This is a study of Jesus speaking of patience and endurance. Believers were to suffer great persecution, but they would not lose a hair is the endured with patience.

1. JESUS WAS SPEAKING OF PATIENCE AND ENDURANCE
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Luke 21:19 By your patientendurance, you will gain
your souls
GreatTexts of the Bible
The Winning of the Soul
In your patience ye shall win your souls.—Luke 21:19.
Our Lord’s sojourn upon earth was now drawing to a close;and, in
proportion to the magnitude of approaching events, His statements rose in
dignity and importance. Not like a false teacher, seducing with pleasant
prospects, but as one who would not concealthe dark future, however
disheartening it might be, He draws up the veil, and bids His disciples behold,
as in a mirror, the scenes oftrouble and conflictin which they would have to
wrestle;He causes to pass before their eyes, as in a vision, the fiery
persecutions and sanguinary struggles in which Christianity was to be cradled
and baptized; and, addressing His followers as those who were to share in the
suffering—nay, to go hand in hand into the furnace—He assures themwith
the promise “In your patience ye shall win your souls.”
In the Authorized Version this verse is treatedas if it were merely an
exhortation to the disciples to be patient under the pressure of persecution
and peril. But that is not what our Lord said at all. He did not bid these
disciples possesstheir souls in patience. He said a far more striking and

2. significant thing. He said that it was by patient endurance they were to win, to
get possessionof, their souls—“Ye shallwin your souls”!It is a notable and
suggestive saying. It is perfectly true that some of the commentators take all
the suggestiveness outof it by explaining that it really means nothing more
than this: that, if the disciples remain steadfastin the midst of all their
troubles, and do not turn apostate, then they shall win life in the resurrection
of the just. This is, indeed, how the Twentieth-century Testamenttranslates
the verse:“By your endurance you shall win yourselves life.” But I cannot
help feeling that such a translation is a case ofconventionalizing and
stereotyping what is a very unconventional and unusual expression. At any
rate, I am going to take the phrase at its face value. “Ye shall win—ye shall
gain possessionof—yoursouls.” And the main and central suggestionofthe
phrase to me is this: our souls are not given to us ready-made, finished and
complete. They have to be made. They are prizes to be won. We do not start
with them—we gradually getpossessionofthem. “Life,” says Browning
somewhere, “is a stuff to try the soul’s strength on and educe the man.” I
know of no sentence that constitutes a more illuminating commentary on this
word of Christ’s. The soul is not an inheritance into which we are born; it is
something we make and fashion and win for ourselves out of the varied
discipline and experience of life.1 [Note:J. D. Jones, The Hope of the Gospel,
98.]
In one of Westcott’s letters he has this most significant reference to the words
of the text: “Ofall the changes in the RevisedVersion, that in Luke 21:19 is
the one to which perhaps I look with most hope. We think of our souls as
something given us to complete, and not as something given to us to win.” It is
a most suggestive distinction, and the failure to recognize it has been fraught
with perilous mistakes. There is a very big difference betweenpossessing a
thing and making it entirely your own. For instance, I may possess a book, but
the winning of its treasure is quite another thing. I may have come into
possessionofa musical instrument, but to woo and win its secretmelody is
quite another thing. It was one thing for Britain to come into possessionofthe
Transvaal;it is quite another thing to win the people of the Transvaalto our
rule. And these analogiesmay help us in the interpretation of the text. To win

3. the soulis to bring all its rebel powers into willing homage to King Jesus. To
win the soul is to elicit all its latent music and cause it to spring forth in
constantpraise. To win the soul is gradually to constrainall that is within us
to praise and bless His holy name.2 [Note: J. H. Jowett, in The British
Congregationalist, March4, 1909, p. 178.]
I
The Promise
“Ye shall win your souls.”
1. What is meant by a man winning his own soul? We can understand winning
others to the side of right; but here it speaks ofa man winning his ownsoul as
if he could be, so to speak, the makerof his own soul, along with its Creator. If
we thoughtfully turn over the subject for a little while we shall see that there is
deep significance in this fact. We do not come into the world fully developed.
Man is born with a greatmany potentialities. God creates nothing perfect, but
everything for perfection. There is a certain sense in which a man wins his
body. When we look at a child lying helpless in its cot, we think what a long
way it has to travel, so far as its bodily structure is concerned, before it can
stand forth in the full strength of manhood. If that child were restrained from
all exercise of its powers it would be helpless all its life. But as it puts forth its
powerit gains power, and the result is that at length it stands forth in the
strength of manhood. It is preciselythe same in regardto the mind. If any one
were kept in absolute intellectual sluggishness,the mind would never be
developed. Education depends not so much on putting knowledge into the
child’s mind as on drawing powerforth from it by the exercise ofpower. Thus
it may be said that a man may win his mind. And we can understand the same
thing in regard to the bodily and mental power;but the time will come when

4. the body and the mind have done their work, when the spiritual nature should
receive its full development. And when this has been achieved, then a man
may be said to have won his own soul.
Every time we choose the hard right way rather than the easywrong way we
gain soul. Every time we sacrifice easeand comfort to do service to our
fellows, we gain soul. Every time we say a kindly word and do a loving deed,
we gain soul. When F. N. Charrington gave up a fortune to fight the drink, he
gained soul. When Frank Crossleygave up comfortin Bowdon, and went and
lived in Ancoats to minister to the poor, he gained soul. When Dr. Peter
Frasergive up position and fame at home to go and be a missionary in the far-
off Khassia hills, he gained soul. For the soul lives and grows and expands on
love and kindness and sacrifice. Ourheart is always enlargedwhen we run in
the wayof God’s commandments.1 [Note: J. D. Jones, The Hope of the
Gospel, 108.]
2. There may be a loss or shrinkage of soul. The heat and drought of
worldliness cause the souls of men to shrink. Their very souls seemsometimes
to become dry, hard, and small in selfishness. The process ofsoul-wasting and
soul-shrinking is continually going on in the world. There was a man born
apparently for large things. His mother’s eye brightened as she lookeddown
through the years awayinto his golden prospects. His father’s pride saw him
climbing thrones of power. At thirty, at fifty, people who knew him when a
boy, speak of what a man he might have been. Some sin at the root of the life
has shrivelled the soul, which once beganto grow. When a soul is dissipated
before the body decays, when man’s worldly interests destroy his capacityfor
truth and honour, chivalry and love, when sin exhausts his force as weeds do
the soil, then a man is losing soul. Every departure from love and truth means
shrinkage of soul; every trick, every falsenessleaves a man so much less a
living soul.

5. Men have I seen, and seenwith wonderment,
Noble in form, “lift upward and divine,”
In whom I yet must search, as in a mine,
After that soul of theirs, by which they went
Alive upon the earth. And I have bent
Regardon many a woman, who gave sign
God willed her beautiful, when He drew the line
That shaped eachfloat and fold of beauty’s tent:
Her soul, alas, chambered in pigmy space,
Left the fair visage pitiful-inane—
Poorsignalonly of a coming face
When from the penetrale she filled the fane!—

6. Possessedof Thee was every form of Thine,
Thy very hair replete with the Divine.1 [Note: George MacDonald, “Sonnets
Concerning Jesus” (PoeticalWorks,i. 253).]
3. The winning of the soul is a continuous process. The religious life is the
fulfilment of one’s own nature in truest, largestways. It is the unfolding of
one’s truest self, under the Fatherhoodof God—the Godwho gives the life,
sustains and nourishes it. It is the Divine within us responding to the Divine in
God—reaching out and striving to measure itself up in beauty beside His
perfect life. It is a spiritual energy welling up from within and realizing itself
in all lovely thoughts and deeds, in purity of heart, high aspirings and service
of mankind.
This conceptionof the religions life as developedfrom within is true to the
now known laws of nature. Nothing in nature is superadded, put in from the
outside; all is the result of the wonderful processesoffulfilment from within,
the first germ of life gradually expressing itself in a million forms and
beauties.
Growth is a vital as distinguished from a mechanicalprocess;it partakes,
therefore, of the mystery which envelops the essenceoflife wherever it
appears;it is inexplicable and unsolvable. It cannot be understood and it
cannot be imitated; it has the perennial interest and wonderof the
miraculous. As we study it, the impression deepens within us that we are face
to face with a method which not only transcends our understanding but from
which our finest skill is differentiated, not only in degree, but in kind. Men
have done wonderful things with thought, craft, and tools;but the manner of
the unfolding of a wild flower is as greata mystery to-day as it was when

7. science beganto look, to compare, and to discover. Betweenthe thing that
grows and the thing that is made there is a gulf set which has never been
crossed. Mechanismis marvellous, but growthis miraculous. From the seedto
the fruit, from the egg to the perfected animal, from the primordial cell to the
complete man, the process by which life evolves its potency and discloses its
aims is the process ofgrowth. No other method is knownto nature, and the
universality of this method, and the completeness withwhich, so far as we can
see, life is limited to it, put it in importance on a level with the mysterious
force to which it is bound in indissoluble union. Hence, next in importance to
the factof life, comes the method of life-growth, not by additions from
without, but by evolution from within.1 [Note:H. W. Mabie.]
4. The growth of the soul, though imperceptible, may be none the less real.
Nature moves slowly, advancing by hair’s-breadths, augmenting by the
scruple. If we had lived on this earth from its very beginning until now, we
should have thought it standing still, so tardy its action and minute the
individual result; but if we recall the geologicalage whennot a plant was on
the earth, and then compare that barren epochwith the modern world
blushing like a rainbow with ten thousand flowers, it is patent, after all, that
the development of the planet has gone on un-restingly, howeversilently and
deliberately. It is the same with the history of civilization. Had we lived
through the long ages since man first appeared on the earth until now, we
should have thought him ever standing still, so gradual and insignificant have
been the successivechangesand transformations of which he has been the
subject; but compare the flint instruments, the rude vessels, and the grotesque
decorations ofa primitive kitchen-midden, with the splendid treasures of an
International Exhibition, and the progress is as indisputable as it is glorious.
So with the spiritual development of the race;we cannotmark the steps of its
onward march; but the moral barbarism of the ages, by fine degrees which
escape oureye, passes into the pure splendour of the millennial world. “What
is to last for evertakes a long time to grow.” And so it is also with the spiritual
development of a man’s life.

