(avg. read time: 9–18 mins.)
Hebrews
Our theme we are tracing appears in several places in Hebrews and the General Epistles. The texts relevant to our analysis are Hebrews, James, and 1 Peter. The first relevant text from Hebrews comes with 10:32–39, which serves well to prepare for ch. 11. To encourage the audience to be people who will greet the coming Day with joy rather than trembling, the author encourages them to persevere in faithfulness, as they have already done to this point. They should draw strength from the remembrance of their past and of the sufferings they have already overcome. Sometimes they were exposed publicly to reproach and affliction, and sometimes they were sharers with those who were treated in this fashion. Just as Jesus sympathizes with the weaknesses of humans (4:15), they have sympathized with their brothers and sisters who have been imprisoned (cf. 13:3). When others seized their possessions, they welcomed it with joy, since they knew that they have greater and lasting possessions as part of their inheritance. Again, these are cases in which their knowledge of the truth served them well to persevere in the midst of suffering. Likewise, they should not cast away their confidence that enables them to persevere in doing the will of God and to inherit what they have been promised by that same God. The author then quotes a small part of Isa 26:20 as an introduction to Hab 2:3–4. The short phrase from Isa 26:20 is translated “in a very little while,” presumably to achieve the same rhetorical effect as the original prophet in emphasizing the imminence of eschatological hope. The eschatological context of this phrase from Isa 26 is also unmistakable as reference is made to God’s final judgment and his resurrection of the dead, which are also part of the author’s eschatological expectations. The author thus reads Hab 2:3–4 in this context, whereas it was originally directed more toward issues of judgment of Israel and of its enemies (specifically, Babylon) with any sense of eschatology being implicit at best. The quotation itself is a rearrangement of the LXX version that better serves the author’s overarching argument here. Other differences, such as pronouns as well as verb tense, do not require much attention here. In any case, the point of the citation remains the same as it points to the imminent arrival of the one who is coming. Until that time and that person arrives, there are two ways to go about living for the faith community. The righteous one will live by faithfulness while the one who is despised withdraws from the responsibility to persevere in faithfulness. The author insists that he and his audience are not among those who shrink back to their inevitable destruction, but they are among those who have faith and as a result will have their lives preserved (and that everlastingly).
To further the cause of encouragement, the author turns to an extended reflection on perseverance in faith in the history of God’s people in 11:1–12:3. This text is an extension of the subject introduced in 10:19–39, which is itself the practical outcome of 6:13–10:18. While in the previous section the author could point to how far they have already come in perseverance, in this section he looks at people who completed their work (insofar as they are able to complete it before the eschaton). Chapter 11 thus features the names and stories of their predecessors who shared this same faith and also had to overcome obstacles in their perseverance. Each of them had the assurance of things they hoped for by the promise of God, but none of them received the fullness of what they waited for; they only received the portion of a down payment. Each of them had the evidence of things not seen yet by looking at the action of God elsewhere, but none of them saw the greater reality behind God’s initial promises, except from a distance. I have addressed this chapter elsewhere and I plan to examine it in more detail another time, so I will not say more about it at this time. It is simply important to reiterate that these exemplars from the history of faith also demonstrate the virtue of persevering in faithful obedience in hope of what God has promised.
