Revelation Chapter Two, Being Patient

Revelation 2:2c I know…your patience,

Jesus our Lord informs and reminds us that works and labor require patience. Strong’s Concordance defines patience as cheerful or hopeful endurance or constancy. Jesus, when addressing the apostles about the Tribulation or the Day of the Lord, said, “By your patience possess your souls,” Luke 21:19. The generation that would endure the events Jesus was describing in Luke chapter 21 (which corresponds to our current study in Revelation) have to do with the final days prior to His millennial reign, see Luke 21:28.

James tells us that when our faith is tested by the various trials of this life it produces patience, James 1:2, 3. Furthermore, James attributes patience as the key to perfecting maturity in the believer, James 1:4. Paul concurs with James, writing, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance,” Romans 5:3. In the KJV perseverance is rendered patience, and it is the same Greek term as our current focus. James calls them trials, Paul calls them tribulations, and in Revelation the Ephesian church is renowned for their labor. Patience is the key, the undergirding that permits the saint to endure hardship. Whether that hardship is preaching to a people that is unreceptive for a long time, learning a new language and culture to interact with a people more freely, or undergoing persecution because you are looked down on as pathetic for being so weak that you need the crutch of faith.

Toward the end of Romans Paul speaks about patience’ attachment to Scripture itself when he writes, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope,” Romans 15:4. This verse follows Paul’s exhortation to edify one another for our good. This alone requires patience. Patient time in Scripture teaches truth; patient employment of that truth produces fruit. I do not say it produces results, humanly speaking. You may spend years growing adept in the word of God, and then spend years submitting to the word and walking in the Spirit. But if you convince yourself that this will make everyone around you immediately yield to the truth, disappointment will certainly abound. Our labor does not guarantee that fruit will be yielded in terms of souls won. Noah preached for many years, but only he and his family were saved, 2 Peter 2:5. Was Noah’s preaching and desire to reach the lost a waste of effort? I believe we know the answer to this question.

Returning to James, the apostle holds up the prophets of old for examples of what he referred to as, “suffering and patience,” James 5:10. We are reminded of Job’s patience when many trials threatened to unseat his faith, yet he remained steadfast to God through a series of adversities that any Christian would blush at. Think of patience as the canvas, with works and labor the paint as the artist slowly, thoughtfully renders his work. Toward the end of Hebrews the author writes, “For you have need of endurance (patience, same Greek term), so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised,” Hebrews 10:36, RSV. This verse follows Hebrews 10:32 where the writer tells his readership that they endured a great struggle of sufferings, going on to list what had been done to them personally, and what had been done to their brethren, whom they encouraged (edified or built up) through it. The Hebrew Christians reflected the patience of the Ephesian church, enduring wrong for the gospel’s sake.

In this they were tirelessly tolerant, and for this we should rightly commend them. Every church should be so good as to serve the Lord this way. They followed the building plans Peter laid out before his demise. “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance (patience), to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love,” 2 Peter 1:5-7. Peter assured his readership that if we built in this manner, we would not be barren in our service to Christ, 2 Peter 1:8. Our faith produces virtue, or a desire to pursue what is objectively right. This demands knowledge, since people claim many forms of right and wrong. We need God’s word to reveal what it is truly right. This produces self-control. Once knowledge is internalized, self-control becomes a desire. Things that once compelled us to do evil, we eschew. And this, of course, requires patience. How many days, weeks, months or years is it between my conversion and death? To exercise virtue I practice self-control; and for that I require patience. Buckets of it, as the saying goes. Thankfully for us there is a generous and merciful God who endows us with all that we require.