Enduring, till the end, for the prize

During this Olympic season the world watches as athletes endure ,in their respective disciplines, for the possibility of winning a prize. A scripture came to mind the other day as I was enduring, and I was reminded that endurance is a key component in the walk of faith.

…he who endures till the end shall be saved (Matt. 10:22, 24:13)Meditating on this scripture revealed some key elements that I had forgotten:

Endure (s) (ance) – Webster says that this is a verb and as school taught me over and over again, a verb is an action word, meaning that someone (or something) is doing something; i.e. the boy ran up the street, the truck rolled down the hill. So, to say I endure, I am doing something.

Webster continues by saying that endure is to undergo (as a hardship), especially without giving in; suffer (synonym: bear).

Since this was a scripture from the Holy Bible, I felt led to check out the Hebrew word for endure to get a better understanding of what is being said by Matthew and located

‘amad: to stand, remain, endure, take one’s stand

(A sidebar thought revealed that each of these actions is preceded by the decision, to do).

Now, back to my scripture-

This action of decided endurance is for the purpose of being saved.

Again, Webster’s perspective states that saved would infer to rescue from harm, danger or loss, keep in a safe condition.

It would also infer, and Webster did not mention this, that a savior is necessary (someone to do the rescuing and the keeping).

Bypassing a theological discussion on savior I will merely look at the phrase, being saved and interject another interesting point: is one being saved to or being saved from when they endure till the end? Hmm…

Either way, according to the scripture, a person makes a decision to take a stand to experience, undergo, suffer, hardship in order for someone to rescue them, in the end.

I would suppose that whatever they are being saved from and/or saved to must be worth the endurance; a great prize. A great prize like those gold medals the world is talking about.

Otherwise, the Savior, who is doing the saving, would not have said it.

But that’s another discussion.