C.S. Lewis once said, “Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.” For the Christian, that destiny is heaven. From time to time, we all may have wondered, how am I going to survive until I arrive there? This blog post is part four of my C.O.R.E. series. The E stands for endurance. In John 16:33 Jesus says, “‘In this world you will have trouble.'” If we are going to have trouble, we must put into place a plan to endure. I will address how the Bible encourages us on to victory over this world, and what it takes to complete our journey home.
To begin with, we have to understand that Jesus has successfully completed the journey and in doing so, has done it perfectly. The completion of this journey is the qualifier that Jesus is the Savior of the world. Jesus traveled the road that we could not bear. Jesus’ sacrificial life is the bridge that connects us to heaven. Entry into heaven will be similar to the reentry into an amusement park. To gain reentry into a park, one must have a hand stamp only visible to a special light. To gain access into heaven, one must be covered by the blood of Jesus, and this is made visible by the light of His word, the Bible.
We live in an age where we no longer use an actual map to route our journey. With the invention of the smartphone, all we do is enter the location we are traveling to and follow a voice directing us from our phone or GPS. Think about what happens when we fail to obey the directions from our phone. First, we are instructed to make a u-turn. If we fail to do so, we will then be rerouted. The Bible is the map to heaven, and we must read it for direction in our lives. Following the Bible is the Christian’s GPS to heaven. Psalm 25:4, “Show me the right path, O Lord, point out the road for me to follow.” We must read and obey the word in order to stay on the right path. If we take a wrong road, we must allow God, through the Holy Spirit, to redirect us with His word. We need to keep in mind that there is only one road to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ.
As we follow Jesus and the path that He has set out for us, we must endure in this world to spend eternity with Him. 2 Timothy 2:12, “…..if we endure, we will also rein with him.” I look at the Christian life like a football game. The team we play for (Team Jesus) has already won the game. The coach of the opposing team is the devil. The devil has attempted to defeat Jesus’ assured victory. As he cannot make Team Jesus lose the game, his defense is to try to get us to give up. He wants us to think that it is not worth dealing with the pain that often comes from following Jesus as we suffer in this world.
In 2 Timothy 2:3-6, Paul left Timothy and ourselves words on how to endure the situations that we face on the road to heaven. “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victors crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.” Let’s break down what Paul was sharing with Timothy on how to endure in this life.
First, in order for a soldier to accomplish his mission, he cannot be distracted by what civilians are doing around him. He has a mission to perform, and those outside the military base go on with their daily lives without much concern for what the soldier is doing. A soldier must be attentive to his commanding officer. The commanding officer knows the mission and trains his men accordingly, so they are prepared for battle when called upon.
The Christian must have this focus. As the soldiers of God, we also cannot be distracted by the world and what is happening daily around us. We may become bitter if we start to compare ourselves to worldly people and wonder just why they are not suffering. We cannot be friends with a world which is contrary to God. James 4:4, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?” The world is not our home. Thus we are God’s ambassadors. 2 Corinthians 5:20, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”
Our commanding officer is Jesus Christ. He has left his mission for us in Mathew 28:18-20,”Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'” We must let God’s word draw people to Christ. There should be no gimmicks. As a disciple of Jesus, Christians should be sensitive to everyone, not just those seeking Jesus. We should not offer giveaways unless it is salvation and we should not base a persons level of knowledge as if somebody is either in the shallow or deep end of a swimming pool. We all need the Gospel! The Good News of Jesus. Thus endure like a focused soldier.
Secondly, Paul tells Timothy to endure like an athlete. In order to obtain victory you must compete according to the rules. It takes strict training to compete in an endurance race. Some athletes have been caught doping, missing parts of a race, loading a baseball bat or deflating a football. Athletes may go to any extent to gain any advantage. However, keep in mind there is a possibility they could get caught.
In 1980, the woman’s Boston Marathon winner was Rosa Ruiz. Eight days after the race, Ruiz was disqualified for not completing the entire route. She had taken a shortcut. If we strive as a Christian to rein with Jesus, there are no shortcuts to get to heaven. The Apostle Paul wanted to complete his life, not to be disqualified on some technicality or formality. Paul shares in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27,”Do you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
When an athlete makes the decision to run a marathon, they must commit to strict training to endure such a race. They must run smaller amounts to build endurance so they can run longer distances to get ready for the 26.2 mile race. For the Christian, that means we are going to have hurdles to endure, enabling us to grow as a Christian. While going through these adversities, we are to remain faithful to the rules, the word of God.
There is a big difference between the rules of a race and the rules of the Bible. The rules in a race are restrictive in what you can do. The rules of the Bible, give us freedom in what we can do. This allows a Christian to make choices based on their faith in following Jesus as we endure in this life.
Lastly, Paul shares how a hardworking farmer should be the first to receive in a share of the crops. I operate a pizza shop. Each summer I have a local farmer that provides home grown green peppers for us to use. His hard work allows us to provide a fresh topping for our pizzas. As I write this blog, he brought us 42 fresh picked peppers today. As I was talking to him, he said he had kept out seven peppers for himself so he could make stuffed peppers for dinner. I am sure he kept the best for himself. He received his share before I got the rest. Paul is telling us if we endure hardship, because of our hard work, there is no delay for the reward of our labor.
As Christians, we endure for not only ourselves, but for the sake of others as well. Paul in 2 Timothy 2:10 shares these words. “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.” Not only should we be focused on our eternal glory, but the eternal glory of others. The trials we have to go through are all worth it when we see a lost soul come to Christ.
We need to keep the prize within our sight. In July 1952, endurance swimmer Florence Chadwick was attempting to be the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to mainland California. Fog set in on the morning of her swim. Florence gave up even when others around her encouraged her to keep swimming. She later found out that she fell short by only a half mile. Later, Chadwick was asked about giving up with such a short distance to go. She told reporters that she would have made it if she could have seen the shore rather than just fog. For the Christian, do not let the fog of the world distract us from seeing the glory of heaven as we endure hardship in order to obtain the prize.
Just to recap, as I wrap up this C.O.R.E. series, circumstances, obedience, reactions and endurance should be at the center of who we are as Christians. Our identity as a Christian is found in this C.O.R.E. By exhibiting these fundamentals in our life, people will see less of us and more of Jesus.