We close out this section with the climactic figure in this history of faith in 12:1–3. The author employs an athletic image of running a race with perseverance together with a heavenly image of a cloud of witnesses. Much like how a crowd of supporters can uplift an athlete beyond expectations with their support, the cloud of witnesses consisting of the faithful departed who have preceded them in the earthly sojourn surround the faithful who live now to finish what they have faithfully done so far. The faithful living must only cast off every impediment and the sin that so easily distracts and focus by fixing their eyes on the one who stands at the finish line. The race of faith that the audience of Hebrews and their predecessors run is the same one that Jesus ran as the pioneer and perfecter/completer of faith. He is the consummate faithful one, the one who is the proper heir of all of God’s promises. It is only by his allowance that the faithful share in that inheritance and share in the common faith and the common waiting for the common goal. This passage, more extensively than any other, shows the long tradition of waiting upon the Lord that characterizes salvation history. But ultimately it shows the end of that waiting in the context of Christian discipleship, in which what we think about “the Lord” has been reconceived in light of the coming of Jesus. And for that reason, as the author looks upon the one who scorned the shame of the cross to receive the joy of exaltation to the right hand of God’s throne, he sees a reason not to shrink back or to lose heart. He sees the ultimate demonstration of God’s faithfulness and why waiting upon the Lord is always worth it in the end. And since Jesus is the executor of God’s will, he also sees in Jesus the one through whom God will yet bring more of the great promises to pass, making him the completer of God’s people and of God’s plan, even if the former is emphasized here. It is not stated explicitly, but based on foregoing points we have observed, this completion will likely consist in sharing in Jesus’s resurrection. Until such time as they are completed, they draw strength from him, since he endured to the end God purposed for him, in order that they should not grow weary by losing heart.
After all, as the author goes on to say in 12:4–13, they have not yet resisted to the point of blood in their struggle against sin. They should not forget—as they seemingly already have—the exhortation of Prov 3:11–12, which is interpreted prosopologically as God speaking. The first-person pronoun is added to the vocative to bring out the sense of intimacy even further as God addresses the reader as “my child” and exhorts them not to take lightly the discipline of the Lord nor to lose courage because of his correction. The Lord disciplines those he loves and chastises every child that he accepts as his own. In each pair of terms referring to God’s disciplining love, the first is more positive or neutral while the second is primarily negative, even if readers in the modern West today are inclined to read it all negatively (i.e., only in terms of punishment). Both are necessary to God’s goal of willing the good for those who are his people, which is to say, his children. Humans are fallen and have not yet been completed. Until such time, those who follow God will require correction and training, chastisement and instruction, rebuke and guidance, as well as the perseverance to go through both. Only by such means is divine wisdom cultivated and the will of God embodied in the struggle against sin. Just as Christ’s suffering was turned to good because it achieved God’s will in him, believers are to see their suffering as the means by which God shapes them into the children that he wills them to be. What their enemies mean for evil, God can turn to good, as he has done with Jesus, as he has done with the faithful departed, and as he will yet do consummately at the eschaton. But, of course, the fact that God disciplines his children is not fundamentally derived from the fact that there is something wrong with them—although that may be implied in some cases—but from the fact that God declares them to be his children. In other words, discipline is an effect of the loving relationship, not a strong-armed way of causing the relationship or a condition for that relationship to begin. People readily understand the importance of fleshly parents acting as discipliners of their children—surely it would not be better if someone else did it instead—why then should they not see the importance of the Father of spirits disciplining those he loves? For only by means of his way do we find life, for his way leads to himself, the living God and God of life. And certainly God is in a better position to provide discipline than any other parent. Good parents act as seems best to them, but they can only proceed in as little ignorance as they can manage. God knows for certain what is for the good of his children and wills it for them in order that they may share in his holiness, which—especially in Hebrews, as we have noted in the aforementioned link and will explore further—is a synonym for “completeness” or “wholeness.” Just as to his promises, there is an eschatological goal to Christian suffering, hence why it can be seen in pedagogical terms. Like all discipline, such experiences do not seem to be joy at the time, but it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness later. That is to say, it eventually bears the fruit for which it was made for those whom it trained. To whatever degree this may be realized in the present life, they are assured that it will be realized in the age to come because of the promises of the faithful God who is directing their lives and history as a whole towards that goal. They have glimpsed this much in the history of the story of faith in which they share and climactically in Jesus, in whose way they follow and who has gone ahead of them on the path to resurrection and enthronement. Therefore, they are encouraged to lift up their slackened hands and to straighten their weakened knees to do what needs to be done. They are to make straight paths for their feet so that they can set aright what is out of joint for their own healing—for every step towards wholeness is healing for that which makes humans other than what God created them to be—in anticipation of the day when they will be made truly complete.