8. Mostmen, when they grow old, are satisfiedto be what they are. They have
lived their lives, and wait quietly for the final summons. Their habits are too
rigid to be easilychanged, and they have no longerthe force to make the
attempt. Or they become indifferent, first about outward things, and then
about themselves. Or they live in the past and think of what they have been,
not of what they are, still less of what they may become. Or, if unsatisfied with
themselves, they despair of improvement and sadly say, with Swift: “I am
what I am.” Jowett, as we know, thought very differently. To the lasthe
wished to make the most of life, improving not others only, but himself. With
him moral growth was a life-long process;the ideal was always before him,
leading him upwards and onwards. Often weary, often in pain, conscious of
failing powers in body and mind, through doubt and failure, he toiled on,
still hoping, ever and anon,
To reach, one eve, the better land.
“I wonder whether it is possible,” he asks, in writing to a friend, “to grow a
little better as one grows older. What do you say? I rather think so. Will you
take the matter into considerationfor you and for myself? People seemto me
to have lost the secretof it, and to keepto the old routine, having taken in
about as much religion or truth or benevolence as they are capable of. Against
this I venture to setthe homely doctrine, that we should be as goodas we can,
and find out for ourselves ways ofbeing and doing good.”1[Note:Abbot and
Campbell, Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett, ii. 352.]
Thy hills are kneeling in the tardy spring,
And wait, in supplication’s gentleness,

9. The certainresurrection that shall bring
A robe of verdure for their nakedness.
Thy perfumed valleys where the twilights dwell,
Thy fields within the sunlight’s living coil,
Now promise, while the veins of nature swell,
Eternal recompense to human toil.
And when the sunset’s final shades depart,
The aspirationto completedbirth
Is sweetand silent; as the soft tears start,
We know how wanton and how little worth
Are all the passions ofour bleeding heart

10. That vex the awful patience of the earth.1 [Note:G. C. Lodge, Poems and
Dramas, i. 76.]
II
The Masteryof the Soul
1. The first essentialin the struggle to win our souls is self-mastery. We say
that a man is self-possessed. Whatdo we mean by that but that there resides
in the man a powerwhich holds all his faculties at command, and brings them
into service in spite of all distractions? There can be no better phrase to
express it. He possesses himself. He can do what he will with that side of the
self which he chooses to use. Nothing takes awayhis courage. He has that in
possession. Excitementand tumult do not take awaythe clearness ofhis
mental vision. He keeps his eye on his theme. He has possessionof his tongue.
No confusion takes from him the powerof lucid speech:and, above all, that
deep-lying personality of the man is not thrown off its feet. It asserts itself.
Men as they look and listen, perhaps as they rave, say, “The man is himself.
He is not what our threats or our tumult or our opposition make him. We
cannot take his manhood away from him. He has himself in hand. He is self-
possessed.”
The figure which our Lord uses will perhaps be best understood through the
physical analogy. Instances are common enough among us of those who have
lost the mastery over some physical power. It may be a case ofparalysis. It
may be a species ofatrophy. It may be the result of disease, orthe result of
neglect. But the powerover the limb, let us say, for any effective service, has
been lost. And we are so constitutedin this marvellous physical organism that
from the loss of one power the whole body suffers. Now, supposing it be
possible by some treatment to recoverthe possessionofthe lost power:to

11. reanimate the paralysed limb, renew, and as it were recreate, the decaying or
decayedfaculty, so that once again its full activity and use lies at the service of
the will—this would be the winning of the physical organism. Well, that is not
an idea which it is difficult to transfer to the spiritual nature. Who is there
who has not known instances ofan atrophied conscience? Who has not
known, alas, men with a withered faith as real, if not so visible, as the
withered hand of the man whose misery moved the compassionof Christ? Do
you suppose any man would excite the pity of God for a withered hand, and
none for a withered heart? Yet men who have thrown all their force into their
intellect and allowedtheir affections to wither are a tragic reality. It is
possible, as we know, not from prophet lips alone, but from our own
experience, to lose the vision of God. More, it is possible to lose the powerof
vision. This it was that was in the thought of Christ, surely. Ye shall win your
souls—recoveryour mastery over these God-given powers and faculties.1
[Note:C. S. Horne, The Soul’s Awakening, 257.]
Man is not God but hath God’s end to serve,
A master to obey, a course to take,
Somewhatto castoff, somewhatto become.
Grant this, then man must pass from old to new,
From vain to real, from mistake to fact,
From what once seemedgood, to what now proves best.

12. How could man have progressionotherwise?2 [Note:R. Browning, A Deathin
the Desert.]
I shall have frequent occasionto refer to the letters of JonathanOtley, a most
true pioneer in geologicalscience, and to avail myself of his work. But that
work was chiefly crowned in the example he left—not of what is vulgarly
praised as self-help (for every noble spirit’s watchwordis “Godus ayde”)—
but of the rarest of moral virtues, self-possession. “Inyour patience, possess ye
your souls.”3 [Note:Ruskin, Deucalion(Works, xxvi. 294).]
2. Self-possessioncomesby self-surrender. We never own ourselves till we
have given up owning ourselves, and yielded ourselves to that Lord who gives
us back saints to ourselves. Self-controlis self-possession. We do not own
ourselves as long as it is possible for any weaknessin flesh, sense, orspirit to
gain dominion over us and hinder us from doing what we know to be right.
We are not our ownmasters, then. “While they promise them liberty, they
themselves are the bondservants of corruption.” It is only when we have the
bit well into the jaws of the brutes, and the reins tight in our hands, so that a
finger-touch can check or divert the course, that we are truly lords of the
chariot in which we ride and of the animals that impel it.
The first thing to do is the thing which those men had alreadydone to whom
Jesus gave this promise that they should win their souls. What they had
done—the first decisive step which they had taken in the work of finding their
lives—was not, indeed, to acquaint themselves with all knowledge, orto peer
into all mysteries. They had not even lingered at the doors of the schoolofthe
Rabbis. But when One who spake as never man spake, and who lookedinto
men’s souls with the light of a Divine Spirit in His eye, came walking upon the
beachwhere they were mending their nets, and bade them leave all and follow
Him, they heard the command as coming from the King of Truth, and at once

13. they left all and followedHim. They countednot the cost;they obeyed, when
they found themselves commanded by God in Christ.
We are ever ready to think it was easyfor those who saw Christ to follow
Him. Could we readHis sympathy and truthfulness in His face, could we hear
His words addresseddirectly to ourselves, couldwe ask our own questions
and have from Him personalguidance, we fancy faith would be easy. And no
doubt there is a greaterbenedictionpronounced on those who “have not seen,
and yet have believed.” Still the advantage is not wholly theirs who saw the
Lord growing up among other boys, learning His trade with ordinary lads,
clothed in the dress of a working man. The brothers of Jesus found it hard to
believe. Besides, in giving the allegiance ofthe Spirit, and forming eternal
alliance, it is well that the true affinities of our spirit be not disturbed by
material and sensible appearances.1[Note:Marcus Dods, The Gospelof St.
John, 57.]
3. When we have masteredour souls, we have won a victory which determines
all minor issues. A greatbattle is raging. There is a fort which is the key to the
whole position. Whichever side canwin and hold that, is victor. Here, then,
the generalmasseshis troops. Other parts of the field are carriedby the
enemy. The outposts are driven in. The batteries are captured. Troops cannot
be spared for these. Everything is concentratedupon that fort, and at last it is
taken. The dead and dying lie in heaps round it, but the flag waves over. It has
been takenat the sacrifice ofminor positions, but these are of no accountnow.
The enemy will abandon these of his own accord. He has nothing to gainby
holding them any longer. They are commanded by the superior post; and, in
the light of the fact that the generalholds the point from which he can
command the whole field and dictate terms, his former dealing with the
inferior positions is explained and justified. He could afford to sacrifice them
for the sake ofholding the keyto the field. The lesserthing was wiselygiven
up for the greater. Wellfor us if we can carry that principle into our spiritual
warfare. Well for us if we shall clearly recognize the soulas the key to the

14. position. Well for us if we can wholly take in the meaning of the words, “What
shall it profit a man, if he shall gainthe whole world, and lose his own soul?”
It happens that I have practically some connexion with schools for different
classesofyouth; and I receive many letters from parents respecting the
educationof their children. In the mass of these letters I am always struck by
the precedence whichthe idea of a “position in life” takes above all other
thoughts in the parents’—more especiallyin the mothers’—minds. “The
educationbefitting such and such a station in life”—this is the phrase, this the
object, always. They never seek, as faras I can make out, an educationgood in
itself; even the conceptionof abstractrightness in training rarely seems
reachedby the writers. But, an education “whichshall keepa goodcoaton my
son’s back;—which shall enable him to ring with confidence the visitors’ bell
at double-belled doors;which shall result ultimately in the establishment of a
double-belled door to his own house;—in a word, which shall lead to
advancementin life;—this we pray for on bent knees—andthat is all we pray
for.” It never seems to occurto the parents that there may be an education
which, in itself, is advancement in Life:—that any other than that may
perhaps be advancement in Death; and that this essentialeducationmight be
more easilygot, or given, than they fancy, if they setabout it in the right way;
while it is for no price, and by no favour, to be got, if they setabout it in the
wrong.1 [Note:Ruskin Sesame andLilies (Works, xviii. 54).]
III
The Discipline of the Soul
“In your patience.”

15. 1. There is need of patience. See what a fearful campaign is mapped out for
these disciples of His. War and natural convulsion in the earth; the machinery
of civil government arrayed againstthe faith; domestic affectionchangedto
gall; kindred turned into persecutors;hatred from every quarter. But see the
point on which Christ fixes the disciples’attention. It is not how all this
persecutionand sorrow are going to affectfortune and life and domestic
relations. That needs no comment. It is not how the disciple is going to be able
to break the force of these blows. He will not be able to break it. It may put an
end to his life. But it is what the disciple is going to win and bring out of it all.
Something is to be suffered. He does not concealthat; but something, and that
the greatestthing, is to be won.
In the prefatory note of Christina’s “Face ofthe Deep” she once more
mentions her sister[Maria] though not by name:—
“A dear saint—I speak under correctionof the Judgment of the GreatDay,
yet think not then to have my word corrected—this dearperson once pointed
out to me Patience as our lessonin the Book ofRevelation. Following the clue
thus afforded me, I seek and hope to find Patience in this Book ofawful
import. Patience, atthe least:and along with that grace whatevertreasures
beside God may vouchsafe me.”1 [Note:Mackenzie Bell, Christina Rossetti,
63.]
2. We are all placed differently because ofdifferent temptations; but,
whateverour position, we can win something out of the circumstances ofour
life. In the Epistle to the Romans it is said, “We are accountedas sheepfor the
slaughter.” Yet, the Apostle adds, “In all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us.” During life’s battle we win that which
will carry us into greaterlife beyond. So life may be lookedon as a school
where the young are trained. The exercises theyare engagedin to-day they
will never care for again, but meanwhile they are being shaped for the great

