Christians can often be caught off-guard by how difficult life can be. When grieved by loss, deserted by friends and family, faced with a hostile workplace culture or plagued by an existential crisis, it is easy for Christians to be tempted to give up or to doubt God’s goodness. Yet the Bible encourages us to persevere in the midst of hardship, reminding us that suffering is not a sign of God’s absence, but of his good presence. The storms of life we weather serve to refine our faith as we hope in his promises.
But how can we build perseverance within ourselves? What does it mean to remain steadfast in our day-to-day walk in Christ? If we experience doubt, are we in danger of falling away? In this episode of the CCL podcast, which features the audio from our October 2023 event, Moore College principal Mark Thompson considers these things as he shows us how Christians can persevere even when we face trials of various kinds.
Links referred to:
- Watch: The power and pain of perseverance
- The Doctrine of Scripture: An Introduction (Mark Thompson)
- Our 2024 events:
- Embrace AI and lose your soul? How to think about AI as a Christian with Akos Balogh (13 Mar)
- Casual sex or sacred sexuality? Our bodies and relationships under God with Chase Kuhn (Wed 22 May)
- Affluent and Christian? Material goods, the King and the kingdom with Michael Jensen (Wed 21 Aug)
- Who am I? The search for identity with Rory Shiner (Wed 23 Oct)
- Support the work of the Centre
- Contact the Centre about your ethical questions
Runtime: 1:12:51 min.
Transcript
Please note: This transcript has been edited for readability.
Introduction
PO: This episode of the Centre for Christian Living podcast is a recording of a recent event that we had in person, where Mark Thompson, Principal of Moore College, spoke to us about perseverance. The title of the talk was “The power and pain of perseverance”, and Mark helped us to think about what exactly is the virtue of perseverance or endurance? It’s something not just the Bible speaks about; different Greek philosophers spoke about it. Different cultures today are known for their perseverance—for example, the British “stiff upper lip”. But in this talk, Mark speaks to us about the Bible and shows us how the Bible encourages us and equips us to persevere and live for the Lord Jesus, even in the face of trials, temptations and difficulty.
I hope that you find the episode helpful and encouraging as you seek to continue to live the Christian life.
[Music]
Peter Orr: Good evening and a very warm welcome. My name is Peter Orr and I’d like to welcome you to this fourth and final Centre for Christian Living live event for 2023. The Centre for Christian Living is a centre of Moore College that exists to bring biblical ethics to everyday issues. This year, we’ve dedicated our four live events to exploring “A virtuous life”. In the Apostle Peter’s second letter, he encourages believers to “make every effort to supplement [their] faith with virtue” (2 Pet 1:5). The virtue we’re going to consider this evening is the virtue of perseverance.
Our speaker this evening needs no introduction, but I’m going to introduce him anyway. Mark Thompson has been principal of Moore College since 2013. He’s married to Kathryn and they have four grown-up daughters. In his spare time, of which I know Mark has lots, he writes books—of which his latest is The Doctrine of Scripture: An Introduction.
Our plan for this evening is as follows: we’ll begin by hearing from Mark on our topic; afterwards, two of our students—Caitlin and Paul—will have a conversation exploring some of the practical implications from what Mark has said; finally, we’ll finish our evening with a time for Questions and Answers, and we’ll be using the Sli.do app.
Before Mark comes to speak, I’m going to read 2 Peter 1 from the Bible, pray, and then I’ll hand over to Mark.
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:2-8 ESV)
Let’s pray.
Steadfastness. Perseverance. If these qualities are yours, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful.
Our Father, we do pray that, as we reflect on perseverance and how we can keep going as Christians, you would, by your Spirit, implant your word in our hearts and cause us to heed your word and to live lives that are steadfast and persevering—that we would be effective and fruitful in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus and that we would bring glory to him.
We ask this in his name and for your glory. Amen.
Please join me in welcoming Mark to speak.
[Applause]
The power and pain of perseverance
Mark Thompson: Thank you and thank you for coming out! For those on the livestream, it’s good not to see you, or see you [Laughter] as the case may be—to know you’re there. That’s a good thing. Thank you.
The boulder and the mountain
I thought I’d start tonight with the picture that has been used in the advertising for tonight’s talk: three figures lifting a heavy rock and carrying it up a mountain. It’s interesting, isn’t it! Many of you might have realised it plays off an image from Greek mythology: the story of Sisyphus, which is mentioned at several points in Homer’s epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey.
Sisyphus is a minor figure in both poems, but his story is elaborated upon in other places. You wouldn’t exactly call him a hero: he was the founding king of Ephyra (later Corinth) and the originator of the Isthmian Games, that’s true. But he was a rogue on many counts—a liar, a cheat, willing to betray his friends—generally not the kind of guy you’d be eager to have over for dinner. Certainly not someone you’d confide in. In The Iliad, Homer describes him as “the wiliest man alive”.1 He even cheated death itself twice. First, after he had betrayed Zeus by revealing him as the kidnapper of Aegina, Zeus sentenced him to be chained by Death. But somehow Sisyphus managed to chain Death instead. One account has him asking Death to show him how the chains worked and suddenly, presto, Death is chained. No one died while Death remained chained. Later, when the gods freed Death and Sisyphus was forced to surrender to him and travel to the underworld, Sisyphus managed to persuade Pluto to allow him to return to the mortal realm to confront his wife about not burying his body. However, he’d asked her not to, with this second escape in mind. Death would eventually catch up with him again, and he was dragged back down to the underworld. There, Sisyphus was to suffer the punishment that Hades pronounced on him: he would be trapped in the underworld, forever rolling a huge boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down again every time it neared the top.2 So pictures of Sisyphus pushing this impossibly heavy boulder up the hill have become a feature of Western art ever since.
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus’ fate was a punishment: he was condemned to futility, frustration and continuous disappointment. It was pointless, but he was trapped in this cycle for eternity. This is what happens when you meddle with the gods. Yet over time, and in the last one hundred years or so largely due to Albert Camus’ book The Myth of Sisyphus: Essay on the Absurd, Sisyphus has been transformed from a villain to a hero. He is the epitome of endurance, perseverance, himself “a metaphor for the individual’s persistent struggle against the essential absurdity of life”.3 He never gave up trying to get that boulder to the top of the hill. As one commentator puts it, “There is no tragedy in having to start again, as long as you [do] start again”.4 In Camus’ own words, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy”.5
There are other candidates for the model of perseverance in ancient Greek literature, though, that don’t require as much revisionism: Odysseus (Ulysses), the main character in The Odyssey is one. Determined to reach home in Ithaca after the Trojan War, and to be united to his wife, Odysseus undergoes a series of trials and challenges. but steadfastly refuses to be conquered by them. “Nevertheless”, he says.
