"You will be hated by everyone because of me,
but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved."
but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved."
Matthew 10:22 (NIV)
Matthew 10 contains our Lord’s charge to the twelve - He lays out their mission for them, and He tells them what they are to expect as they stay true to their mission. The great challenge for us as we read this chapter is how much of this chapter’s contents are for them only in their ministry context as the apostles of Christ’s church, and as disciples of Jesus during His ministry on earth before the cross, and how much of this is applicable to us in our lives today. We won’t solve anything in this post in regards to the many different ways of interpreting this text for application in our lives, but if we accept that we can at the very least take these instructions for the apostles as applicable principles for our lives, we will be able to apply this verse to ourselves.
No one wants to be hated by everyone, but as we see the climate in Canada changing right now towards Christians, we can recognize that our Lord’s Words to the apostles, are coming true for us here in this country. If the first part of this verse applies to us, then surely the last part applies also. An objection may be raised that this last part was meant for Judas only - that these Words are spoken here so that the apostles may remember that not all of them were saved, but only those who stood firm through the experience of the cross - and yet the New Testament is full of teaching directed at Christians of the importance of standing firm to the end, including our text for this Sunday 1 Corinthians 15:58.
There is a principle here for us, an important principle for it points to our responsibility to remain strong in not only our faith in the Person and Work of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also in our mission given to us by our Lord to the very end of our lives. Despite opposition from people, including our own families we are responsible to our Lord to stand firm to the end.
As the Teacher in Ecclesiastes 7:8 said - the end of a matter is better than its beginning - surely salvation is the most important matter of all!
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