16. world. These books and exerciseswill be simply waste paper by-and-by, but
the strength and vigour of mind they generate will be always valuable. Life,
then, is a greatschoolin which there are no holidays, in which a man is always
being shaped and trained for a greaterlife on the other side. Let a man go
forth to business to confront some greattemptation, and let him, in his
integrity, by God’s grace standfirm and strong—thatman will go to bed at
night having gainedsoul.
Astronomers tell us that one, at any rate, of the planets rolls on its orbit
swathedin clouds and moisture. The world moves wrapped in a mist of tears.
God alone knows them all, but eachheart knows its ownbitterness, and
responds to the words, “Ye have need of patience.”1 [Note:A. Maclaren.]
3. The patience here spokenof is not merely submission, but active
persistence, constancy. It is not enoughthat we shall stand and bear the
pelting of the pitiless storm, unmurmuring and unbowed by it; we are bound
to go on our course, bearing up and steering right onwards. Persistent
perseverance in the path that is marked out for us is especiallythe virtue that
our Lord here enjoins. It is well to sit still unmurmuring; it is better to march
on undaunted and unswerving. And when we are able to keepstraight on the
path which is markedout for us, and especiallyon the path that leads us to
God, notwithstanding all opposing voices, and all inward hindrances and
reluctances;when we are able to go to our tasks ofwhateversort they be, and
to do them, though our hearts are beating like sledge-hammers;when we say
to ourselves, “It does not matter a bit whether I am sad or glad, fresh or
wearied, helped or hindered by circumstances, this one thing I do,” then we
have come to understand and to practise the grace that our Masterhere
enjoins.
Wherever the flowers of the North are distributed they prevail; they establish
themselves in all climates, driving out the native flowers. On the other hand,

17. the flowers of the South cannot establishthemselves here. The explanation is
that what the northern blooms have endured has made them robust and
victorious. The Christian religion is one of endurance. This was first and pre-
eminently true of our Lord. The first ages ofthe Church were ages of
martyrdom. Ever since then the Christian faith has borne the weight of
opposition and trial. As the glacialperiod has made the flowers hardy, so the
discipline of suffering has made the Church of Christ the very home of
patience, power, heroism. In this powerof patience we win our souls—we
realize ourselves, save ourselveseverlastingly.1[Note:W. L. Watkinson, The
Gates of Dawn, 103.]
When the Duke of Wellington saw a painting of Waterloo which represented
him sitting on horseback witha watch in his hand anxiously scanning the
hour, the greatsoldier ridiculed the picture, declaredthe posture false, and
told the artist to paint the watchout. No battle is won with a watchin our
palm. The victory over our own nature and the victory that overcomeththe
world are gained in patient faith and endeavour.
4. Christ manifested the patience that He recommended. The patience of our
Lord is remarkable. Isaiahprophesied of Him: “He shall not fail nor be
discouraged, till he have setjudgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for
his law.” Nothing is more wonderful than the serenity of our Lord in the
prosecutionof His greatmission. His zeal was a flaming fire, and His desire to
see of the travail of His soul in the establishment of His kingdom of universal
righteousness andpeace was intense, with an intensity into which we cannot
enter; but the calmness with which He carriedout His purpose was that of the
measuredand majestic movements of nature. He was never flurried or
betrayed into the agitationof hurry; but, whilst kindling with sublime and
mighty enthusiasm, He proceededto fulfil His destiny without haste and
without pause.

18. He who waited so long for the formation of a piece of old red sandstone will
surely wait with much long-suffering for the perfecting of a human spirit.2
[Note:Letters of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, ii. 242.]
Grant us, O Lord, that patience and that faith:
Faith’s patience imperturbable in Thee,
Hope’s patience till the long-drawn shadows flee,
Love’s patience unresentful of all scathe.
Verily we need patience breath by breath;
Patience while faith holds up her glass to see,
While hope toils yoked in fear’s copartnery,
And love goes softlyon the way to death.
How gracious and how perfecting a grace
Must patience be on which those others wait:

19. Faith with suspended rapture in her face,
Hope pale and careful hand in hand with fear,
Love—ah, goodlove who would not antedate
God’s will, but saith, Goodis it to be here.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti.]
The Winning of the Soul
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Inevitable Trial And Unfailing Resources
Luke 21:14-19
W. Clarkson
Here we have one more illustration of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ toward
his apostles.So far was he from encouraging in them the thought that their
path would be one of easyconquestand delightful possession, thathe was
frequently warning them of a contrary experience. It was not his fault if they
failed to anticipate hardship and suffering in the neat' future; he told them
plainly that his service meant the cross, withall its pain and shame. In
reference to the apostles ofour Lord, we have here -

20. I. THE SEVERITYOF THE TRIALS THAT WERE BEFORE THEM. Jesus
Christ had already indicated the fact that fidelity to his cause would entail
severe loss and trial; here he goes into detail. He says that it will include:
1. Generalexecration. Theywould be "hated of all men." This is a trial of no
small severity; to move among men as if we were unworthy of their
fellowship; to be condemned, to be despised, to be shunned by all men; to be
the objectof universal reprobation; - this is a blow which, if it "breaks no
bones," cuts into the spirit and wounds the heart with a deep injury. Fidelity
to their Masterand to their mission would entail this.
2. Desertionand treacheryon the part of their own friends and kindred. (Ver.
16.)Very few sorrows canbe more piercing, more intolerable, than desertion
by our own family, than betrayal by our dearestfriends; it is the lastand
worstcalamity when "our own familiar friend lifts up his heelagainstus."
Those who abandoned the old faith, or rather the Pharisaic versionof it, and
who followedChrist had to be prepared for this domestic and socialsorrow.
3. Death. (Ver. 16.)
II. THE UNFAILING RESOURCES ON WHICH THEY COULD DEPEND.
1. Everything they suffered would be endured for the sake of Jesus Christ; all
would be "for my Name's sake" (ver. 17). We know how the thought that they
were experiencing wrong and undergoing shame for Christ's sake couldnot
only alleviate, not only dissipate sorrow, but even turn it into joy (see Acts
5:41; Philippians 1:29). To suffer for Christ's sake couldgive a thrill of sacred
joy such as no pleasures could possibly afford.
2. They would have the shield of the Master's power(ver. 18). Not a hair of
their head should perish until he allowedit. That mighty Friend who had kept
them in perfect safety, though enemies were many and fierce, would be as
near to them as ever. His presence wouldattend them, and no shaft should
touch them which he did not wish to hurt them.
3. They should have the advantage of his animating Spirit (vers. 14, 15).
Whenever wisdom or utterance should he needed, the Spirit of Christ would

21. put thoughts into their mind and words into their lips. His animating power
should be upon them, should dwell within them.
4. They should triumph in the end; not, indeed, by martial victories, but by
unyielding loyalty. "In patience" (in persistencyin the right course)"they
would possess theirsouls." Losing their life in noble martyrdom, they would
save it (ch. 9:24); loving their life, they would lose it; but "hating their life in
this world, they would keepit unto. life eternal" (John 12:25). The bright
promise of an unfading crownmight cheerthem on their way, and help them
to pursue without flagging the path of devoted loyalty.
APPLICATION.
1. Similar trials awaitthe faithful now. The dislike, the aversion, the
opposition, of some, if not the active and strong hatred of all; the opposition,
perhaps quiet enough, and yet keenand injurious enough, of our own friends
or relatives; loss, struggle, suffering, if not fatal consequencesofenmity.
Downright loyalty to Jesus Christ, tenacity and intensity of conviction, usually
carry persecutionand trial with them.
2. We have the same resources the apostles had.
(1) The constant, sustaining, inspiring sense that we are enduring all for
Christ our Savior - for him who suffered all things for us.
(2) His protecting care.
(3) His indwelling, upholding Spirit.
(4) The strong assurance thathe will cause us to triumph, that he will help us
to be faithful unto death, and will then give us the crownof life; that by
"patient continuance in well-doing" (patience, perseverance)we. shallhave
"eternallife" (shall possessour souls). - C.

22. Biblical Illustrator
This poor Widow hath castin more than they all.
Luke 21:1-4
The widow's mites
J. W. Pringle, M. A.
Our Lord wished to see "how the multitude castmoney into the collection-
chest" — not only how much — anybody could have discoveredthat — but in
what manner and spirit it was being done: reverently or irreverently — as
unto God or as unto man — so as to display or so as to concealthe offering —
with a conscientious aimto give all that was due, or a self-convictedsense that
a part thereof was being withheld. The searching eye of the Masterstruck
through the outward demeanour of eachpassing worshipper, right down to
the motive that swayedthe hand. He was reading the heart of eachgiver. He
was marking whether the gift was the mere fruit of a devotionless habit — a
sheeraffectationof religious liberality — or, as it ought to be, a humble and
sincere tokenof gratitude and consecrationto God. These were the inquiries
that were engaging the mind of our Lord on this memorable occasion. We are
not informed how long He had sator what discoveries He had made before
the arrival of the "poorwidow," but He noticed that she gave but two
"mites";and knowing that this was all she had, He discerned the unselfishness

23. and love that prompted an offering which would perhaps be her last oblation
on the altar of the Lord. This actof unfeigned devotion touched Him at once,
insomuch that He immediately calledHis disciples, and drew their attention to
so striking and instructive a case. Itwas her gift, rather than any other, that
attractedthe greatestinterestin the courts of heaven. It was her offering,
rather than any other, that was alone worthy of a permanent recordin the
GospelHistory and the "books ofeternalremembrance." And why? Not only
because she gave "allher living," but because she gave it unto the Lord "with
all her heart." Not at all in a spirit of petulance or desperation, as might have
been the case;not at all because she saw wantstaring her in the face, and
thought it no longer worth her while to retain the paltry coins she possessed.
On the contrary, it was the fineness of the woman's spirit, the richness of her
gratitude and love, the wealth of her self-forgetfulnessand trust under the
severity of her trials, that gave her little gift the exceeding rareness ofits
value. She was neither despairing nor repining, but "walking by faith" and in
contentment, reflecting that, not. withstanding her indigence, there was none
to whom she was so greata debtor as unto the Lord her God, who in His
providence had given her all she had, or ever had had, or everwould have,
temporal and spiritual. And out of the depths of her adorationand
thankfulness she says unto herself, "I will go," in my poverty and sincerity,
"and pay my vows unto the Lord in the presence ofall His people," castmy
slender and only offering into the sacredtreasury, and awaitthe goodnessof
His hand in "the land of the living." The other worshippers were giving
variously, but all "of their abundance";or, as the RevisedVersion has it, "of
their superfluity." They never missed what they gave. They were sacrificing
nothing to enable them to give. They could have given more, some of them far
more, and never have felt the slightestpressure in consequence. Butthe "poor
widow" had not an iota more to offer. She gave her "uttermost farthing," and
she gave it gladly.
(J. W. Pringle, M. A.)
The duty of almsgiving

24. James Foote, M. A.
1. It is necessaryand scriptural that there be public voluntary contributions
for pious and charitable purposes.
2. Both the rich and the poor should contribute to pious and charitable
purposes, and that according to their respective ability.
3. It concerns us all to see that our contributions be such, in respectof the
principles and motives from which they flow, as will meet with the Divine
approbation.
4. Be exhorted to castliberally into the offerings of God, by the encouraging
considerations whichare placedbefore you in His Word.(1) Remember that
the eye of the Lord Jesus Christ is upon you.(2) Remember, again, the
considerations connectedwith the amazing kindness of your God and Saviour
to you.(3) Be exhorted, once more, to give liberally, by the considerationof the
promise of an abundant recompense, both in this world and in the world to
come.
(James Foote, M. A.)
The anonymous widow
Christian Age.
It is related of Father Taylor, the sailormissionary of Boston, that on one
occasion, whena minister was urging that the names of the subscribers to an
institution (it was the missionary cause)should be published, in order to
increase the funds, and quoted the accountof the poor widow and her two
mites, to justify this trumpet-sounding, he settled the question by rising from
his seat, and asking in his clear, shrill voice, "Will the speakerpleasegive us
the name of that poor widow?"
(Christian Age.)