Of course, there are some practical ways to exercise this discipline in which God has trained his children, some of which the author provides here and more of which he provides in ch. 13. More directly, this theme is related to approaching God and thus the author focuses on the peace of the community and the condition of holiness, both of which contribute to approaching God. That which awaits those who persevere, and thus are vindicated, is described in terms of the new Jerusalem in 12:22–24.
He also connects the aim of perseverance with the story of Jesus again in 13:10–15, whereby he provides the theological bases of his statements in vv. 7–9. He notes that the signatories of the new covenant have a greater altar than those who minister in the tent, an altar the latter have no authority to eat at, for that authority is only granted to members of the new covenant. And once again, the author uses Day of Atonement imagery (Lev 16:27) to describe the new covenant reality. For this sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, the animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priests for sins are burned outside the camp. As the fulfillment of this ritual and of this type, Jesus also sanctified the people with his blood by suffering outside the city gate (namely, on Golgotha). Those who follow him must participate in his story by following him outside the camp, so to speak, and bearing his reproach as their own in order that they may receive what he has received. They should not fear going outside the camp, leaving it behind, because that camp is not theirs; they have no abiding city on earth. Rather, they are looking for the city that is about to come; namely, they look for the new Jerusalem that will come from heaven to earth. In acknowledgment of this participation in Christ and their inheritance of the coming city, the author calls upon them to offer a sacrifice of praise continually to God through Jesus. This sacrifice of praise is given with the lips when confessing the name of God. This statement can also have the sense of “acknowledging” or “praising” the name, although the latter connotation fits better in this context. It is the praise that comes from remembering and confessing what God has done, especially for his people, and identifying God as the one who has done it all, thereby confessing his name.
James
The relevant texts for our theme in James appear in the opening and closing chapters. As we have seen in previous parts, James tells his audience to consider it joy when they are encompassed by various trials (1:2). After all, this testing of their faith produces perseverance (1:3). In a statement reminiscent of Col 1:24, James tells his audience to let perseverance have its complete work in them so that they may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing (1:4). The link with the hope of vindication is explicit in 1:12, wherein James says that the one who perseveres through trial is blessed, because that one, being proven by this testing of faith, will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him (we will see this promise again for those who persevere in Rev 2:10).
The other teaching is one we find in 5:7–11. James instructs his brothers and sisters to be patient until the arrival (Parousia) of the Lord, which makes even clearer than the first chapter the eschatological dimension to perseverance, as the eschatological dimension provides the end goal of perseverance. The coming arrival of the Lord is to be an encouragement for believers to strengthen their hearts as they wait upon the Lord. They are to live with the eschatological awareness that “the Judge is standing at the door” (5:9). They must show perseverance and patience in suffering after the example of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord, who have been vindicated already in the regard of the faithful, though their complete vindication is yet to come in the final judgment. Likewise, they are to imitate the perseverance of Job, especially since, unlike Job, they have seen the goal/purpose of the Lord and they know even more clearly than he did the Lord’s compassion and mercy.
1 Peter
Finally, we must review 1 Peter, where this theme is most pervasive in this section of the canon. The first instance in 1:6–7 at once instantiates the quality of rejoicing in the midst of suffering that we have seen elsewhere and follows a description of the source of this joy. The vision of the future provided by the gospel is that source of joy, as it points to what will be the outcome for those who persevere in trials. After all, trials test the genuineness of faith, which bears fruit in the present time, such as through perseverance, and ultimately in the future, when Jesus is revealed in his Second Coming.