“Nevertheless, I long—I pine, all my days—
to travel home and see the dawn of my return.
And if a god will wreck me yet again on the wine-dark sea,
I can bear that too, with a spirit tempered to endure.
Much have I suffered, labored long and hard by now
in the waves and wars. Add this to the total—
bring the trial on!”6
In Virgil’s The Aeneid, Nautes famously encouraged Aeneas, as he struggled against the odds on his journey westwards from Troy, with the words, “we master it all / by bearing it all”.7
Perseverance or endurance, persisting against the odds—whether on the battlefield, standing firm when under attack or pushing forwards unrelentingly towards the military objective—or in daily life, refusing to give way in the face of struggles that might be internal as well as external—perseverance was undoubtedly a personal characteristic that was valued and honoured in the Graeco-Roman world.8 There was a perfectly natural explanation for that, of course: common human life is full of struggle. Not everything good and worthwhile comes to us automatically. There are obstacles to overcome—some deliberately placed in our way by others, some just an ordinary part of life in the world, even some that are the consequences of our own actions. And, of course, in Greek mythology, some are the will of the gods—the capricious self-interested will of the gods of the Greek pantheon. But “we master it all by bearing it all”.
Is this kind of perseverance that the Apostle Peter was talking about when he urged his readers to supplement their self-control with ὑπομονῇ/hypomonē, which is translated by the English words “steadfastness” or “endurance” or “perseverance”? What is so “Christian” about the Christian virtue of perseverance?
My goal is to explore what the Bible teaches about perseverance and consider it as a distinctively Christian virtue, even a theological one. If it is this—if it is, in fact, distinctively Christian and fundamentally theological—then how might it become a characteristic of my life? Is it something actively to pursue or cultivate, and if so, how? But before we narrow the focus to this one “link in Peter’s chain” in 2 Peter 1, it might help to consider virtue itself in its various forms.
Virtue in its various forms
In one of his most famous and excoriating remarks (and he made a few), Martin Luther once insisted “Virtually the entire Ethics of Aristotle is the worst enemy of grace”.9 Aristotle, building on earlier contributions by Socrates and Plato, defined human virtue (“aretē anthrōpinē”) as an excellence of soul (“aretēn … tēn tēs psyches”), praiseworthy dispositions (“tōn hexeōn … tas epainetas”) towards the supreme good (“aristos”), which he identified as happiness (“eudaimonia”).10 He went on to say, “The Good of man is the active exercise of his soul’s faculties (“psyches energeia”) in conformity with virtue (“kat’ aretēn”)”.11 How does this come about? Aristotle suggested,
Our moral dispositions [hai hexeis] are formed as a result of the corresponding activities … It is therefore not of small moment whether we are trained from childhood in one set of habits or another; on the contrary it is of very great, or rather of supreme, importance.12
It’s easy to see Luther’s problem with all this: according to Aristotle, human beings can make themselves good by practice. A good person is one whose character has been shaped by the habitual practice of the good. This is in direct contrast to the thesis of Luther that came immediately before the one against Aristotle: “We do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds but, having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds”.13 In other words, our good works do not set us in the right with God, but they are the product of having been set in the right with God on another basis altogether: the atoning death of our Lord and Saviour.
Of course, the mediating figure who brought Aristotle’s perspective into the heart of Western theology is usually considered to be Thomas Aquinas.14 Aquinas was part of the Aristotelian revival in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Western Europe, which was largely a result of the flight of Eastern scholars westwards in the wake of the advance of Islam and, around the same time, the looting of Eastern Christendom by the Crusaders. More of Aristotle’s work became known in the West, and people like Aquinas saw the value of the philosophical clarity his writings brought to theological thought. The extent to which Aquinas was indebted to Aristotle is clear in his definition of human virtue: “Human virtue, therefore, which is an operative habit, is a good habit, and productive of good”.15 The medieval Catholic emphasis on moral effort and sacramental grace continued even after Luther, and found eloquent expression in Erasmus’s Diatribe on the Freedom of the Will.
For various reasons, some of them to do with larger cultural and societal changes, but more specifically with the ethical writings of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and other figures in the European Enlightenment, virtue ethics began to fade from the foreground of ethical discussion in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.16 However, the concept of virtue has again become a centrepiece in contemporary ethical discussion, even if it still has its detractors.17 Elizabeth Anscombe’s seminal article from 1958, “Modern Moral Philosophy”, challenged the alternatives of ethically evaluating actions either on the basis of the nature of the deed (deontology) or its consequences (consequentialism), and proposed instead a return to Aristotle’s concept of virtue with its accent on being, rather than action.18 Other important pieces by Peter Geach (Anscombe’s husband), Philippa Foot, Alasdair MacIntyre, John McDowell and, perhaps especially, Rosalind Hursthouse have pursued this same line.19 According to this trajectory, serious ethical thought should be more about who I am—the kind of person I am or should be—rather than what I do. It has to do with character.
But how is that character cultivated in a person? If character is the result of what I habitually do, then doesn’t this fall into the same trap that Luther believed had been laid by Aristotle? Isn’t the pursuit of virtue inimical to grace?
This all-too-brief glimpse into the history of virtue ethics more broadly provides an interesting backdrop to our examination of the virtue of perseverance in particular. It raises important questions, such as the way a virtue like this one operates as a virtue, and how it is related to other virtues, such as humility, selflessness, contentment and love. If we are indeed to see it as operating within the orbit of grace, what about it in its distinctively Christian mode might make that possible?
A brief biblical theology of perseverance
The perseverance of God
Let us turn now to a brief biblical theology of perseverance. Such a theology has as its backdrop and continuing theme the perseverance of God with the creation and especially with his stubborn and rebellious people, Israel. Of course, the word “perseverance” (“hypomonē”) is not used to describe God in Scripture. The one phrase that comes close, “the God of endurance and encouragement [ho theos tēs hypomonēs kai tēs paraklēseōs]” (Rom 15:5) self-evidently refers to what God gives, rather than who he is, since the verse before speaks of how “through endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope”.20 We are reminded by Mike Mazzalongo that “For God there are no obstacles, no weakness, no temptations to quit, so perseverance is not something He must acquire or practice”.21
However, what God gives is reflective of who God is, and in this case, the endurance he gives has its counterpart in God’s own steadfastness. God remains constant in his character, and he is consistent—even persistent—in his dealings with his creatures. He knows the end from the beginning, he remains immovably sovereign throughout, and his eternal purpose is never thwarted or overturned. For these reasons, God’s perseverance with respect to human creatures has the character of both patience and love.