25. The widow's mite
M. F. Sadler.
When it is saidthat this mite was all this woman's living, it must, of course,
mean all her living for that day. She threw herself upon the providence of God
to supply her with her evening meal or night's lodging. From what she gave,
which the Lord brought to light and commended, the expression"I give my
mite" has passedinto a proverb, which in the mouths of many who use it is
ridiculous, if not profane. What ought to be the mite of one in a goodbusiness
which yields him severalhundreds a year clearprofit? What ought to be the
mite of a professionalman in goodpractice, afterall reasonable family claims
are provided for? A man with an income of at leasttwo or three hundred a
year once said to me, when I called upon him for assistancein keeping up a
national school, "I will think about it, sir, and I will give you my mite." He did
think, and his mite was two shillings. Contrast this with the following. Two
agedpaupers, having only the usual parish pay, became communicants. They
determined that they would not neglectthe offertory; but how was this to be
done, as they were on starvation allowance?Well, during the week before the
celebration, they did without light, satup for two or three hours in the dark,
and then went to bed, and gave the few pence which they savedin oil or
rushlights to be laid on the altar of God.
(M. F. Sadler.)
Giving his all
A gentleman was walking late one night along a street in London, in which
stands the hospital where some of our little friends support a bed ("The May
Fair Cot," in Ormond StreetHospital) for a sick child. There were three
acrobats passing along there, plodding wearily home to their miserable
lodgings after their day's work; two of them were men, and they were
carrying the ladders and poles with which they gave their performance in the
streets wheneverthey could collecta crowdto look on. The third was a little
boy in a clown's dress. He trotted wearily behind, very tired, and looking pale

26. and sick. Justas they were passing the hospital the little lad's sad face
brightened for a moment. He ran up the steps and dropped into the box
attachedto the door a little bit of paper. It was found next morning there. It
containeda sixpence, and on the paper was written, "Fora sick child." The
one who saw it afterwards ascertained, as he tells us, that the poor little waif,
almost destitute, had been sick, and in his weary pilgrimage was a year before
brought to the hospital, which had been a " House Beautiful " to him, and he
was there cured of his bodily disease. Hands of kindness had ministered to
him, words of kindness had been spokento him, and he had left it cured in
body and whole in heart. Some one on that day in a crowd had slipped a
sixpence into his hand, and that same night as he passedby, his grateful little
heart gave up for other child-sufferers "all the living that he had." It was all
done so quietly, so noiselessly;but oh I believe me, the sound of that little coin
falling into God's treasury that night rose above the roarand din of this
mighty city, and was heard with joy in the very presence of God Himself
The giving out of abundance and out of penury
"Mamma, I thought a mite was a very little thing. What did the Lord mean
when He said the widow's mite was more than all the money the rich men
gave?" It was Sunday afternoon, and the question was askedby a little child
of eight, who had large, dark, inquiring eyes, that were always trying to look
into things. Mamma had just been reading to her the story from the Bible,
and now she wanted it explained. Mamma thought for a few minutes, and
then said, "Well, Lulu, I will tell you a little story, and then I think you will
understand why the widow's mite was more valuable than ordinary mites.
There was once a little girl, whose name was Kitty, and this little girl had ever
so many dolls, almost more than she could count. Some were made of china,
and others were made of wax, with real hair and beautiful eyes that would
open and shut; but Kitty was tired of them all, except the newestone, which
her auntie had given her at Christmas. One day a poor little girl came to the
door begging, and Kitty's mother told her to go and getone of her old dolls
and give it away. She did so, and her old doll was like what the rich men put
into the treasury. She could give it awayjust as well as not, and it didn't cost

27. her anything. But the poor little beggargirl was delighted with her doll. She
had never had but one before, and that was a rag doll; but this one had such
lovely curly hair, and she had never seenany lady with such an elegantpink
silk dress on. She was almostafraid to hold it againsther dirty shawl, for fear
of soiling it; so she hurried home as fast as she could, to hide it awaywith her
few small treasures. Justas she was going upstairs to their poor rooms, she
saw through the crack of the door in the basement her little friend Sally, who
had been sick in bed all summer, and who was all alone all day, while her
mother went out washing, to try and earn money enough to keepthem from
starving. As our little girl lookedthrough the crack she thought to herself, 'I
must show Sally my new dolly.' So she rushed into the room and on to the bed,
crying, 'O Sally! see!' Sally tried to reachout her arms to take it, but she was
too sick;so her little friend held up the dolly, and as she did so, she thought,
'How sick Sally looks to-day! and she hasn't any dolly.' Then, with one
generous impulse, she said, 'Here, Sally, you may have her.' Now, Lulu, do
you see? The little girl's dolly was like the widow's mite — she gave her all."
The largestgiver
W. Baxendale.
The late BishopSelwyn was a man of ready wit as well as of devout Christian
feeling. In his New Zealand diocese it was proposedto allot the seats ofa new
church, when the Bishop askedon what principle the allotment was to be
made, to which it was replied that the largestdonors should have the best
seats, andso on in proportion. To this arrangement, to the surprise of every
one, the Bishop assented, andpresently the question arose who had given the
most. This, it was answered, should be decided by the subscription list. "And
now," said the Bishop, "who has given the most? The poor widow in the
temple, in casting into the treasury her two mites, had castin more than they
all; for they of their abundance had castinto the treasury, but she had castin
all the living that she had."
(W. Baxendale.)

28. A Welsh boy's offering
It is related of a little Welsh boy who attended a missionary meeting that
when he had given in his collecting card and what he had obtained from his
friends, he was greatlydistressedbecause he had not a halfpenny of his own to
put in the plate at the meeting. His heart was so thrilled with interestin the
work that he ran home and told his mother that he wanted to be a missionary,
and askedher to give him something for the collection, but she was too poor to
give him any money. He was disappointed and cried; but a thought struck
him. He collectedallhis marbles, went out, and sold them for a penny, and
then went to the meeting againand put it on the plate, feeling glad that he was
able to do something to promote the cause ofmissions.
What one halfpenny cando
Bowes.
A son of one of the chiefs of Burdwan was converted by a single tract. He
could not read, but he went to Rangoon, a distance of two hundred and fifty
miles; a missionary's wife taught him to read, and in forty-eight hours he
could read the tract through. He then took a basketfull of tracts; with much
difficulty preached the gospelat his own home, and was the means of
converting hundreds to God. He was a man of influence; the people flockedto
hear him; and in one year one thousand five hundred natives were baptized in
Arracan as members of the Church. And all this through one little tract I
That tract costone halfpenny! Oh! whose halfpenny was it? God only knows.
Perhaps it was the mite of some little girl; perhaps the well-earnedoffering of
some little boy. But what a blessing it was!
(Bowes.)
The gifts of the poor

29. SarahHosmer, while a factory girl, gave fifty guineas to support native
pastors. When more than sixty years old she longed so to furnish Nestoria
with one more preacherthat, living in an attic, she took in sewing until she
had accomplishedher cherishedpurpose. Dr. Gordon has well said, "In the
hands of this consecratedwoman, money transformed the factory girl and the
seamstressinto a missionaryof the Cross and then multiplied her sixfold."
But might we not give a thousand times as much money as SarahHosmer
gave, and yet not earn her reward?
The true worth of money
After all, objects take their colourfrom the eyes that look at them. And let us
be assuredthat there is an infinite difference in the sight of an eye which is the
window of a sordid soul and an eye from which looks a soul that has been
ennobled by the royal touch of Christ. There are some eyes that read upon a
piece of gold nothing but the figures that tell its denomination. There are
others, thank God, that see upon it truths that thrill and gladden and uplift. If
the lust of goldhas blinded your eyes to all else but its conventional value, go
to the feetof Christ, and to His question, "What wilt thou that I should do
unto thee?" answer, "Lord, that mine eyes might be opened." And when you
have learned to look through money into that infinite reachthat lies beyond it,
you will have learned the lessonof the gospel. You may then be a "rich
Christian," making earth brighter and better, and building for yourself in
heaven "everlasting habitations."
Liberal giving
Mrs. Wylie's "Life of Mrs. Mason."
In a sequesteredglenin Burmah lived a woman, who was knownas Naughapo
(Daughter of Goodness). Sire was the Dorcas ofthe glen — clothing the naked,
feeding the hungry, soothing the afflicted, and often making her little dwelling
the home of the poor, that they might enjoy the privilege of the neighbouring
school. Mrs. Mason, the missionary, visiting her, was struck with the beauty of

30. her peacefulhome — evidently a spotwhich the Lord had blessed... The day
before she left, a pedlar had calledwith his tempting fabrics for sale;but
though this poor woman was in poor garments, she had but one rupee for
purchases, while on the following morning she and her family put thirteen
rupees into Mrs. Mason's hand, to be deposited in the missiontreasury.
(Mrs. Wylie's "Life of Mrs. Mason.")
Noble giving
E. Hake.
GeneralGordon had a greatnumber of medals, for which he carednothing.
There was a gold one, however, given to him by the Empress of China, with a
specialinscription engraved upon it, for which he had a greatliking. But it
suddenly disappeared, no one knew when or how. Years afterwards it was
found out by a curious accidentthat he had erasedthe inscription, sold the
medal for ten pounds, and sent the sum anonymously to CanonMillar, for the
relief of the sufferers from the cottonfamine at Manchester.
(E. Hake.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(19) In your patience possessye your souls.—Better,By your endurance gain
ye your lives. The verb, unless used in the perfecttense, always involves the
idea of “acquiring” rather than “possessing,”and the command so understood
answers to the promise, “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be
saved,” in Matthew 23:13, Mark 13:13. Some of the best MSS., indeed, give
this also as a promise, “By your endurance ye shall gain.”

