To Keep the Faith, Effort is Needed

In our faith life, we often hear about “being tempted”. To be tempted means we are challenged against our faith by some troubles. Temptation is not just for some special people. Concerning wealth, honor, relationships, and so on, anyone can be tempted because of his or her desire or can inevitably go through an ordeal from sudden changes in their circumstances. Being tempted is something closer to us than we think.

When tempted, people are likely to shift the responsibility to and blame others. However, there is one thing that those who are tempted must know. That is, nobody else but they themselves are responsible for enduring those temptations. In our faith life, not everything is pleasing. Although salvation has been given to us as a gift through Christ’s merits, after we are saved, our own efforts are absolutely needed.

God is the one who never changes. Jesus Christ whom He has sent is truth. What He has done and His words are also truth. The very quality of truth is that it never changes in any circumstances. There is an unchangeable truth that God taught us through Jesus Christ. If we were to sum it up into two parts, one is that if one believes Jesus Christ, he or she is forgiven; and the other is that God leads those who are forgiven to His kingdom. We are the people who have already experienced the first of the two. However, the other is not yet fulfilled. What remains for us who have already been forgiven is entering the kingdom of heaven.

Although our entrance to heaven is yet to be fulfilled, it is already confirmed. This truth can be accepted only by faith. It is not possible to accept it with human’s commonsense, and it is also difficult for the world to believe something that is unseen. It is difficult for the truth to be accepted by the standard of physical judgment. Likewise, considering that we have to receive and believe the truth that the world does not accept, we come to know that faith has to be accompanied by patience.

Faith Requires Endurance

Before Jesus Christ was sent to the world, who is the reality of faith, God trained humans to have faith. For Noah, despite being ridiculed by others, he continued building the ark on the mountain, for that was what God had commanded him to do. Building the ark was not a pleasurable task for him but a difficult task that required endurance. With Abraham, he heard the voice of God and left his home, to live as a stranger. At that time, leaving home was very dangerous and risked one’s life. But Abraham waited for a long time to make the blessing God had promised his own (Heb 6:14-15). Then again, Moses is probably the most stressed person among all the figures who appear in the Bible. Even after he led the people of Israel from Egypt, he suffered because of rebellion and betrayal from the people until the end of his life. Likewise, what we can find commonly from these ancestors of faith is the fact that patience is the most fundamental quality that best explains their lives.

It was not just the ancestors of faith who patiently waited. God, more than anyone else, waited patiently. It says in 1 Peter 3:20, “Who disobeyed along ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.” The event of Noah’s flood is a prophetic symbol of the world that is rushing towards the end time. Just as God did so while Noah prepared the ark, even now He is waiting patiently.

Some people say, ‘why is God’s promise so slow, and not fulfilled soon?’ Concerning this, 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” And verse 15 says, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation”. The reason why God is patiently waiting is so that more and more people may be saved.

Jesus, after coming to the earth and revealing God to us, said, “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:38). This means those who are not patient are not worthy of following the Lord. We, who received the love of God through the patience of Christ, must learn His patience (2 Thess 3:5). The reason Jesus was patient with Paul was to make him an example to the others (1 Tim 1:16). Patience is God’s nature (2 Pet 1:4). Among the fruits of the Holy Spirit is patience (Gal 5:22). Jesus said that God sought those whose heart was like a good soil, which indicates those who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop (Luke 8:15).

There is probably no one who, in the midst of suffering, can endure patiently without any purpose. It is because of the hope of entering college that students can be persevere and keep studying while rejecting many temptations; and it is because soldiers look forward to the day of leaving the army that they can endure through their military service. Likewise, it is because Christians have hope of entering the kingdom of heaven that they can endure patiently in their lives.

Patience is a fundamental quality of Christians who wait for the last day. As it is written in the Book of Revelation, if we look at the letters from the Holy Spirit to every church, we realize that patience is a very significant virtue for saints’ lives (Rev 2:2). Moreover, Revelation emphasizes the importance of patience for mankind who have to keep the faith in the world where the beast will later come to rule (Rev 13:10). When Jesus judges, everything will be determined according to how much each person endured. For God to make us fit for the kingdom of heaven, He lets us suffer on earth (2 Thess 1:5). That is why we need patience. Those with patience will be regarded as those who are worthy of the kingdom of heaven at the judgment of righteousness.

Let Us Discipline Ourselves to be Patient

As Jesus overcame temptations through patience, we must be disciplined to overcome temptations by patience also. Greed brings about temptations, and temptations make us underestimate the value of our faith. Even when Jesus was extremely weak in His physical and mental state after fasting forty days, He overcame the devil’s temptations. When we are tempted by the devil – feeling dissatisfied with the church or helpless in our faith life – we should be able to be patient.

Discipline for patience is discipline for faith. Suffering produces patience; patience, character; character, hope (Rom 5:3~4). We must not underestimate patience. The most powerful strength that Jesus has shown us is patience. Even now, God is patient with us. Jesus explicitly showed God’s patience. It is patience that we need now as those who have been favored with God’s patience. Job was greatly blessed by overcoming sufferings through patience. The reason why God makes us endure patiently is so that we may eventually be well.

In practicing the new commandment, “Love one another”, patience is very important (1 Co 13:4). Unlike being loved, practicing love is not always pleasurable. When you greet someone with a smile, he or she sometimes does not react to it. In spite of that unpleasant situation you should be patient. If you are stressed, before blaming others, you must check yourself whether you are being tempted or not. Those with great patience faithfully do their roles even while going through many hardships.

If all saints are able to be patient, the church will be a perfect church that can bear comparison. We must be the ones who give out the fragrance of Jesus, resembling Him. By being patient we must be the ones who are able to meet the Lord with joy on the last day. With the long-suffering nature of God, we ought to be the Christians who keep our faith and set our hopes in heaven.