God never gives up on his purpose to bring all things under the feet of Christ (Eph 1:22) and to make him the firstborn of many brothers (Rom 8:29). He plays the long game, as Peter will say later in his second epistle: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet 3:9; cf. Rom 2:4). His eternal purpose is “the mystery hidden for ages in God” but that is now “realized in Christ Jesus our Lord”: “the manifold wisdom of God” is displayed as he brings Jews and Gentiles together as “fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph 3:4-12).
The line from Genesis 3:15 and the promise in the midst of the curse in the Garden, through the promises to the patriarchs, the nation gathered at Mount Sinai, and King David—reiterated by the prophets and accomplished when those words “It is finished” are uttered from the cross (John 19:30)—is a testimony to God’s perseverance. For at every point, the promise is challenged—not simply by the enemies of God and his people, but by the unfaithfulness of the very people to whom the promise has been given. Nevertheless, this unfaithfulness cannot prevail because of God’s character: “…if we are faithless”, writes Paul to Timothy, “he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim 2:13).
Jesus’ confronting parable of the wicked tenants pictures the entire history of Israel as a long exercise of the Master’s perseverance, who patiently sends one servant after another to receive what is his by right, and finally he sends his Son (Matt 21:33-41). He is not deterred from his purpose even when judgement must fall on the wicked tenants, for the vineyard will then be let out to those who will “give him the fruits in their seasons” (v. 41). From such a vantage point, the entire Old Testament story is a testimony to God’s perseverance. The prophets, including Moses, keep presenting God’s covenant faithfulness as a ground for hope, but also a guarantee of judgement if there is no responsive faithfulness from the people.
Yet the overwhelming testimony of the whole of Scripture is to God’s perseverance in love: “his steadfast love endures forever” (Ps 136). The great Hebrew word “חֶסֶד/hesed”, which might also be translated “covenant love”, carries with it the connotation of constancy, unwavering determination, endurance and perseverance. The Lord does not give up on his purpose or the people of his purpose. The word first occurs in the context of Abraham’s search for a wife for his son (Gen 24), then in Jacob’s confession of his unworthiness (Gen 32), the favour shown to Joseph (Gen 39), the redemption of Israel from Egypt (Exod 15) and the giving of the second commandment (Exod 20:4-6). However, perhaps the single most significant use of the word, and the concept of an unrelenting, persevering love based on nothing but God’s character and promise, is God’s proclamation of his name to Moses in response to Moses’ request to see God’s glory (Exod 33:18) and following the defection of Israel with the worship of the golden calf (Exod 32:1-6):
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love [hesed] and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love [hesed] for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” (Exod 34:6-7)
God’s constancy in covenant love—his perseverance with them despite repeated failure—is a reason for the praise of his people. The word “covenant love” or “steadfast love” occurs 123 times in the Psalms alone. It is a ground of their confidence and trust: Psalm 13:5: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love [hesed]; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation”.
Already we can see differences between the idea of perseverance developed in Greek mythology and that which emerges here in the Old Testament. There is no obstacle that somehow makes it impossible or more difficult for God to stay the course, to fulfil his promise and to realise his eternal purpose. There is not the slightest suggestion that God will fail to accomplish what he sets out to do. There is no parallel to Sisyphus, Odysseus or Aeneas. Perseverance is not a habit that God needs to cultivate to be good, in the Aristotelian sense. After all, his just judgement is as good as his provision of mercy. God’s steadfastness, his endurance or perseverance, arises from his character and covenant alone. He always keeps his promises, because he is truth and faithfulness itself. His steadfast love endures forever. “For the Lord will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage” (Ps 94:14).
The perseverance of the Christ
One way in which God continues with steadfast love towards his people, despite their repeated and abject failure, is with his promise of the deliverer who will undo the damage done in the Garden, deal with the legacy of that first rebellion, and reconcile us to himself. The Messiah is himself an expression of God’s determination to accomplish his purpose, even in the face of continued and seemingly intractable sin on the part of his chosen people. His perseverance is God’s perseverance expressed in a specific human life with the salvation of men and women as its goal. What is added, though, through it being a genuinely human life, is the reality of opposition and obstacles, which, at first glance, might seem to call that goal into question. So in the great Suffering Servant song of Isaiah 53, we read,
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away …
(Isa 53:7-8)
When this and the other messianic prophecies of the Old Testament reach their fulfilment in the coming of Jesus Christ, we are reminded that he underwent real suffering and faced real temptation. As Hebrews makes clear:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Heb 4:15)
There was a direction and momentum to his life that involved a conscious decision to follow his Father’s will rather than his own: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me,” he said in John 6:38. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done,” he prayed in Luke 22:42. Paul says of him, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8), and the writer to the Hebrews wrote of him, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb 5:8).
It ought not to be a surprise, then, that though the language of endurance and perseverance is not used of God directly, it is used of the incarnate Son, the Messiah. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians for the second time, he prayed for them that the Lord might “direct your hearts to the love of God [eis tēn agapēn tou theou] and to the steadfastness of Christ [eis tēn hypomonēn tou Christou]” (2 Thess 3:5). As has been often pointed out, the most natural reading of the phrase “the steadfastness of Christ” in this context is to speak about something that characterises him. That is because of the parallel with “the love of God” immediately before it.22 So we are not talking about the Thessalonians enduring for Christ, but Christ’s endurance for them. As Leon Morris once put it, “The Thessalonians are being reminded of the constancy exhibited by the Master, which forms the pattern on which they should model themselves”.23 Christ’s perseverance or endurance was demonstrated in his resolute journey to Jerusalem in full knowledge that there, he would be betrayed, unjustly tried and put to death (Luke 9:51).