31. MacLaren's Expositions
Matthew
TWO FORMS OF ONE SAYING
Matthew 24:13. - Luke 21:19.
These two sayings, different as they sound in our Version, are probably
divergent representations of one original. The reasons forso supposing are
manifold and obvious on a little consideration. In the first place, the two
sayings occurin the Evangelists’reports of the same prophecy and at the
same point therein. In the secondplace, the verbal resemblance is much
greaterthan appears in our Authorised Version, because the word rendered
‘patience’in Luke is derived from that translated‘endureth’ in Matthew; and
the true connectionbetweenthe two versions of the saying would have been
more obvious if we had had a similar word in both, reading in the one ‘he that
endureth,’ and in the other ‘in your endurance.’ In the third place, the
difference betweenthese two sayings presented in our Version, in that the one
is a promise and the other a command, is due to an incorrect reading of St.
Luke’s words. The RevisedVersionsubstitutes for the imperative ‘possess’
the promise ‘ye shall possess,’and with that variation the two sayings are
brought a gooddeal nearer eachother. In both endurance is laid down as the
condition, which in both is followedby a promise. Then, finally, there need be
no difficulty in seeing that ‘possessing,’or, more literally, ‘gaining your souls,’
is an exactequivalent of the other expression, ‘ye shall be saved.’One cannot
but remember our Lord’s solemnantithetical phrase about a man ‘losing his
own soul.’ To ‘win one’s soul’ is to be saved;to be savedis to win one’s soul.

32. So I think I have made out my thesis that the two sayings are substantially
one. They carry a greatweightof warning, of exhortation, and of
encouragementto us all. Let us try now to reap some of that harvest.
I. First, then, notice the view of our condition which underlies these sayings.
It is a sad and a somewhatsternone, but it is one to which, I think, most
men’s hearts will respond, if they give themselves leisure to think; and if they
‘see life steadily, and see it whole.’For howsoevermany days are bright, and
howsoeveralldays are good, yet, on the whole, ‘man is a soldier, and life is a
fight.’ For some of us it is simple endurance; for all of us it has sometimes
been agony; for all of us, always, it presents resistance to every kind of high
and noble career, and especiallyto the Christian one. Easy-going optimists try
to skim over these facts, but they are not to be so lightly set aside. You have
only to look at the faces that you meet in the street to be very sure that it is
always a grave and sometimes a bitter thing to live. And so our two texts
presuppose that life on the whole demands endurance, whatever may be
included in that greatword.
Think of the inward resistance andoutward hindrances to every lofty life. The
scholar, the man of culture, the philanthropist-all who would live for anything
else than the present, the low, and the sensual-find that there is a banded
conspiracy, as it were, againstthem, and that they have to fight their way by
continual antagonism, by continual persistence, as wellas by continual
endurance. Within, weakness, torpor, weariness,levity, inconstant wills,
bright purposes clouding over, and all the cowardice and animalism of our
nature warcontinually againstthe better, higher self. And without, there is a
down-dragging, as persistent as the force of gravity, coming from the whole
assemblageofexternal things that solicit, and would fain seduce us. The old
legends used to tell us how, whensoevera knight set out upon any greatand
lofty quest, his path was beseton either side by voices, sometimes whispering

33. seductions, and sometimes shrieking maledictions, but always seeking to
withdraw him from his resolute march onwards to his goal. And every one of
us, if we have takenon us the orders of any lofty chivalry, and especiallyif we
have swornourselves knights of the Cross, have to meet the same antagonism.
Then, too, there are goldenapples rolled upon our path, seeking to draw us
awayfrom our steadfastendurance.
Besides the hindrances in every noble path, the hindrances within and the
hindrances without, the weight of selfand the drawing of earth, there come to
us all-in various degrees no doubt, and in various shapes-but to all of us there
come the burdens of sorrows and cares, andanxieties and trials. Wherever
two or three are gatheredtogether, even if they gatherfor a feast, there will be
some of them who carry a sorrow which they know well will never be lifted off
their shoulders and their hearts, until they lay down all their burdens at the
grave’s mouth; and it is wearywork to plod on the path of life with a weight
that cannotbe shifted, with a wound that cannever be stanched.
Oh, brethren, rosy-colouredoptimism is all a dream. The recognitionof the
goodthat is in the evil is the devout man’s talisman, but there is always need
for the resistance andendurance which my texts prescribe. And the youngest
of us, the gladdestof us, the leastexperiencedof us, the most frivolous of us, if
we will question our own hearts, will hear their Amen to the stern, sadview of
the facts of earthly life which underlies this text.
Though it has many other aspects, the world seems to me sometimes to be like
that pool at Jerusalemin the five porches of which lay, groaning under
various diseases, but none of them without an ache, a great multitude of
impotent folk, halt and blind. Astronomers tell us that one, at any rate, of the
planets rolls on its orbit swathedin clouds and moisture. The world moves
wrapped in a mist of tears. Godonly knows them all, but eachheart knows its
own bitterness and responds to the words, ‘Ye have need of patience.’

34. II. Now, secondly, mark the victorious temper.
That is referred to in the one saying by ‘he that endureth,’ and in the other ‘in
your endurance.’ Now, it is very necessaryforthe understanding of many
places in Scripture to remember that the notion either of patience or of
endurance by no means exhausts the powerof this noble Christian word. For
these are passive virtues, and howeverexcellentand needful they may be, they
by no means sum up our duty in regardto the hindrances and sorrows, the
burdens and weights, of which I have been trying to speak. Foryou know it is
only ‘what cannot be cured’ that ‘must be endured,’ and even incurable
things are not merely to be endured, but they ought to be utilised. It is not
enough that we should build up a dam to keepthe floods of sorrow and trial
from overflowing our fields; we must turn the turbid waters into our sluices,
and getthem to drive our mills. It is not enough that we should screw
ourselves up to lie unresistingly under the surgeon’s knife; though God knows
that it is as much as we can manage sometimes, and we have to do as convicts
under the lash do, geta bit of lead or a bullet into our mouths, and bite at it to
keepourselves from crying out. But that is not all our duty in regardto our
trials and difficulties. There is required something more than passive
endurance.
This noble word of my texts does mean a great dealmore than that. It means
active persistence as wellas patient submission. It is not enoughthat we
should stand and bear the pelting of the pitiless storm, unmurmuring and
unbowed by it; but we are bound to go on our course, bearing up and steering
right onwards. Persistentperseverancein the path that is marked out for us is
especiallythe virtue that our Lord here enjoins. It is wellto sit still
unmurmuring; it is better to march on undiverted and unchecked. And when
we are able to keepstraight on in the path which is marked out for us, and
especiallyin the path that leads us to God, notwithstanding all opposing
voices, and all inward hindrances and reluctances;when we are able to go to

35. our tasks ofwhateversort they are and to do them, though our hearts are
beating like sledge-hammers;when we sayto ourselves, ‘It does not matter a
bit whether I am sad or glad, fresh or wearied, helped or hindered by
circumstances, this one thing I do,’ then we have come to understand and to
practise the grace that our Masterhere enjoins. The endurance which wins
the soul, and leads to salvation, is no mere passive submission, excellentand
hard to attain as that often is; but it is brave perseverance in the face of all
difficulties, and in spite of all enemies.
Mark how emphatically our Lord here makes the space within which that
virtue has to be exercisedconterminous with the whole duration of our lives. I
need not discuss what‘the end’ was in the original application of the words;
that would take us too far afield. But this I desire to insist upon, that right on
to the very close oflife we are to expectthe necessityofputting forth the
exercise ofthe very same persistence by which the earlierstages ofany noble
careermust necessarilybe marked. In other departments of life there may be
relaxation, as a man goes on through the years; but in the culture of our
characters, andin the deepening of our faith, and in the drawing near to our
God, there must be no cessationordiminution of earnestness andof effort
right up to the close.
There are plenty of people, and I dare saythat I address some of them now,
who begantheir Christian careerfull of vigour and with a heat that was too
hot to last. But, alas, in a year or two all the fervency was past, and they
settled down into the average, easygoing,unprogressive Christian, who is a
wet blanket to the devotion and work of a Christian church. I wonder how
many of us would scarcelyknow our own former selves if we could see them.
Christian people, to how many of us should the word be rung in our ears:‘Ye
did run well; what did hinder you’? The answeris-Myself.

36. But may I saythat this emphatic ‘to the end’ has a speciallessonforus older
people, who, as natural strength abates and enthusiasm cools down, are apt to
be but the shadows ofour old selves in many things? But there should be fire
within the mountain, though there may be snow on its crest. Many a ship has
been lost on the harbour bar; and there is no excuse for the captain leaving
the bridge, or the engineercoming up from the engine-room, stormy as the
one position and stifling as the other may be, until the anchoris down, and the
vesselis moored and quiet in the desired haven. The desert, with its wild
beasts and its Bedouin, reaches right up to the city gates, and until we are
within these we need to keepour hands on our sword-hilts and be ready for
conflict. ‘He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.’
III. Lastly, note the crownwhich endurance wins.
Now, I need not spend or waste your time in mere verbal criticism, but I wish
to point out that that word ‘soul’ in one of our two texts means both the soul
and the life of which it is the seat;and also to remark that the being savedand
the winning of the life or the soul has distinct application, in our Lord’s
words, primarily to corporealsafetyand preservation in the midst of dangers;
and, still further, to note the emphatic ‘in your patience,’as suggesting not
only a future but a present acquisition of one’s own soul, or life, as the result
of such persevering endurance and enduring perseverance.All which things
being kept in view, I may expand the greatpromise that lies in my text, as
follows:- First, by such persevering persistence in the Christian path, we gain
ourselves. Self-surrenderis self-possession. We neverown ourselves till we
have given up owning ourselves, and yielded ourselves to that Lord who gives
us back saints to ourselves. Self-controlis self-possession. We do not own
ourselves as long as it is possible for any weaknessin flesh, sense, orspirit to
gain dominion over us and hinder us from doing what we know to be right.
We are not our ownmasters then. ‘Whilst they promise them liberty, they
themselves are the bond-slaves of corruption.’ It is only when we have the bit
well into the jaws of the brutes, and the reins tight in our hands, so that a

