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2 Peter 1:5, 8: “5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith… perseverance…8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
How do we define “perseverance”? One writer says that “Perseverance is the ability to hold fast to one’s goal in spite of opposition or even persecution” (Wheaton). Perseverance also means “staying under.” When you think of “staying under,” the picture here is a hand or something pressing you down, and it keeps pressing you down for a long time. It is frequently used in the New Testament to refer to constancy or steadfast endurance under adversity, without giving in or giving up” (Gangel). While “self-control has to do with handling the pleasures of life, perseverance relates primarily to the pressures and problems of life.” This word is “almost synonymous with strength and longevity” (Helm). With perseverance, we not only deny ourselves a pleasure one time, but we do deny ourselves over the long haul, meaning, several times! We don’t just say “No” to temptation once, but we do it a million times. We don’t just walk in a direction for 1 mile, but we walk in that direction until we can walk no more, or until we die.
The implication behind developing perseverance is the assumption of experiencing numerous trials in life. Perseverance cannot be developed by going through one trial, but it will take hundreds of thousands of trials over a lifetime to develop perseverance within us. Someone who doesn’t want to grow in perseverance is living in a fantasy world because they want a life with no trials, but that is not the condition of this life we currently live. Romans 5, James 1, Hebrews 12:1, James 5:11, Revelation 2:2-3 all connect this idea of perseverance with trials. In order to build perseverance, you must have trials. Perseverance, as a virtue, cannot exist apart from trials. Difficulty builds perseverance and without difficulty or trials, there is no way to build perseverance in us.
How does this help us? This helps us because we must make ourselves aware, as we go through trials, that they are not purposeless. While God is, likely, doing a trillion things in any one trial, we can rest assured that building perseverance into us is one purpose He is accomplishing. Suffering is never pointless in a world where God exists, no matter what we think or see.
Most importantly, we must remember that we do not add virtues to our lives to be a Christian, but we add them to our lives because we are Christians. We don’t add virtues to our lives to earn God’s love, but we add virtues to our lives because God, in Christ Jesus, already loves us. Romans 5:8 tells us that “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God loves us at our worst because He sent Jesus to die for us “while we were still sinners.” If we were to demonstrate the virtue of perseverance in every part of our lives, or if we were to fail to demonstrate perseverance in every part of our lives, God would love us no more or less. His love is unwavering and is unquenchable because of the cross of Jesus Christ. We must simply trust in Christ to save our souls. So, we “add” virtues to our lives because we love Him, and our love for Him is based upon His previously proven love to us on the cross of Jesus Christ. As we go through trials, we go through them confident in God’s love for us, and confident in His sovereign reign over the entire universe.