The perseverance of Christ is explicitly mentioned twice in Hebrews 12 as the great reason why we should “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (v. 1):
[L]et us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured [hypemeinen] the cross, despising the shame …
Consider him who endured [hypomemenēkota] from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (vv. 1-3)
The perseverance of the Messiah in the work given him to do—a work he could only do because he was the Son of the Father come in the flesh—ensures that salvation is fully and finally accomplished. He saw it through to the end. And though the prospect of bearing the sin of the world in that way was terrifying, as the events in the Garden of Gethsemane bear witness, he “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb 12:2). For something else was set before him: the joy he will share with those he has redeemed. What’s more, throughout his public ministry and most intensely at the end, that deeper reality was surrounded by a cacophony of human opposition and abuse. He endured from sinners such hostility against himself. I’m reminded of those remarkable words from one of best modern hymns:
See him …
Let the soldiers hold and nail him down
So that he could save them.24
Once again, we see a difference between perseverance as generally perceived in the Roman world and the perseverance seen here in Scripture. Jesus’ endurance has a purpose that goes beyond reaching a personal goal. Sure, he endured the anguish and shame of the cross in order to effect the salvation for which he came (“the joy set before him”—Heb 12:2) and he endured the hostility of human beings so that he might save them. But his endurance is also an encouragement for us to run the race set before us, so that we may not grow weary or fainthearted. The endurance of human creatures, and more specifically of those who belong to Christ, is anchored not in their own capacity or disposition, but in a prior endurance on the part of the Saviour, the one in whom the fullness of deity dwells bodily (Col 2:9).
The perseverance of the faithful
So far, we have seen that in the sweep of biblical theology, from Genesis through to Revelation, the idea of perseverance features in the constancy of God, a covenant faithfulness that is never thrown off-course, even by human unfaithfulness, the unfaithfulness of the very people to whom he has made covenant promises. We’ve also seen that this covenant faithfulness, with its attendant steadfastness, endurance or perseverance, finds a particular focus in the person of God’s incarnate Son, Israel’s Christ and the Saviour of the world. That perseverance is seen in the messianic prophecies (though because of time we looked only at the Suffering Servant song of Isaiah 53), and it is seen in Christ’s public ministry. He “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51) and there, looking human rebellion full-square in the face, he endured the cross and despised the shame.
Yet there is one further dimension that can also be seen throughout the sweep of salvation history: the perseverance of the faithful. The archetypical case is that of Job, that enigmatic figure from the East who endures the loss of everything and is still able to declare, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him” (Job 13:15). At the end of his journey, he confesses,
“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
(Job 42:5-6)
When James in his epistle encourages his readers to steadfastness (“hypomonē”), which he indicates is a product of the “testing of your faith” (Jas 1:3), he points to the example of those who “remained steadfast [tous hypomeinantas]” and highlights “the steadfastness of Job [tēn hypomonēn Iōb]” (5:11).
The Apostle Paul spoke of his own endurance or perseverance. His ministry was commended to the Corinthians by his great endurance (“en hypomonē pollē”) in afflictions, hardships, and calamities (2 Cor 6:4). The list that he provides of the obstacles he had to surmount in the discharge of his ministry included “beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger” (v. 5). But he kept going. He pressed on (“diōkō”), straining forward (“epekteinomenos”) towards what lies ahead (Phil 3:13-14). This is perseverance a lot more like that of the Greek heroes—facing and overcoming real obstacles in order to reach his goal. However, the critical difference remains that this perseverance is for the sake of others (2 Tim 2:10) and is meant as an example to others (2 Tim 3:10-11). More than that, ultimately, as Paul told the Philippians, it is God who “who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Phil 1:6). He, Paul, presses on to make the resurrection his own, because Christ Jesus has [already] made me his own” (Phil 3:12). At this point, at least, Paul is more like Luther than the Greeks. It is God’s prior action that makes Paul’s perseverance possible. Look carefully at faithful perseverance and you will find God’s preservation.
In the Old Testament and the New, steadfastness and perseverance in faith characterises the faithful servants of God. So it is no surprise that there are repeated encouragements to persevere in the New Testament. Twice in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples that it is “the one who endures to the end [ho hypomeinas eis telos] who will be saved” (Matt 10:22; 24:13). In the first instance, he was talking to the disciples just prior to their brief mission to the cities of Galilee, warning them about how they would be hated by all for his name’s sake. In the second, Jesus was teaching his disciples about the sign of the end of the age: hatred, apostasy, betrayal, false prophets, lawlessness, and “the love of many will grow cold” (Matt 24:12). But hold on, he says. Keep going. “The one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Paul kept encouraging his readers to persevere, knowing that they shared the same challenges to gospel faithfulness and gospel mission that he had faced on his journeys throughout the eastern Mediterranean. He boasted about the Thessalonians’ “steadfastness and faith [hyper tēs hypomonēs humōn kai pisteōs]” in all their persecutions and the afflictions they were enduring (2 Thess 1:4). In light of Christ’s victory over death, Paul called on the Corinthians to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58). It is worth persevering. The life of faith is not a futile, frustrating disappointment. Christ has risen and your labour is not in vain. That’s why Paul urged Timothy to “pursue … steadfastness [diōke … hypomonēn]” (1 Tim 6:11).
The writer to the Hebrews called on his readers to hold their original confidence “firm to the end” (Heb 3:14) and spoke of how “you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised” (Heb 10:36). Hold out to the end, he writes. Do the work that has been entrusted to you. Don’t give up. A little earlier in the same chapter, he said, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (v. 23). It is a challenge issued to every Christian. Perseverance is expected not just from those specifically commissioned to represent the Christ in the world, but every Christian believer. Which is why in the passage we have already noticed in another connection, the writer urges us, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb 12:1).
It is fascinating how often the language of endurance or perseverance is used in the Book of Revelation. The writer John spoke of his partnership with his readers “in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus” (Rev 1:9). In the letter to the seven churches, the risen Jesus notices the patient endurance of the church in Ephesus (2:2), the church in Thyatira (2:19) and the church in Philadelphia (3:10). Twice in the book, the glimpse into reality that it provides is described as a call for the patient endurance of the saints (13:10; 14:12). In other words, keep going. Don’t give up. Because God is still on his throne—glorious and magnificent—the rebellion will not go on forever, and God’s just judgement is certain. Endure in faith. Persevere despite what is going on all around you.
The perseverance of the faithful is grounded in and energised by the perseverance of our Saviour, who kept on going until he could utter the victory cry, “It is finished” (John 19:30). The perseverance of the Christ is reflective of the constancy of God, the one whose steadfast love endures forever. That is what gives perseverance a distinctive hue in Christian ethics: its ultimate resource is not our own strength of character or conviction, or a habit we have carefully cultivated over the years, but the self-giving of the triune God. This is why faith in God—trust in his promises on the basis of his character seen in his saving acts, is—not a momentary or one-off thing. It endures to the end. Along the way, it is often assaulted by the brokenness of the world in which we live, by our own weakness and ongoing sinfulness, and even by the lies and schemes of the evil one. But God does not give up. He finishes what he starts. Those whom he foreknew, he does, in fact, predestine to be conformed to the image of his Son; those whom he predestined, he does, in fact, call; those whom he called, he does, in fact, justify; and those whom he justified, he does, in fact, glorify (Rom 8:29-30). He doesn’t leave his work incomplete.