37. finger-touch can check or divert the course, that we are truly lords of the
chariot in which we ride and of the animals that impel it.
And such self-controlwhich is the winning of ourselves is, as I believe,
thoroughly realisedonly when, by self-surrender of ourselves to Jesus Christ,
we get His help to governourselves and so become lords of ourselves. Some
little petty Rajah, up in the hills, in a quasi-independent State in India, is
troubled by mutineers whom he cannotsubdue; what does he do? He sends a
messagedownto Lahore or Calcutta, and up come English troops that
consolidate his dominion, and he rules securely, when he has consentedto
become a feudatory, and recognisehis overlord. And so you and I, by
continual repetition, in the face of self and sin, of our acts of self-surrender,
bring Christ into the field; and then, when we have said, ‘Lord, take me; I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’; and when we daily, in spite of
hindrances, stand to the surrender and repeatthe consecration, then ‘in our
perseverance we acquire our souls.’
Again, such persistence wins even the bodily life, whether it preserves it or
loses it. I have said that the words of our texts have an application to bodily
preservationin the midst of the dreadful dangers of the siege and destruction
of Jerusalem. But so regardedthey are a paradox. For hear how the Master
introduces them: ‘Some of you shall they cause to be put to death, but there
shall not a hair of your heads perish. In your perseveranceye shall win your
lives.’ ‘Some of you they will put to death,’ but ye ‘shall win your lives,’-a
paradox which can only be solved by experience. Whether this bodily life be
preservedor lost, it is gained when it is used as a means of attaining the higher
life of union with God. Many a martyr had the promise, ‘Not a hair of your
head shall perish,’ fulfilled at the very moment when the falling axe shore his
locks in twain, and severedhis head from his body.

38. Finally, full salvation, the true possessionofhimself, and the acquisition of the
life which really is life, comes to a man who perseveres to the end, and thus
passes to the land where he will receive the recompense ofthe reward. The
one moment the runner, with flushed cheek and forward swaying body, hot,
with panting breath, and every muscle strained, is straining to the winning-
post; and the next moment, in utter calm, he is wearing the crown.
‘To the end,’ and what a contrastthe next moment will be! Brethren, may it
be true of you and of me that ‘we are not of them that draw back unto
perdition, but of them that believe to the winning of their souls!’
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
21:5-28 With much curiosity those about Christ ask as to the time when the
greatdesolationshould be. He answers with clearnessand fulness, as far as
was necessaryto teach them their duty; for all knowledge is desirable as far as
it is in order to practice. Though spiritual judgements are the most common
in gospeltimes, yet God makes use of temporal judgments also. Christ tells
them what hard things they should suffer for his name's sake, and encourages
them to bear up under their trials, and to go on in their work,
notwithstanding the opposition they would meet with. God will stand by you,
and own you, and assistyou. This was remarkably fulfilled after the pouring
out of the Spirit, by whom Christ gave his disciples wisdom and utterance.
Though we may be losers forChrist, we shall not, we cannotbe losers by him,
in the end. It is our duty and interest at all times, especiallyin perilous, trying
times, to secure the safetyof our own souls. It is by Christian patience we keep
possessionofour ownsouls, and keepout all those impressions which would
put us out of temper. We may view the prophecy before us much as those Old
Testamentprophecies, which, togetherwith their greatobject, embrace, or
glance at some nearerobject of importance to the church. Having given an
idea of the times for about thirty-eight years next to come, Christ shows what
all those things would end in, namely, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the
utter dispersion of the Jewishnation; which would be a type and figure of
Christ's secondcoming. The scatteredJewsaround us preach the truth of

39. Christianity; and prove, that though heavenand earth shall pass away, the
words of Jesus shallnot pass away. Theyalso remind us to pray for those
times when neither the real, nor the spiritual Jerusalem, shallany longerbe
trodden down by the Gentiles, and when both Jews and Gentiles shall be
turned to the Lord. When Christ came to destroythe Jews, he came to redeem
the Christians that were persecutedand oppressedby them; and then had the
churches rest. When he comes to judge the world, he will redeem all that are
his from their troubles. So fully did the Divine judgements come upon the
Jews, that their city is set as an example before us, to show that sins will not
pass unpunished; and that the terrors of the Lord, and his threatenings
againstimpenitent sinners, will all come to pass, even as his word was true,
and his wrath greatupon Jerusalem.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
In your patience - Rather by your perseverance. The word"patience" here
means constancyorperseverance in sustaining afflictions.
Possessye your souls - Some read here the "future" instead of the "present"
of the verb rendered "possess." The word"possess"means here to
"preserve" orkeep, and the word "souls" means "lives." This passagemay be
thus translated: By persevering in bearing these trials you "will" save your
lives, or you will be safe;or, by persevering "preserve" your lives; that is, do
not yield to these calamities, but bear up under them, for he that endureth to
the end, the same shall be saved. Compare Matthew 24:13.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
18. not a hair … perish—He had just said (Lu 21:16)they should be put to
death; showing that this precious promise is far above immunity from mere
bodily harm, and furnishing a key to the right interpretation of the ninety-
first Psalm, and such like. Matthew adds the following (Mt 24:12): "And
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many," the many or, the most—the
generality of professeddisciples—"shallwaxcold." But he that endureth to
the end shall be saved. Sadillustrations of the effect of abounding iniquity in
cooling the love of faithful disciples we have in the Epistle of James, written
about this period referred to, and too frequently ever since (Heb 10:38, 39;Re

40. 2:10). "And this gospelof the kingdom shall be preachedin all the world for a
witness, and then shall the end come" (Mt 24:14). God never sends judgment
without previous warning; and there can be no doubt that the Jews, already
dispersedover most known countries, had nearly all heard the Gospel"as a
witness," before the end of the Jewishstate. The same principle was repeated
and will repeatitself to the end.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
Patience is either passive, seenin a quiet, free, and courageoussuffering those
evils which God will please in his providence to order us for our portion; or
active, seenin a quiet believing, waiting for, and expectationof what God hath
promised.
Possessyour souls, that is, yourselves;do not decline suffering for my name’s
sake, but live in the exercise ofChristian courage and fortitude until the Lord
will please to release you. In this sense James expounds this prase, Jam 1:4,
But let patience have her perfectwork, that ye may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing. Others say, possess yoursouls is the same with save your
souls. So it seems to be expounded by Matthew 24:13, and Mark 8:13, But he
that shall endure to the end shall be saved.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
In your patience, possessye your souls. By patiently bearing all afflictions,
reproaches, indignities, and persecutions, enjoyyourselves;let nothing disturb
or distress you; possessthat peace and joy in your souls, which the world
cannot take away;see Romans 5:3. The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and
Ethiopic versions read, "ye shall possess":and the sense may be this; by
patient continuance, or by perseverance in the ways of God, and the truths of
Christ unto the end, ye shall be saved; shall find your lives, and enjoy your
souls, as in Matthew 10:22.
Geneva Study Bible
In your patience {d} possessye your souls.

41. (d) Though you are surrounded on all sides with many miseries, yet
nonetheless be valiant and courageous, andbear out these things bravely.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Expositor's Greek Testament
Luke 21:19. κτήσεσθε or κτήσασθε, ye shall win, or win ye; sense the same.
Similar various readings in Romans 5:1, ἔχωμεν or ἔχομεν.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
19. In your patience possess ye your souls] Rather, with the better reading, By
your patience ye shall gain your souls or lives. Mark 13:13. The need of
patience and endurance to the end is very prominently inculcated in the N. T.,
Romans 5:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:4;Hebrews 10:36;James 1:4, &c. Endurance,
not violence, is the Christian’s protection, and shall save the soul, and the true
life, even if it loses all else.
Bengel's Gnomen
Luke 21:19. Ὑπομονῇ ὑμῶν) in your patience, to which ye have been called. A
Paradox. The world tries to obtain the safety of its followers’souls by
repelling force with force. Not so the saints:Revelation13:10 [“He that killeth
with the swordmust be killed with the sword.” But, “Here is the faith and
patience of the saints”].—κτήσεσθε)ye shall obtain (ensure) the safety of
(Matthew 24:13 [He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved]),
with enjoyment and lasting advantage to yourselves.[224]—ψυχὰς, your souls)
Even though ye should lose all other things. [Patient endurance is the most
conducive of all things. By struggling and kicking back against(the pricks)we
consult worstfor our true interest.—V. g.]
[224]Κτήσεσθε is the reading of AB Origen 1,295d:‘possidebitis’in a and
Vulg.: ‘acquirers’ in c. Κτήσασθε (‘adquirite,’ gain or ensure the safetyof;
not possess as Engl. Vers., which would be κέκτησθε)is the reading of Dd and
Rec. Text. Bengel’s words are “cum usufructi vestri,” literally, with the
usufruct of yourselves.—E. andT.

42. Pulpit Commentary
Verse 19. - In your patience possess ye your souls. Quiet, brave patience in all
difficulty, perplexity, and danger, was the attitude pressedupon the believers
of the first days by the inspired teachers. St. Paulconstantly strikes this note.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
Luke 21:19 "By your endurance you will gain your lives.
KJV Luke 21:19 In your patience possessye your souls.
NLT Luke 21:19 By standing firm, you will win your souls.
Luke 8:15; Ps 27:13,14;37:7; 40:1; Romans 2:7; 5:3; 8:25; 15:4; 1 Th 1:3; 2
Th 3:5; Hebrews 6:11,15;10:36;James 1:3; 5:7-11;Revelation1:9; 2:2,3;
3:10; Revelation13:10;14:12
Luke 21 Resources- Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Luke 21:5-24 Staying Sane When the Whole World Goes Crazy - Steven Cole
Luke 21:12-19 The Persecutionand Endurance of Christians, Part 1 - John
MacArthur
Luke 21:12-19 The Persecutionand Endurance of Christians, Part 2 - John
MacArthur
Luke 21:18-19 The Undying Faith of Christians Facing Death - John
MacArthur
ENDURANCE TO

43. THE END
There are similar passagesin Matthew and Mark's version of the Olivet
Discourse:
Matthew 24:13 “But the one who endures (hupomeno) to the end, he will be
saved.
Mark 13:13 “Youwill be hated by all because ofMy name, but the one who
endures (hupomeno) to the end, he will be saved.
By your endurance you will gain your lives - Jesus is giving the disciples an
encouragementthat they will endure, that even if they are killed, they will still
"gainyour lives." It is also a call to remain faithful. Jesus is not saying that
one's endurance merits or earns eternal life. In other words He is not saying
one canearn justification by remaining faithful rather than apostatizing since
justification comes by faith, not works. What He is saying is that endurance
will prove that one is genuinely saved. This is not the "grit your teeth"
endurance that the world teaches. It is endurance which is enabled and
empoweredby the Spirit of God Who indwells eachbeliever. Their endurance
will prove that have a supernatural source enabling endurance which
otherwise would not be possible simply by relying on one's natural strength.
Nelson's NKJV Study Bible says "Patientallegiance to Jesus leads to eternal
life." That comment leaves the door open to the idea that it is the exercise of
our powerwhich "leads to eternal life," which of course is not the case. It is
belief in the fully atoning, substitutionary sacrifice ofthe Lamb of God that
"leads to eternallife." What the note is trying to say(in my humble opinion)
is that an individual's externally observable "patient allegiance"is a clear
demonstration of their reliance on an internally non-observable source of
supernatural strength (the Spirit of Jesus in them) enabling them to manifest
endurance to the end of their life. This is proof that they possesseternallife.
By your endurance - By your courageous andconstanttenacity with hopeful
expectancy, indicating an active endurance which opposes the evil while
patiently waiting for the Lord.

