Be Ready to Endure

Last Sunday, our pastor was on vacation, and my prayer partner's husband (an ordained minister) preached on Matthew 10:22. "You will be hated by all because of my Name, but it is the one who endures to the end who will be saved." I was intrigued by one comment he made. He said the word endures in this context is an aorist participle. I am not a Greek scholar. I had two years of Greek in seminary, but that doesn't make me an expert. The aorist denotes completed action. And it seemed odd to me that a word like endures could denote completed action. A friend of mine said, "It's kind of like trying to stand up and sit down at the same time." If the facebook page breaks here, please keep on reading.

So I did a word study on endure (endurance) hupomeno (hupomone); end (telos) and saved (sozo). Each of them have a variety of meanings, which I won't go into for lack of time. Another verse that the Lord impressed on me is James 1:4. "But let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." That word "perfect" is the Greek word telos in both instances. The phrase "have its perfect work could be translated "achieve the desired results" or "reach its goal." Of course, it's God's goal and the results He desires that are being referred to.

We can see that when we endure we are headed somewhere that God wants us to go. It's not endurance for endurance sake. So we are to stay under (hupomeno) the trial until we reach where God wants us to go. This could happen during trials throughout life, or at the End, when we will be saved (which could also mean delivered, protected, healed, preserved, rescured, or be made whole).

Now I'll do something unconventional. In order to understand how endures could be completed action, I took the noun "end" and made it a verb, for this interpretation of Matthew 10:22b: "The one who has finished enduring shall be saved." And there is your completed action and participle.

Thus, you could have a number of trials in life, and endure to the end of each one of them, achieve the results God wants, and be "saved" out of each one (I could give examples from my own life). In this way you have practiced enduring to the end, which equips you to better endure that final trial and be saved in a final sense.

This is not works salvation, because Jesus has already endured to the end, and we rely on what He has already done, through His grace which He gives us.

Now you Greek scholars, have at it. But I have to get some lunch and go to work.