The Petrine chain
Now how does that all that help us with the passage that was read for us at the beginning from 2 Peter 1—the passage that has been the masthead of this series on the Christian virtues? This chain of virtues in 2 Peter 1:5-8 is one of several such chains in the New Testament. I’ve just taken you through another of them—the great chain of salvation from Romans 8: foreknow, predestined, called, justified, glorified. It is clear from the context that the purpose of that great chain is to emphasise the security of Christians in an uncertain, broken world. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31).
Earlier in Romans 5, there is another chain: “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (vv. 3-4). Again, the context makes clear the purpose of that chain: we can rejoice in our sufferings because suffering has a role to play in shaping us as people of hope. Having been justified by faith, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, but that hope makes most sense in the context of suffering. Such hope looks forward to something beyond the suffering, but which is guaranteed by what we have been given now. Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Both of these are chains, not lists: the technical term is a “sorites”, a device where each element is linked to the element that comes before and that which comes after in order to make a point: the saving purpose of God from eternity to eternity in Romans 8; the confidence, joy and hope we can have even while acknowledging the reality and significance of suffering in Romans 5.25
So what’s the point of the chain of virtues in 2 Peter 1? Once again, the context gives the clue: the entire chain is introduced with the words “for this very reason”. It points us to what he has just been saying prior to this. What has Peter been saying? That God’s own power has granted us “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (v. 3). What are the things that pertain to life and godliness? Well, the knowledge of himself, glorious and virtuous, and of “his precious and very great promises” (v. 4). We have been given the knowledge of God and his word, and through these things, we not only share in God’s nature, but have escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. God has done something extraordinary and we are the beneficiaries of it.
It is “for this very reason” that we must add each of these virtues to the one before and build on them with the one that follows. If we want to take hold of what we’ve been given—if, as Peter says right after this chain, we don’t want to be “unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 8), then each of these links in the chain will not only be ours, but be increasing in us. Taking seriously what we’ve been given and being fruitful in the knowledge of Jesus—this will not happen just as a matter of course. It will have to be deliberate. It will require our focussed attention. That’s why Peter says, “make every effort [spoudēn pasan pareisenekantes]” (v. 5). Yet the point is that this effort is not pure human moral effort: it has its source in what has been given to us. On the other hand, the Christian life is not to be simply quiescent: the gift makes a powerful difference.
So where does perseverance or endurance or steadfastness fit in this chain? The chain starts with faith and ends with love. Along the way, perseverance is built upon—is meant to supplement—self-control, and it issues into godliness. It is one of the most intriguing things about this chain in its context: precisely because we have been given what pertains to life and godliness, we are to make every effort to work toward it. Peter has just spoken about “the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (v. 4), so it is entirely appropriate to speak about self-control (which is, as one writer defines it, “self-discipline in all matters affecting the senses”)26 But that self-discipline, if it is not to be fleeting and fall back into old patterns of licentiousness under the pressure of temptation, must be supplemented with perseverance—maintaining self-discipline over the long-haul, maintaining a focus on the goal of godliness. A few verses earlier, Peter had stressed that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Here in this chain, we are assured that the way to godliness and ultimately to love—love like the God who loved us—involves perseverance: not giving up in the face of opposition, keeping on going, holding on.
Christian perseverance
So perseverance is grounded in God’s nature and character as the one whose steadfast love endures forever. It finds its most direct, perfect and even urgent expression in the perseverance of Jesus Christ in fulfilling the saving mission for which he came. Yet throughout the Bible, we hear of the endurance or perseverance of the faithful who are those he came to redeem. That perseverance is not a natural moral strength. We are not simply thrown back on our own resources, even our own resources as those who have been regenerated by the Spirit. Perseverance is not easy.
This in some measure is why, in the history of Christian doctrine, the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints has been one surrounded by controversy. Especially in the light of the repeated calls to persevere in the New Testament and powerful warnings of the danger of falling away, such as the five warnings found in the book of Hebrews (Heb 2:1-4; 3:7-4:13; 5:11-6:12; 10:19-39; 12:14-29), the question arose whether perseverance was a precarious commodity—whether it was possible for a regenerate believer to fall away and be among the lost on the Last Day.
In the late sixteenth century, William Whitaker, Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, drafted a set of articles later signed by Archbishop John Whitgift and others and known to us as the Lambeth Articles. They were meant to strengthen the Reformed character of the 39 Articles—especially Article 17, the article on predestination. The fifth of the Lambeth Articles reads,
A true, living and justifying faith, and the Spirit of God sanctifying, is not extinguished, falleth not away; it vanisheth not away in the elect, either finally or totally.27
The Lambeth Articles never received the royal assent; Elizabeth I was unwilling to disturb the rather fragile Religious Settlement she had brokered earlier in her reign.28 However, they are testimony to how significant figures within the late Elizabethan church were thinking on the subject. If God does finish what he starts—if his election is sure—then ultimate perseverance seemed a logical consequence.
It was a major question just two decades later when a synod of reformed theologians in Holland, which included a number of English observers (as the new English king, James I, was a significant sponsor of the Reformed cause in the Dutch republic), met in the city of Dordrecht. The Synod of Dort has often been misrepresented by simple, even simplistic, summaries of the articles it produced. TULIP is easy to remember, but runs the risk of not doing justice to the issues. The fifth article “concerning the perseverance of the saints” acknowledges the reality of a continuing battle with sin in the Christian life and even the possibility of “lamentable falls”, but places greater stress on the power and faithfulness of God. In the third paragraph, it reads,
Because of these remains of indwelling sin, and moreover, also, the temptations of the world and of Satan, the converted could not continue (perstare) in this grace, if they were left to their own strength. But God is faithful, who confirms them in the grace once mercifully conferred on them, and powerfully preserves them in the same, even to the end.29
The article acknowledges both the pain and the power of perseverance. But these lie in very different places. The struggle with sin and so the struggle to persevere is a reality even for the believer. The Christian life is not always easy, and our own awareness of our persistent failure could easily overwhelm us. But God is both faithful and powerful. As Jude put it, “[he] is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24). In paragraph 7, the Dort article goes on to speak of what God does for those who are his, even in the midst of these “lamentable falls”.