44. Endurance (5281)(hupomone from hupo = under + meno = stay, remain,
abide) literally means abiding under. The main idea of hupomone is to remain
under something which demands the submission of one's will to something
againstwhich one naturally would rebel. Hupomone portrays a picture of
steadfastlyand unflinchingly bearing up under a "heavy load." It describes
that quality of characterwhich does not allow one to surrender to
circumstances under trial. Hupomone does not describe a grim resignationor
a "grin and bear" attitude but a triumphant facing of difficult circumstances
knowing that even out of evil God guarantees good. It is courageous gallantry
which accepts suffering and hardship and turns them into grace and glory.
For believers, it is a steadfastness,especiallyas Godenables us to "remain
under" (or endure) whatever challenges, trials, tests, afflictions, etc, He
providentially allows in our life.
It is surprising that this word is used only twice in the Gospels, bothby Luke,
here and in Luke 8:15-note
Luke 8:15 “But the (GOSPEL)seedin the goodsoil, these are the ones who
have heard the word (GOSPELOF GRACE) in an honest and good(ONE
THAT IS FAVORABLE "SOIL" FOR THE SEED OF THE GOSPEL)heart
(I.E., THEY ARE SAVED. THEIR HEART IS "CIRCUMCISED"BY
GRACE THROUGH FAITH.), and hold it fast(present tense = one's lifestyle.
THE RETENTIONOF THE WORD OF GRACE DOES NOT SAVE THEM
BUT DOES SHOW THEY ARE SAVED WHICH IS AUTHENTICATED BY
FRUIT BEARING!), and bearfruit (present tense = CONTINUAL FRUIT
BEARING IS THE PRODUCT OF A GENUINE FAITH) with perseverance
(hupomone - E.G., TRIALS COME BUT THIS PERSON CONTINUESTO
ABIDE IN THE VINE WHICH IN TURN BEARS TRUE SPIRITUAL
FRUIT!)
Comment: The relatedverb hupomeno is used 4x - Mt 10:22, Mt 24:13, Mk
13:13, Lk 2:43.
Hupomone in Lk 21:19 refers to the brave holding out under adverse
situations, suffering, trials, afflictions, etc. To hold one's ground in face of
fierce opposition to Jesus!Notgiving up. Not "throwing in the towel."

45. (ContrastLuke 8:14-note, Mark 4:19) Jesus has promised persecution.
Genuine believers will persevere to the end of their life or the end of this age,
whichever comes first. And remember our endurance is not because ofour
natural ability but because ofsupernatural enablement for as Paul taught it is
"GodWho gives perseverance and encouragement." (Ro 15:5-note).
MacArthur - Endurance does not produce or protectsalvation, which is
totally the work of God's grace. Butendurance is evidence of salvation, proof
that a personis truly redeemedand a child of God. God gives eternal life "to
those who by perseverance in doing goodseek for glory and honor and
immortality," Paul says (Ro 2:7-note). The writer of Hebrews expresses the
same truth in these words:"Forwe have become partakers ofChrist, if we
hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end" (Heb 3:14-note).
We do not earn our salvation by endurance, but prove it. Continuance is a
verification of being a real Christian. Theologians callthis the perseverance of
the saints. The following Scriptures also emphasize perseverance:Matthew
24:13;John 8:31; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; Colossians 1:21-23;Hebrews 2:1-3;
4:14; 6:11-12;10:39; 12:14;2 Peter1:10. Persecutionquickly burns away
chaff in the church. Those who have made only a superficialprofessionof
Christ have no new nature to motivate them to suffer for Christ and no divine
powerto enable them to endure it if they wanted to. Nothing is more
spiritually purifying and strengthening than persecution(cf. James 1:12-note).
(MacArthur New TestamentCommentary – Matthew)
Darrell Bock - Saving faith does not renounce Jesus;it holds onto him even in
the face of persecution. To ceaseto trust Jesus is to never have trusted him.
Judas pictures one who failed. Peterpictures one who lapsedbut whose
commitment was real. The spiritual force of this verse reinforces that of Luke
21:18 (Plummer 1896:481). To cling to Jesus is to have life—evenin the face
of death. Mark 13:13b makes the connectionto salvationexplicit: the one who
endures to the end will be saved. (BECNT-Luke)
You will gain your lives - Literally "gainyour souls." The NLT paraphrases it
"you will win your souls." NIV has "you will gain life." NAB has "you will
secure your lives." Pauluses the verb form (hupomeno) in his lastwritten
communication stating "If we endure hupomeno in the present tense = as our

46. generallifestyle, not perfectionbut our general"direction"), we will also reign
with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us." (2 Ti 2:12-note). In this
passagewhatis the "opposite" ofenduring? It is denying! This is not about
loss of rewards as some falsely teach, but is about loss of eternallife that
reigns with Christ! Mark it down, no one loses their salvation!Those who
profess Christ and "appear" to lose their salvation were never genuinely
saved! (cf Jn 10:28-29)
Gain (acquire)(2932)(ktaomai)means procure, obtain or acquire something
for oneself. MostNT uses referto procuring something by purchase for a
price (Acts 1:18; 8:20; 22:28).
Lives (5590)(psuche orpsyche from psucho = to breathe, blow, English =
psychology, "study of the soul")is the breath, then that which breathes, the
individual, animated creature. Psuche is used as it is in Mark 8:35, 36 and in
John 12:25, as referring to the immaterial part of man which animates his
body, which is as such called"the life."
NET Note on lives - "your souls," but psuche is frequently used of one's
physical life. In light of Lk 21:16 that does not seemto be the case here.
Lenski - To suffer for Christ, to die for him, seemlike losing the life (soul in
this sense);but if we hold out bravely, insteadof losing anything of life or life
itself we shall do nothing but gain these very lives (souls). What is lost is
transient and lost to the soulanyway in the end. They who strive for nothing
more will have no gain of any kind at the end but an irreparable and eternal
loss;but they who suffer for Christ, even die for him with brave, true hearts,
achieve everything, gain their own "souls" in this pregnant sense of the term.
(Ibid)
RelatedResources:
What does the Bible say about perseverance?
Perseverance ofthe Saints - is it biblical?
How can I find joy in the midst of trials?
How can I keepthe faith?

47. BARCLAY
From this passagewe learncertain basic things about Jesus and about the
Christian life.
(i) Jesus could read the signs of history. Others might be blind to the
approaching disasterbut he saw the avalanche aboutto descend. It is only
when a man sees things through the eyes of God that he sees them clearly.
(ii) Jesus was completelyhonest. "This," he said to his disciples, "is what you
must expect if you choose to follow me." Once in the middle of a great
struggle for righteousness, anheroic leaderwrote to a friend, "Heads are
rolling in the sand; come and add yours." Jesus believedin men enough to
offer them, not an easyway, but a way for heroes.
(iii) Jesus promisedthat his disciples would never meet their tribulations
alone. It is the sheerevidence of history that the great Christians have written
over and over again, when their bodies were in torture and when they were
awaiting death, of sweettimes with Christ. A prison canbe like a palace, a
scaffoldlike a throne, the storms of life like summer weather, whenChrist is
with us.
(iv) Jesus spoke ofa safety that overpasses the threats of earth. "Notone hair
of your head," he said, "will be harmed." In the days of the 1914-18 war
Rupert Brooke,out of his faith and his ideal, wrote these lines:
We have found safetywith all things undying,

48. The winds, and morning, tears of men and mirth,
The deep night, and birds singing, and clouds flying,
And sleep, and freedom, and the autumnal earth.
We have built a house which is not for Time's throwing,
We have gaineda peace unshakenby pain for ever.
War knows no power. Safe shall be my going,
Secretlyarmed againstall death's endeavour:
Safe though all safety's lost; safe where men fall;
And if these poor limbs die, safestofall.
The man who walks with Christ may lose his life but he can never lose his
soul.
ADAM CLARKE
Verse 19
In your patience - Rather, your perseverance, your faithful continuance in my
word and doctrine. Ye will preserve your souls. Ye shall escape the Roman
sword, and not one of you shall perish in the destruction of Jerusalem. Instead
of κτησασθε, possess,orpreserve ye, I read κτησεσθε, ye shall preserve. This
reading is supported by AB-B, five others;both the Syriac, all the Arabic,
Ethiopic, Vulgate, all the Itala except two, Origen, Macarius, andTertullian.

