The command of our Lord and Master which will save us is: He who endures to the end will be saved. And, If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
The hope of truth and of freedom is already ours, dearly beloved, but if we are to attain truth and freedom in reality we must endure and persevere. The very fact that we are Christians is the substance of faith and hope. But in order that faith and hope may attain their full fruit, there is need of patience. We are pursuing a future, not a present glory, in accordance with the admonition of Paul the Apostle: It is in hope that we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Waiting and patience are necessary if we are to fulfil what we have begun to be, and to receive, through God’s unfailing help, what we hope for and believe.
In another passage from the same Apostle, those who are holy, who work at laying up a treasure for themselves in heaven by increasing the capital that God has given them, are instructed to be patient as well: So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap. He urges us that no one give up his work through impatience, that no one stop halfway on the road to praise and glory, being turned aside or overcome by temptations so that past achievement perishes, while what is begun is not brought to completion.
The Apostle, finally, when he would speak of charity, joined to it endurance and patience. Love, he says, is large-souled, love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it thinks no evil; loves all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. He shows that it can tenaciously persevere, for the very reason that it knows how to endure all things.
And in another passage: Forbearing one another, he says, in love, using every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He proved that neither unity nor peace could be kept unless the brethren treat one another with mutual forbearance, and preserve the bond of concord through patience.