In the first place, he preserves in them, in these falls, that immortal seed by which they are regenerated … lest it should perish, or be shaken out. 1 Pet. i.23. 1 John iii.9. Then, by his own word and Spirit, he assuredly and efficaciously renews them to repentance, that from the soul they may mourn according to God for the sins committed, may seek remission in the blood of the Mediator by faith, with a contrite heart, and obtain it, that they may feel the favour of God again reconciled, may adore his mercies by faith, and finally, work out their salvation more earnestly with fear and trembling.30
What is of very great significance here is the practical means by which God keeps his people, even in the face of real and potential stumbling: “by his own word and Spirit”. This is where the warnings of Hebrews and other places, far from undermining Christian perseverance, are God’s instrument in effecting it. We must avoid at all costs a watering down of those warnings because of a prior commitment to the perseverance of the saints, since those warnings are the very means by which God enables the saints to persevere. As one of my teachers used to say, “Slogans are the retreat of a lazy mind”, so don’t let one like “once saved always saved” keep you from taking the warnings seriously.
Somewhat paradoxically we might answer the question “Can the elect, regenerate believer fall away?” with “Yes. The danger is real. The warnings are real. Don’t allow yourself to play with fire or come too close to the edge! Listen to the warning!” But to the question, “Will they fall?”, the answer is quite different: “No. Because the genuine believer trusts God’s word, even and perhaps especially the warnings, and so makes every effort to ‘supplement … self-control with perseverance’” (2 Pet 1:6).
It is this that helps us to see why Jim Packer was so bold as to say,
in declaring the eternal security of God’s people it is clearer to speak of their preservationthan, as is commonly done, of their perseverance … The assertion that believers persevere in faith and obedience despite everything is true, but the reason is that Jesus Christ through the Spirit persists in preserving them.31
Our own Broughton Knox put it this way:
All of us know that we can at any time choose to give ourselves to these things and so fall away and be lost eternally. Indeed, left to ourselves, it is certain that we will fall into one or the other of these sinful ways of life. Nevertheless, by the grace of God we do not, for the warnings are the means by which God saves us from these fatal falls, just as the warning erected in front of a precipice is effective to prevent anybody falling over. The warning notice does not mean that someone must have fallen down the precipice before it was erected, or that someone will fall over in the future, but it simply indicates that if you ignore the warning you will be killed; however, no one need ignore it. Indeed no one will who reads it. So too in Holy Scripture the warnings are to ensure our perseverance and they achieve this.32
God preserves his people. He is able to do it and he is faithful. But he does it by his word and through his Spirit, enabling us to persevere in faith and our faltering obedience, in response to his word.
Virtue and grace
It should be obvious that to emphasise the exhortations we find throughout Scripture to perseverance (and the other Christian virtues) need not at all be inimical to grace. It need not be seen as an attempt to reintroduce salvation by works. For behind the perseverance of the saints stands the perseverance of God. “His steadfast love endures forever” and “he who promised is faithful”. Most beautifully the constancy of his love is shown in the provision of our Saviour, who “endured the cross, despising the shame”. God’s word points us to these grounds for our own perseverance and the example of those who have come before us. It also warns us of the danger if we do not. We cannot persevere in our own moral strength, but we are not left to our own moral strength. Keep going. Don’t give up. The end is worth it: the people of God from all generations, all nationalities and all backgrounds gathered around the throne of God and the Lamb, rejoicing in a salvation that will be fully realised then, but is securely ours now.
After thinking about those things, perhaps we should pray.
Heavenly Father,
We are so grateful that you are who you are—that you are not only all-powerful, but you are loving and faithful—that your steadfast love endures forever. We do want to thank you that your Son endured the cross, despising the shame, so that we might be saved.
In the light of those things and in the face of the warnings that you give us, we pray please would you preserve us to the end? Would you enable us to persevere? For all our hope is not in ourselves and our own strength, but in you.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
[Music]
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PO: As we take a break from today’s episode, I want to tell you about the events that are coming up in 2024. Our theme for 2024 is “Culture creep”—the way in which the culture can affect our thinking as Christians and as churches. Paul writes in Romans 12:2, telling the Roman Christians, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2a ESV).
We have four events across 2024 that are aimed at helping us to do that—to not be conformed to the world—to resist culture creep—and to be transformed by the renewal of our minds.
On 13 March, Akos Balogh will be talking to us about artificial intelligence and how we should think about that as Christian people. Artificial intelligence is a relatively new technology, and yet its quick and widespread use means that it is something that we need to be very clear in our thinking about as Christians.
On 22 May, Chase Kuhn will be speaking on the topic of “Casual sex or sacred sexuality?” Sex and sexuality obviously are a real way in which we can express our difference from the world as we live according to God’s word. But it is an area also where we are very susceptible to living like the world. Chase will be helping us to think through how we consider our bodies and our relationships under God.
On 21 August, Michael Jensen will be helping us to think through how we live as Christians in a very wealthy world. The title of his talk will be “Affluent and Christian?” and he’ll help us to think through how we should use our material goods in service of the King and the kingdom.
Finally, on 23 October, Rory Shiner will be helping us to think about our identity. The search for identity in different ways, the question of identity and who we are is such a powerful question that our world is asking. Again, it is very easy for us as Christians to follow the world’s lead, rather than have our thinking on this important topic shaped by God’s word.
That’s an overview of the events that are coming up in 2024. You’ll find more details on the CCL website and you’ll be able to register for the events. Hopefully we’ll see you at some or all the events.
Now we’ll return to our program.
Student reflection
PO: Thank you very much, Mark, for giving us such a clear understanding of the foundation of our perseverance, resting not in ourselves and our own effort, but in God. Two of our students—Paul in first year and Caitlin in third year—are going to come now and help us think through some of the practical outworkings of what we’ve just thought about.
Paul Rajkumar: Good evening. So good to see you. As Peter said, my name is Paul. I’m in first year. This is Caitlin in third year. We’re going to have a chat for the next 10 minutes to unpack some of the helpful things that Mark has laid out for us—some of the really helpful insights into the idea of perseverance and steadfastness. We’re going to unpack some practicalities of what that looks like and ground those things for us in the every day. We’re going to tackle the two questions that were in the blurb: firstly, “How can we build perseverance?” and, secondly, “What does it look like in our day-to-day walk to remain steadfast?” Without further ado, over to you, Caitlin: how can we build perseverance?
Caitlin Ogg: Something that really stood out to me as Mark was speaking was thinking about how much of it is actually not ourselves. That was really—not earth-shattering, but a good and helpful reminder.
