The ultimate message from the preacher is that a true faith is an enduring faith. A true conversion is one that lasts. A call to endurance is a call to continue walking with the Lord–no matter what is going on in one’s life. A call to endure is a call to forget “what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13).