Biblical Perseverance

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:12-13).

For most, that is a familiar passage of Scripture. It helps us to see that the Bible is no ordinary book; it’s even hard for me to call it just a book. Because of the nature of God’s Word and our human tendency to view it as a book, it is easy to use our human faculties alone in reading, studying, and ultimately applying the principles found within. Our humanness often if not invariably gets in the way of our understanding.

What I mean by that is we read and study, we see where we are falling short of the holy and righteous standards, and we then charge full speed ahead in our own strength and power and intellect and determination and fortitude to fix and change and correct and defeat the sin that lies within. And that sounds like the best plan of action. Even the verses we read together from Revelation 2-3 probably inspired you to be an overcomer.

And we should indeed be overcomers. If, like me, you were weaned and raised on the King James Version of the Bible, you probably can recall a verse that says that we are more than conquerors – I even still remember a Sunday School song that used that phrase as the focal point – we are more than conquerors. That is derived from Romans 8:37.

The problem with our human tendency and desire to act on those things in Scripture than need attention in our lives, is that we go about it all wrong because, as I mentioned last week, we think much too highly of ourselves, at least in the realm of spiritual things. We may indeed have some human skills and aptitudes, we may have a lot of schooling and education, we may have tremendous talents and abilities, and we may have a long pedigree of successes to point at, but none of that is transferrable to the spiritual realm. My human abilities and competence and your human abilities and competence has absolutely no power in the spiritual realm.

If I could win a marathon, followed by winning a weight-lifting competition, followed by winning the heavyweight belt in the boxing ring, followed by swimming the English Channel in record time, none of those physical abilities could defeat the weakest demon who places a temptation in front of me. Physical strength and human will-power can never accomplish spiritual victory in any facet of our lives.

In the passage that we read together from Revelation 2-3, the context of being an overcomer is relying on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in salvation, who has already overcome sin, death, and the grave. In Romans 8:37, the “we are more than conquerors” verse, it reads this way in the NASB, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loves us.” We can’t overcome in our own strength and we can’t conquer anything in the spiritual realm by our own willpower.

Yet we consistently attempt to accomplish what we learn in Scripture by our own strength.

Turn with me in your Bible to the Book of 2nd Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

Let’s pray.

We will only focus on verses 8-9 this morning, which will lead into the death and resurrection of Jesus in the following verses, transitioning perfectly into our Easter celebration next week. I read a little lengthier passage to ensure that we understood the context of what Paul is teaching us. He is by no means extolling his ability to persevere and overcome, and he definitely is not implying that we should be reaching down and uncovering our own resolve and inner strength to persevere. On the contrary, Paul clearly describes himself and us as fragile, breakable, common clay pots before speaking about perseverance. A clay pot can’t persevere through much of anything without being shattered and crushed and destroyed.

No, biblical perseverance is only possible through God’s power, not our own.

2 Corinthians 4:8a

The first thing that we need to notice and pay attention to is the phrase, “in every way”. In the Greek grammar, all four of the following statements are framed by this phrase – it carries beyond just “we are afflicted in every way”, but also “we are perplexed in every way”, “we are persecuted in every way”, and “we are struck down in every way”.

This doesn’t mean that Paul has experienced every possible way of being afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, or struck down, but only that he has been through all manner of trials and tribulation for the cause of Christ – nothing that he has faced or will continue to face surprises him. Satan will use every tool he has on his belt to thwart the ministry and to thwart the minister. The closer you draw to Christ, the more you rely on the power of the Holy Spirit within you, the more frequent will you be afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down.

The lesson that we must learn is to stop relying on your own ingenuity, power, intelligence, and even past experience. We must take our queues from Paul, accept that we are fragile and replaceable clay pots, and call on the power of Christ to get us through all of the mess, all of the attacks, and all of the struggles.

We are afflicted in every way – afflicted means to be under pressure, squeezed, pinched, pressed, and squashed. The sense is to be brought into difficulties or distress or suffering. And again, “in every way” simply means that this a consistent condition that Paul has experienced, he has been afflicted in a myriad of ways as he follows his calling to be a minister of the gospel.

Back in 1:8-9, Paul wrote, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead”.

Paul used the noun form in 1:8 and the verb form in 4:8, but it is the same word. But notice here that the affliction and the excessive burden was beyond human strength to endure – it was so intense that Paul and his companions thought their lives were to soon be cut short. The affliction was so severe that God’s purpose was finally accomplished when they “would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead”. And this is a lesson that we seem to need to learn again and again.

Paul eventually learned the lesson well, for he then adds, “but not crushed”. He is a clay pot that is under pressure and being squeezed, but by relying on God instead of his own limited strength and own limited wisdom, the affliction is stopped in its tracks before it crushed him. The pressure that Paul faced, once turned over to God, could not and would not crush him. The ministry and calling on Paul’s life would not be stopped or even slowed down, as long as he relied on God instead of himself.

2 Corinthians 4:8b

We are perplexed in every way – perplexed means to be at a loss, without means, uncertain, bewildered, baffled, or in doubt. The sense in this verse is to be or become filled with confusion resulting from failure to understand. We all understand what it feels like to not understand, right?

I think all of us are perplexed in this manner concerning so much of what is happening in our nation today – so much just does not make sense at all. At Wednesday’s Bible study, we saw how the divine judgment of Romans 1:28 is actively being poured out on many in our country right now. Because hardened unbelievers do “not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper”. As a result of this current and active judgment on the minds of so many, and after listing all manner of ungodly and immoral behavior that they have been turned over to in the depravity of their minds, it later says, “they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them” (1:32).