It made me think, “Well, how do we ourselves build perseverance?” My mind came to the prayer of Paul in Colossians 1:9-12, where he talks about praying—praying for his readers to grow in knowledge, and the reason for growing in that knowledge is for the sake of enduring in patience. I thought that is quite profound: is one way that we can build perseverance through prayer—specifically praying for the knowledge of “Why do we need to persevere?”? When thinking about everything that Mark said, we need to grow in knowledge of who God is, particularly his character and his steadfastness, because if our perseverance is to be a counterpart of God’s own steadfastness, what better way to grow in that than to grow in that knowledge. He’s given us his word to know that. I think prayer and knowledge is probably a really helpful way that you need to start in building perseverance.
Did you have any thoughts?
PR: I was going to quiz you on those two! So if it’s prayer and knowledge, what challenges do you think there are? What obstacles are there, day-to-day, for going towards and praying for that perseverance—having that further knowledge of those things?
CO: I feel like our obstacles will always be our fleshliness and our sinfulness. We’ll always feel tempted to not pray. I know I’m not alone when I talk about my own struggles in my prayer life—to actually pray for the things we need in that moment. Often that’s the first thing that drops off: prayer and reading your Bible. It’s a common thing—something that we want to be doing daily, but we know it’s quite hard for us. Particularly when you’re in a moment when you need to persevere, the obstacle you’re going to face most is your own temptation to not persevere. I think that’s going to be the constant struggle.
This, I think, highlights the importance of community. Again, what we’ve learned tonight is perseverance is not just for the sake of you. That’s something that really struck me as well: the fact that perseverance is for the sake of the other. So that already means that you need other people around you for perseverance.
PR: Yeah. That’s really helpful. So prayerfulness, knowledge—just diving into the knowledge of the Lord Jesus—but also being surrounded by a community of believers to enable us to keep thinking about those things.
You asked me what helps me grow in perseverance. To be honest, it’s not a virtue that I particularly think loads about, and maybe this is the stuff that Mark was talking about towards the back end of the talk. But perseverance isn’t something that I, on a day-to-day basis, really grapple with. Generally, I’m on an even keel. But that therefore means I don’t really think about my long-term steadfastness—my endurance—how I’m going to get to the end.
One thing that does help me in those times when I realise that I’ve not been very cognisant of the fact of my future end is being a bit more reflective: taking stock of my Christian journey and how I’ve moved from my old non-Christian days to where I am now, but also just my general sanctification over time. If I reflect and look back over how I was in my former days, I think, “Actually, going forwards, that gives me a bit of confidence as to what’s coming up,” and I can say with a bit of certainty that I can hold on to the end.
CO: For those of us who may not be natural reflectors, how do you reflect on that? What are some implications of reflection? What kinds of questions would you be asking yourself to help you think about those things?
PR: Thank you. I’m not naturally a very reflective person. I think that’s the starting point: for me, it is getting to the mindset of being a reflective person.
I think, as you’ve said, it’s the mundane stuff for me—the everyday aspects of being a Christian of saying your prayers and reading your Bibles—that gets me into that reflective piece. As you’re looking at a particular bit of Scripture and it informs some aspect of your life, you can’t help but think about your Christian journey and what the road ahead looks like. But to be honest, it’s something that I don’t dwell upon enough, and I think it’s really helpful that we have this time now to think about why it’s so important as a virtue, as Peter says.
CO: I guess in that reflection of your own journey, you are very much seeing God’s faithfulness and God’s steadfastness, and you’re being pointed to the faithfulness of Christ in that, which will then rock you into thinking about your own perseverance and why you’re persevering.
PR: That was one of the most helpful things that Mark touched upon tonight—that we are indeed partakers in his divine nature (2 Pet 1:4). As we lean more into the fact of our union with Christ—that our identity is tied up with him—that’s going to enable us to persevere. It’s not so much as a doing—an active mentality of “I need to do x, y and z in order to get to the end”; I just need to get a better grasp—a better hold—of who I am: my identity, my union with Christ. That’s what is going to enable me to keep going until the end.
CO: Yes, that’s very true. I thought it was really helpful when Mark brought up the power and the pain of perseverance—that they’re both grounded in two very different things. You can see the pain of perseverance, and we’ve seen that—whether it’s in mundane day-to-day activities where we’re just trying hard to slog through, and we see our struggles and our own temptations, we see the world that we live in, and we’re dealing and groaning in that perseverance. But then we consider the power of perseverance—that that power is not you: the power is not your own abilities, but it’s actually grounded in Christ. It’s grounded in his work. It’s constantly reminding yourself of those two things and how they work together under perseverance, but also the difference between them.
PR: Very good. On that second question we were going to touch upon—talking about the day-to-day things—we’ve touched on a few different aspects. But is there anything else you’d say enables you to cultivate that perseverance day-to-day?
CO: Yeah. I was thinking a lot about—and it’s not because I’ve done this personally, but it’s through my lovely friends who have taken up marathon running recently. I’ve been thinking about training. It’s something I admire in them, because as I hear about the process of what it looks like to train for a marathon, it’s actually quite a gruelling thing, and there is both pain and pleasure in what they’re doing. That kind of self-control—understanding what they need to train for, what goals they’re trying to achieve to help them do that, and therefore the schedule they’re trying to keep up with—I wonder if that is something helpful for us to remind ourselves. Sometimes we need to think about what we’re trying to achieve in our day-to-day. If we’re trying to persevere, what do we need to get through today to persevere until the end for that bigger picture of perseverance? In particular, we need to think through “What are the obstacles in my day that will stop me from persevering?” and be more reflective on that. But also, we could ask, “Who else is involved in this?” and looking around at who we are persevering for. I think having specifics will always ground you a bit more in being able to persevere.
PR: Just on that last point in terms of the community aspect you’ve touched on a few times, do you have any personal instances of where being surrounded by believers has enabled you to think about it a bit harder?
CO: Something I’ve been thinking about for the last year and a half is confession: how you bring people into your struggles of sin. Sin is obviously going to be one of the things that really stops you, because of the pain and doubts that it brings to your life. But learning to confess in community can help: when you have a brother or a sister (for me it’s a sister, but for others, it might be a brother)—when you’re actually sharing with them the reality and pain of your sin—and doing that in community can ground you in the assurance you have and help you persevere. You realise you’re not doing it by yourself; there’s someone walking alongside you, and it’s quite tiring and hard.
PR: That’s really helpful.
