faithful endurance

The trajectory of the early chapters of Revelation is from bad to worse, from dragons to beasts. In this vision of the apocalypse, all people on earth except God’s people worship the two beasts. Evil runs rampant, seeming unchecked. And the church just has to hunker down and weather the storm.  Revelation 13:10 puts it this way:

“‘If anyone is to go into captivity,

into captivity they will go.

If anyone is to be killed with the sword,

with the sword they will be killed.’

“This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.”

Sometimes in our Christian jargon we say something is a hard word, as in “I got a hard word from the Lord today.” When we say that, we mean that a certain part of scripture or maybe Godly counsel from a wise pastor or friend convicted us and put a difficult challenge before us.

Well, Revelation 13:10 is a hard word. I don’t want to wait, and I don’t want to hunker down. I want to do something. I want to fight back. I want to take some territory. I want to restore this nation.  And I look to Jesus to lead us against the world.

But in this verse, active measures aren’t in the plan for Christians. John says in his vision that as the trials of living counter-culturally worsen, and they will the nearer we get to the end, what is needed and expected are patient endurance and faithfulness. Just stick to our ideals and weather the storm.

It doesn’t sound like a great deal, but in a way it’s good news. It means I’m not expected to stem the tide. I’m not expected to fight this fight. I look to my own soul, and to the wellbeing of the church. It’s not up to me to save the world, or even our country.

This is a defensive fight, and for a former officer trained in the best military schools in the world that’s hard to swallow. We protect each other and tend to our wounded and pray fervently. And we open our sanctuary to all the refugees from the world who listen to Jesus and find safe haven in the church.

In this war, Jesus is the main effort; he’s our offensive force. We faithfully endure.