Viewing all of this with only our human understanding is what it means to be perplexed – clay pots have very limited understanding.

Paul has been writing about veils that cover one’s eyes and about blinded minds in previous verses, most of which was in reference to unbelievers and the gospel, but also in reference to our usual inability to grasp spiritual truth even as believers – we can’t do it with only the power of human wisdom and human logic and human intellect. It is from the Lord, the Spirit (3:18) that we are granted the capacity to comprehend spiritual truth, apart from which we will indeed be perplexed at the things that continually bombard us in life.

But in the power of the Holy Spirit, we may at times still be perplexed, but not despairing. One commentator writes, we are stressed but not stressed out. The sense is that while there are times when we are utterly clueless as to what is happening, we do not fall apart mentally or emotionally. Our perplexity does not lead us to a place of hopelessness or a place of just giving up when we rely on God and His Word. We lean on God for understanding and assurance before we fall into a state of utter despair.

2 Corinthians 4:9a

We are persecuted in every way – persecuted seems straightforward enough, even if our experience for the most part is typically not what the characters in the Bible have experienced, or believers in most other parts of the world. That being said, many of us have experienced at least some measure of persecution in some form for our faith, whether it is being ridiculed, slandered, joked about, mocked, ostracized, or even spitefully confronted. Paul’s persecution experiences included many instances of physical abuse, sometimes intense and even life-threatening physical abuse, along with imprisonment and eventually martyrdom.

The sense of being persecuted as written in this verse is to be or become subject to systematic harassment and attack, verbally and/or physically, because of one’s belief in Christ and the gospel. The Greek word translated as persecuted means to be pursued, chased, or hunted.

But even in the midst of severe persecution, the believer is never forsaken. The sense of the Greek grammar is to not be abandoned either intentionally or by neglect. Relying on God in our fragile clay pot existence, even when persecuted, we are not alone. God will not abandon us, forget about us, or even ever take His eyes off of us. Whatever the level of persecution, it can only go so far as God allows for His perfect and divine purposes that He may or may not allow us to see.

As believers in Jesus Christ, as those who have been eternally saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, we are never forsaken or abandoned, and we are thus invincible for whatever length of time that God continues to see fit to use us in His service for His glory.

2 Corinthians 4:9a

We are struck down in every way – struck down literally means to be knocked to the ground by receiving a blow, like a boxer who is knocked to the mat by an uppercut. It means to be hurt badly or to suffer considerable pain, which can obviously apply to physical and/or emotional pain.

As believers, contrary to the positive thinking prosperity crowd, we are more often than not subject to additional hardship and additional turmoil and trouble instead of a life of roses and lollipops. Beloved, Satan hates God with an unholy and incomparable passion, and since he cannot touch God, he will seek to touch God’s children. And, as we can read about in the Book of Job among other Books in the Bible, God at times allows Satan and his demons temporary and limited access to our lives to inflict a measure of harm and to afflict us with a measure of turmoil and even physical pain. All of which is under God’s control for His divine purposes and glory.

Some believers struggle immensely with this truth – they don’t understand how such can be the case if God loves us as the Bible states. God can and often does bless His children with certain aspects of prosperity (which does not always mean financial blessing) but God’s focus for our lives is not all about this temporary existence. His focus is on the eternal, on sanctifying us into the image of Jesus, on spreading His gospel message to the world, and on lifting up the name of Jesus to the nations – and He incredibly and inexpressibly has chosen to use us to accomplish this. He has chosen fragile, breakable, replaceable clay pots to accomplish His divine plans and purposes – which sometimes includes being afflicted in every way, perplexed in every way, persecuted in every way, and yes, struck down in every way.

But everything is without fail under His perfect and divine control, under His all-seeing eyes, and being orchestrated for His sovereign will and our ultimate blessing. I know that is not always easy to swallow and accept, but even in tragedy and pain God is accomplishing His very best for you at all times.

Even when we are struck down, we are not destroyed. Please understand that outside of God’s allowance for his providence, Satan has no power to destroy you. The circumstances of life have no power to destroy you. The government has no power to destroy you. Your enemies have no power to destroy you. And at the risk of hitting a little too close to home, COVID has no power to destroy you. For as long as God still has plans for your life and for my life, we are indestructible. In the power of God, we are indeed overcomers and more than conquerors!

We are like those children’s blow-up punching bags that are weighted at the bottom. No matter how hard you hit them, they always bounce back up. I mean seriously, knowing that Satan and his demons only have limited access to you that is always controlled by God, when we get struck down but not destroyed, we should bounce back up and say, “Is that all you got?” not by any means taunting Satan, but being confident in the power of God to sustain you through whatever may come.

So, the question I have for you in closing is, how often do you still go it alone when afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, or struck down? How often do we spend hours and days and weeks and even months, trying to figure things out on our own and resolving to extricate ourselves from the pressure cooker through the extremely limited power, wisdom, intellect, logic, and resources that we possess in the human realm? We’re clay pots, and in our own strength we will be crushed, despairing, forsaken, and destroyed, but not in God’s power.

Beloved, if you have repented of your sins, confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and by faith believed in your heart that God the father raised Jesus from the dead, you have full access to this incredible and infinite power. So, we must constantly be asking ourselves why we choose to not access it all the time.