CO: Is there a last bit that you’d like to add to the implications of this in the day-to-day?
PR: No—other than to start off where I started off before and say that I’m very appreciative for a chance to grapple with this concept. It is not a virtue that I apply my mind enough to. But given our end goal—our end destination when we’re all gathered around the throne of the Lamb of God—knowing that and keeping that in our mind’s eye is really important in our day-to-day walk, but also, as you said, having those goals along the way as we get to that final day.
CO: That’s wonderful. Well, we hope that what we’ve shared with you about practicalities and thinking about the implications of what we’ve learned today has been helpful. We’ve hit our ten minutes and so we’re going to pass back to Peter.
Conclusion
PO: Thank you very much, Paul and Caitlin! Mark, thank you very much for helping us to think through this important topic this evening!
[Applause]
Let me close our evening in prayer.
Our Father,
Thank you so much for the rich resources that your word and your grace gives us. We thank you for the calls to persevere throughout the Scriptures. But we thank you that this call to persevere is grounded not in our own resources—in what we can do—but in your divine power that has given us everything that we need for godliness and calls us to live towards that godliness as we persevere as Christians.
Please help us to be those who persevere. We pray for those in our churches—those known to us—who might be struggling. Please help us to come alongside them, encourage them, and we do long that, together, we would be found perfect in Christ on the last, bringing glory to him as the firstborn over all creation. We thank you and praise you for this great hope that we have.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
[Music]
CK: To benefit from more resources from the Centre for Christian Living, please visit ccl.moore.edu.au, where you’ll find a host of resources, including past podcast episodes, videos from our live events and articles published through the Centre. We’d love for you to subscribe to our podcast and for you to leave us a review so more people can discover our resources.
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As always, I would like to thank Moore College for its support of the Centre for Christian Living, and to thank to my assistant, Karen Beilharz, for her work in editing and transcribing the episodes. The music for our podcast was generously provided by James West.
[Music]
Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Endnotes
1 Homer, The Iliad, VI.180 (trans. R Fagles; London: Penguin, 1990), 200.
2 Homer, The Odyssey, XI.681-689 (trans. R Fagles; London: Penguin, 1997), 269.
3 A Augustyn, “The Myth of Sisyphus”, Encyclopaedia Britannica (2023) https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Myth-of-Sisyphus
4 PEAADMIN, “One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy”, online https://www.peabodylibrary.org/freeforall/?p=6998.
5 A Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays (trans. J O’Brien; New York: Random House, 1955), 123.
6 Homer, The Odyssey, V.242-247 (trans. R Fagles; London: Penguin, 1997), 159.
7 Virgil, The Aeneid, V.785-786 (trans. R Fagles; London: Penguin, 2008), 176.
8 TA Adampoulo, “Endurance, Greek and Early Christian: The Moral Transformation of the Greek Idea of Endurance, From the Homeric Battlefield to the Apostle Paul” (unpublished PhD dissertation Brown University, Rhode Island, 1966). Abstract online at https://philpapers.org/rec/ADAEGA-2
9 M Luther, “Disputation against Scholastic Theology (1517)”, thesis 41, in Luther’s Works 31:12.
10 Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, I.ii.1; I.vii.8; I.viii.5-6; I.xviii.20 (LOEB 73:4-5, 30-31, 38-39, 68-69).
11 Aristotle, Ethics, I.vii.15 (LOEB73:32-33).
12 Aristotle, Ethics, II.i.7-8 (LOEB 73:74-75).
13 Luther, “Against Scholastic Theology”, thesis 40, in Luther’s Works 31:12.
14 Aquinas himself (Summa Theologiae, 1a2ae.q.55a.1) points to Augustine’s On Free Will, in which great bishop wrote “virtue is a good use of a free will [virtus est bonus usus liberi arbitrii]”, Augustine, On Free Will, II, 19(PL 32:1268). However, Augustine, in his Retractions wrote, “And because all good things, as was said—the great, the intermediate, and the least—are from God, it follows that the good use of free will, which is virtue, is also from God [sequitur ut ex Deo sit etiam bonus usus liberae voluntatis, quae virtus est] and is numbered among the great goods.” Retractions, 9.6 (PL 32:598).
15 T Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Iae2ae.q.55a.3 (Blackfriars edn, 23:11).
16 A MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981); B Hooker, “The Collapse of Virtue Ethics”, Utilitas 14/1 (2002): 22-40; D Frede, “The Historic Decline of Virtue Ethics”, in Daniel C Russell (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Virtue Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 124-148.
17 E.g. JJ Sanford, Before Virtue: Assessing Contemporary Virtue Ethics (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2015); N Snow, Contemporary Virtue Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020); SM Meawad, Beyond Virtue Ethics: A Contemporary Ethic of Ancient Spiritual Struggle (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2023).
18 GEM Anscombe, “Modern Moral Philosophy”, Philosophy 33/124 (1958): 1-19.
19 PGeach, The Virtues (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977); P. Foot, Virtues and Vices and Other Essays in Moral Philosophy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); A MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981); R Hursthouse, On Virtue Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
20 LL Morris, The Epistle to the Romans (PNTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 1988), 501.
21 https://bibletalk.tv/the-perserverance-of-god#:~:text=For%20God%20there%20are%20no,part%20of%20His%20natural%20character.
22 FF Bruce, 1 & 2 Thessalonians (WBC 45; [Waco: Word, 1982]), 202.
23 LL Morris, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), 250.
24 R Thompson, J Robinson, T Tranter, “Jerusalem” (City Alight, 2015).
25 For a helpful explanation see HA Fischel, “The Uses of Sorites (Climax, Gradatio) in the Tannaitic Period”, Hebrew Union College Annual 44 (1973): 119.
26 JND. Kelly, A Commentary on the Epistles of Peter and of Jude (BNTC; London: A & C Black, 1969), 306.
27 “The Lambeth Articles, AD 1595”, in P Schaff (ed.), The Creeds of Christendom: III. The Evangelical Protestant Creeds (repr. Grand Rapids; Baker, 2007), 523-524.
28 The tangled history of this controversy as it continued to unfold is helpfully recounted in JT Collier, Debating Perseverance: The Augustinian Heritage in Post-Reformation England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
29 The Articles of the Synod of Dort, trans. T Scott (repr. Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle, 1993), 315.
30 Articles of the Synod of Dort, 317.
31 JI Packer, Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs (Leicester: IVP, 1993), 241.
32 DB Knox, The Everlasting God (Welwyn: Evangelical Press, 1982), 105-106.
