Endurance and Perfection in the Bible: The Link
“And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation'” Numbers 14: 17, 18.
These verses tell us that the Lord’s power is displayed in His slowness to anger, abundant love and forgiving nature.
Exodus 15: 13 conveys the same idea: “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode”.
To read this entire passage for context, click here.
Walking with God Requires Endurance
Indeed, the hardest things we are called to do as Christians require the most self-control and death to self. Or, in a word, strength. I’m talking about things like controlling our temper or lust, loving others as ourselves and forgiving those who’ve hurt us.
To walk in unfailing love is to be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing“(James 1: 3, 4). And, according to this passage, the way we become perfect and complete is by continuing to act on the truth in the midst of trials.
In other words, by being strong or having endurance. The idea is to the degree we have endurance, or strength, to that degree we are perfect and complete. Or walk in unfailing love.
In Psalm 18: 32 king David says “God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless”. This verse conveys the same idea that strength (or endurance) is what makes us perfect. And to be perfect is to be perfect in love.
Love is the Supreme Display of Endurance in the Bible
Unfailing love requires perfect strength. To never fail to do the loving thing in every situation no matter how unlovingly we are being treated is the ultimate display of strength.
Or, in other words, it is the ultimate display of perfection.
When someone hurts us, our natural response is to want to hurt them back. But strength will enable us to forgive instead. It will empower us to control ourselves. And to love them rather than get revenge.
Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (1 Corinthians 13: 7). To be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing“(James 1: 4) is to endure in believing and acting on the truth. Even in the face of trials that test our faith.
To endure in believing and acting on the truth is to always believe and act on it. You could also say it is to always protect, always trust, always hope and always persevere.
To be perfect and complete is to do what’s right and act on the truth always. Anyone can act on the truth when his circumstances line up with it. It doesn’t take faith to believe what can be seen.
Everyone does what’s right once in a while. That is to say, when they feel like it or it doesn’t involve any sacrifice.
It’s More About How Often than What
The difference between the mature and immature, those who are perfect in love and those who aren’t doesn’t lie so much in what they do. It’s more about how often they do it.
Someone who walks in unfailing love always believes and acts on the truth. This is what it means to be mature, perfect and complete. He does it the same, whether he wants to or not, whether it’s easy or hard, whether it involves sacrifice or not.
Another clue from 1 Corinthians 13 that love is one and the same with maturity or perfection comes from verse 8: “Love never fails”.
To say that love never fails is to say it always endures in acting on the truth. And to always endure in acting on the truth is to be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing“(James 1: 4).
Unfailing Love is Perfect Endurance in the Bible
In other words, love always does the right thing. When we’re speaking of love, we’re speaking in terms of always and never. Love is an extreme state or condition. Perfect love always does what’s right and never does what’s wrong.
If we’re still led by our emotions once in a while or are unduly influenced by our circumstances sometimes, we have not yet mastered unfailing love.
To read another post related to Endurance and Perfection In the Bible: The Link, see How to Be an Overcomer from the Inside Out.