49. THOMAS CONSTABLE
Verse 19
By persevering faithfully when persecutedthey would preserve their lives (Gr.
ktesesthe tas psychas hymon). That Isaiah , they would not die before it was
God"s will for them to die ( Luke 21:18). Some interpreters believe that this
verse simply restates in different terms the principle that those who endure to
the end will experience salvation( Matthew 24:13; Mark 13:13). [Note:E.g,
Martin, p257.]Matthew and Mark recordeda principle for disciples living
just before the Lord"s return. Those who remained faithful to the end of the
Tribulation would enter the kingdom without dying ( Matthew 24:13;Mark
13:13). Howeverthe differences in terminology in Luke argue for a different
meaning here. This verse seems to be an additional promise. It cannotmean
that martyrs canearn justification by remaining faithful rather than
apostatizing since justification comes by faith, not works (cf. Romans 2:7). It
may mean that perseverance willearn an eternal reward (cf. Luke 21:36;
Revelation2:10).
STEVEN COLE
Staying Sane When the Whole World Goes Crazy(Luke 21:5-24)
RelatedMedia

50. 00:00
00:00

51. One of the biggestlies that Satanhas promoted is that believing in Christ as
Savior will bring a trouble-free life. The pitch goes, “Do youhave problems?
If you trust in Jesus, He will get you out of them.” So the person trusts in
Christ and his problems get worse, notbetter. The enemy comes to him and
says, “See where trusting in Christ gotyou? You were better off before you
became a Christian!”
The Bible does promise believers peace and joy, but it does not promise the
absence oftrials, freedom from persecution, or even protection from violent
death. It promises peace and joy in the midst of such trials as we rely on the
Lord and His promises.
Jesus and His disciples were going out of the temple when one of them
commented about how impressive that building was. By all accounts, it was a
magnificent structure. At that time, it had been under constructionfor about
50 years. According to the Jewishhistorian, Josephus, some of the stones
measuredover 35 feetlong, 12 feet high, and 18 feetwide. The current
Wailing Wall is a part of the foundation left from that building. Its white
marble walls rose about 200 feetabove the Kidron Valley. The brilliance of
the white walls and the gold trim in the morning sun was dazzling. The
courtyard was about 400 by 500 yards square, so that thousands of
worshippers could gatherthere. The rabbis said, “He who has not seenthe
Temple in its full constructionhas never seena glorious building in his life”
(cited by William Lane, Mark [Eerdmans], p. 451).
It was just an offhand comment by one of the disciples. The other disciples
were nodding in agreementwhen Jesus shockedthem by saying, “The days
will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not
be torn down” (21:6). That was unthinkable! To their credit, the disciples did
not doubt Jesus’words, but they did ask when these things would take place
and what signs would precede this momentous event. Jesus respondedwith
this lengthy discourse onfuture things, known as the Olivet Discourse,
although Luke does not mention that it took place on the Mount of Olives.
As with most prophetic sections ofScripture, there are some difficult
interpretive problems (especiallywhen you compare Luke 21 with Matthew

52. 24 and Mark 13). Luke 21:5-24 focuses onthe fall of Jerusalemas a preview
of the more intense judgment that will happen at Christ’s return (21:25-28).
Thus there are multiple fulfillments of these prophecies, leading up to the final
fulfillment at the secondcoming of Christ. Since Jesus emphasizes that many
of these cataclysmic events will take place wellbefore the end (21:9, 12), His
words apply to believers in trying situations down through the centuries, as
well as to those living at the time of the destruction of Jerusalemor just before
His secondcoming.
Jesus is showing His followers how to hold on not only to their sanity, but also
to their faith, when the world around them is chaotic and seeminglyout of
control.
When the whole world goes crazy, God’s people can remain sane by knowing
that all things are under God’s righteous, sovereigncontrol.
Jesus’purpose was not to satisfy curiosity about the end times. Rather, He
was trying to instill assurance andfaith in His disciples so that they would not
fall awayunder intense persecutionor world chaos. We will considerfive
points:
1. God knows in advance all things that will take place in this world.
We have seennumerous occasions where Jesuspredicted His impending death
(9:22, 44;13:33; 18:31-33;19:14-18). It did not surprise Him. As He explained
in John 10:18, no one took His life from Him. Rather, He laid it down on His
own initiative. Nothing surprises God.
Jesus here speaks ofboth big and little matters that God knows in advance.
He knows about the total destruction of the temple in Jerusalem(21:6), about
deceivers who will come (21:8), and about wars, earthquakes, plagues,
famines, and signs in the heavens (21:9-11). He knows future persecutions that
will take place before kings and governors (21:12) and those that will arise
from family betrayals (21:16). He knows in advance the preservationof the
hairs of the heads of all who follow Him (21:18). He knows the future of Israel
and the course of the nations (21:24).

53. You may think that everyone who believes in Christ believes that God knows
in advance all things that will take place. But that is not so. In 1994, Clark
Pinnock and severalother theologians published a book titled, The Openness
of God [IVP]. Their view, called“free-will theism,” a radical form of
Arminianism, argues that “the God of the Bible is with us in time and does not
know the future in absolute detail” (Christianity Today[1/9/95], p. 30, italics
theirs).
World Magazine (7/17/99, p. 23) reported that Greg Boyd, a theology
professorat BethelCollege and Seminary in St. Paul, and the popular
preaching pastorof one of the largestchurches in the Baptist General
Conference, holds a similar view. He has written three books and many
articles proclaiming that “Godcan’t foreknow the goodor bad decisions of
the people He creates until He creates these people and they in turn create
their decisions.”
Sadly, a committee at Bethelconcluded that Mr. Boyd’s “view of God is a
biblically oriented, contemporary form of Arminianism … within the bounds
of evangelicalChristianorthodoxy and compatible with the theological
commitments expectedof faculty members at Bethel.” PastorJohnPiper led a
movement to propose an amendment to the BCG’s Affirmation of Faith
stating, “We believe ‘that He foreknows infallibly all that shall come to pass.’”
But it failed by a vote of 270-251.Apparently, unity was more important for
the delegatesthan theologicaltruth.
I hope that you all agree that God knows in advance all things that will
happen. But we must go a step further:
2. God has ordained in advance all things that will take place in this world.
Jesus says that all of the wars and disturbances must take place, indicating
God’s settled purpose (21:9). He says concerning the destruction of Jerusalem,
that it will happen “in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled”
(21:22). God sovereignlychose Israelfrom all other nations to be His people
and to bring forth the Saviorof the world. He predetermined by His plan that
Israelwould crucify her Savior (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28). And He sovereignly
determined to judge Israel for her sin of killing her Savior.

54. Through Isaiah (46:9-11)God declares to His disobedient people, “ForI am
God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring
the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not
been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplishall
My goodpleasure’;… Truly I have spoken;truly I will bring it to pass. I have
planned it, surely I will do it.” Paul affirms in Ephesians 1:11, God
“predestined[us] according to His purpose who works all things after the
counselof His will.” (See also Prov. 16:4.)
You may not like the thought that God ordains evil as well as good. Many
Christians blame everything bad that happens on the devil as if he did it apart
from God, without considering where that line of thinking leads. If the devil is
able to do anything outside of God’s sovereignplan, then he is a force at least
equal in strength, if not greater, than God. That would mean that there is a
chance that the devil could thwart the sovereignplan of God and achieve his
evil purpose over and againstGod’s holy purpose, a most frightening
prospect!The Bible clearly shows, in the story of Job, that the devil can only
go as far as God permits. God is sovereignevenover the devil and the evil
things that the devil does.
Calvin observes that none of these predicted disasters (21:9-12)happen
accidentally. They are all under God’s sovereignhand. He then applies it to
believers:“for nothing has a more powerful efficacyto bring us into
subjection, than when we acknowledge thatthose things which appear to be
confusedare regulatedby the goodpleasure of God” (Calvin’s Commentaries
[A Harmony of the Gospels], 3:121-122).
You’re probably thinking, “If God not only knows everything in advance, but
also ordains everything, then He is responsible for evil.” Notso!
3. Although God has ordained all things, He is not responsible for evil.
If God were responsible for evil, He would have no right to judge the wicked.
They could claim, “I only did what You ordained!” But Jesus is teaching that
Jerusalemwould be destroyed and trampled under foot by the Gentiles, and
Israelwould be led captive into all the nations, as a judgment for not
recognizing the day of her visitation (21:24; 19:44). As Peterstatedon the Day

55. of Pentecost, althoughGodpredetermined the death of Jesus, those in Peter’s
audience who nailed Him to the cross were guilty for what they did (Acts
2:23).
Scripture affirms that “Godis light, and in Him is no darkness atall” (1 John
1:5). “The Lord is righteous in all His ways” (Ps. 145:17). He is goodand He
does good(Ps. 119:68). His eyes are too pure to look upon evil (Hab. 1:13).
“Righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments” (Ps. 119:137).
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty” (Rev. 4:8; see Isa. 6:3).
While our finite minds cannotreconcile God’s absolute sovereigntyover all
things and His absolute holiness, Scripture plainly affirms both. We must
submit to its testimony. As already stated,
4. God will righteously judge all who rejectHis Son.
Jesus refers to Jerusalem’s destructionas “days of vengeance”(21:22). It will
bring “greatdistress upon the land, and wrath to this people” (21:23). In A.D.
70, the RomanGeneralTitus laid siege to the city and completelydestroyed it.
Although he may have exaggerated, Josephus says that1.1 million Jews were
slaughtered. The Romansoldiers tore apart the temple stone by stone in an
attempt to get all the gold that melted and ran betweenthe stones when they
burned it. Jesus’words were literally fulfilled.
God’s judgments come in two forms: temporal and eternal. His temporal
judgments fall upon nations and individuals according to His inscrutable
wisdom. Godexplained to Abraham that his descendants would be captive in
a foreign land for 400 years because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet
complete (Gen. 15:16). When their sin was full to the brim, God commanded
Joshua to kill the entire population. It was His temporal judgment on a
morally corrupt people in response to hundreds of years of sin. In His mercy
in allowing the Canaanites to exist that long, God let His chosenpeople
remain in slavery four long centuries, before using them to execute His
righteous judgment.
When God’s temporal judgment falls on a people, everyone suffers. Jesus
proclaims woe especiallyon the womenwho are with child or who are nursing

56. babies in the day of Jerusalem’s judgment (21:22). If God’s temporal
judgment falls on America, we all will suffer. I cannot tell you why God
judged Rwanda with the terrible bloodbath a few years ago, but allows
America to continue in open rebellion. But when civil war broke out in that
country, thousands of Christians died along with the wicked.
God’s temporal judgments are only a warning of the far worse eternal
judgment that is coming on the whole earth. John describes “a greatwhite
throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earthand heaven fled
away, and no place was found for them” (Rev. 20:11). All whose names are
not found written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire
(20:15). Israel came under God’s temporal judgment because she rejectedher
Savior. Even so, every personwho rejects Jesus Christas Saviorand Lord will
face the eternal wrath of God.
If the Jewishleaders had heard Jesus’prediction concerning the temple, they
would have scoffed. They killed Him, beat and killed His crazy followers who
proclaimed His resurrection, and life in Jerusalemwent on as usual for over
35 years. Some of the Jewishleaders grew old and died before Jesus’
predictions came true. If you had interviewed them on their deathbeds, they
would have said, “Jesus was mistaken. The temple still stands in all its glory.”
How wrong they were! Just because God’s judgment is delayed does not mean
that it will not happen. Many make the same fatal mistake concerning God’s
eternal judgment. Just because foralmost 2,000 years Christhas not yet
returned to judge the earth does not mean that He will not do so in the future.
His warning is clear:He will return in power and great glory and then it will
be too late for those who have rejectedHim to repent.
How are we who believe in Christ to live in these difficult times until He
comes?
5. God’s people are responsible to persevere in obedience and witness in this
evil world, even in the face of persecutionand martyrdom.