The second text comes from Peter’s instruction to slaves in 2:18–25. Slaves are given a new way of looking at their situation in a time when slavery was endemic to society. Under certain conditions, slaves could acquire their freedom, but it was no simple matter of the slave’s choice. When Peter instructs the slaves to be subject to their masters, even those of rotten character, his instruction is not built on the necessity of upholding a good and sacred institution. It is built, rather, on how slaves can grow in Christlikeness. One who perseveres while suffering unjustly is like Christ, who knew no sin, and left his life as something to imitate (the word ὑπογραμμός in 2:21 refers to an aid given to young students to help them draw letters). This is done with a view to the eschatological promise of God’s judgment, hence Peter’s note about Jesus entrusting himself to the one who judges justly (2:23). In such a way, slaves can exemplify what should be true of all Christ followers in terms of living in participatory union with Christ. For by his stripes we were healed when he died for our sins, and in our union with him we are to die to sin so as to live to righteousness/justice, knowing the judgment that is coming. As our salvation comes from union with him, so does our way of life come from that same union, so that the gospel story is our story, and we know that those who persevere as Jesus did will be vindicated.
The teaching in 3:8–22 follows a similar pattern, including in linking perseverance to the gospel story. The teaching to not repay evil with evil or abuse with abuse but with blessing is reminiscent of Jesus’s teaching on loving enemies, and this is implicitly linked with the hope for vindication, as Peter refers to inheriting a blessing (3:9). He also calls upon Ps 34:12–16 in support of this teaching. This and his later teaching in this chapter are held together by the rhetorical question in 3:13, “Yet who is the one who harms you, if you become emulators (ζηλωταὶ) of the good?” I have translated the noted term as “emulators” rather than “zealots” or the looser “eager” because we too often overlook this sense of the word where we get “zealots” from, and because a variant in this text is “imitators [μιμηται],” which supports this sense of the term as opposed to the others. As noted already, the emulators of the good are those who emulate Christ. No one justly harms such a person, but of course it is part of the Christian story that people might suffer because of righteousness/justice, and such people are blessed because they are emulators of Christ. Thus, Peter tells his audience to sanctify Christ as Lord in their heart, always being prepared for presenting a defense to everyone who asks for a reason concerning the hope within them (3:15). That is, be ready to explain the hope that inspires perseverance. This perseverance is to be Christlike, which has the result of putting to shame those who revile Christians for their good conduct in Christ. Suffering for doing good is better than suffering for doing evil, and it once again brings one more in conformity with Christ. It is at this point, in 3:18, that Peter invokes the gospel story as the story that defines what this way of life looks like. It is the story we are baptized into (3:21), by which we are reconciled to God in Christ. By this story, which leads to God’s resurrection and exaltation of Jesus (3:21–22), we know that God will do the same for those who make the gospel story their story.
Peter reiterates these points in 4:12–19. His audience ought not to be surprised by the fiery ordeal that is testing them, even as Paul said similar things in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Timothy. And like what we have seen from Paul (and elsewhere), Peter calls upon his audience to show their perseverance by rejoicing in the midst of their sufferings, because they are sharing in Christ’s sufferings, and they know from his story that they will be vindicated when he is revealed (4:13). And as he has said before, Christians ought not consider it a disgrace to suffer as a Christian, but ought to glorify God that they bear this name and persevere in it (4:16). With a view to God’s faithfulness and the coming judgment, Peter sees all the reason to continue to persevere and encourage others to do the same, entrusting their lives to the Creator (4:19).
Finally, Peter appeals to the hope of vindication at the beginning and end of 5:6–11. He says that those who humble themselves will be exalted in due time (as he learned from Jesus), and that they ought to cast all their anxieties upon the God who cares for them. This is all part of disciplining themselves, building up perseverance, for their adversary is the devil who prowls about like a roaring lion, searching for an opportune prey to devour. He targets all the brothers and sisters thusly, and Peter calls upon them all to stay strong in perseverance, resisting the devil at every turn. For this suffering is only temporary, but the glory God will give is everlasting.