We’ve been reading through Hebrews and now we’ve come to chapter 12 where Paul focuses on perseverance and discipline.
So far, we’ve talked about the content of our faith, hope, and love. Now, we’ll take that discussion and extend it into the rest of our lives and into eternity as illustrated in God’s creation.
Several animals symbolize perseverance and discipline, and perhaps the best examples are the ant and the honeybee.
Ants plan ahead, they store up food, and they cooperate in a highly organized colony. They persist in building and maintaining their nest with discipline and teamwork. The queen lays the eggs, the males fertilize them, and the younger ants care for the newborns, while worker ants forage for food and maintain the nest.
In Hebrews 12, Paul says:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
— Hebrews 2: 1-2
The honeybees methodically and meticulously build hives and produce honey. They “are surrounded so great a cloud of witnesses” and they “run with endurance the race that is set before them.” And they do it all to produce honey for us to enjoy.
Paul adds in a later verse:
“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
— Hebrews 12: 6
Rather than punishment, perseverance and discipline are signs of love — the love of God, the love of a father, and the love of oneself. Salmon swim upstream while fighting strong currents to reach their birthplace where they spawn.
It’s a long, hard, dangerous journey requiring incredible endurance as the ultimate symbol of perseverance to reach their goal and reproduce themselves.
In another later verse Paul says:
“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
— Hebrews 12: 14
The story of the tortoise and the hare illustrates the values of patience, determination, and perseverance in search of the goal-line. The key to perseverance and discipline is a goal. And what’s the Christian’s goal?
The twin goals of our Christian faith are peace; peace with God, peace with each other, and peace with ourselves. And holiness which is the cornerstone of our Christian faith.
We were created in the image of God, and holiness is the realization of that image in our daily lives. We were created and are now called to be holy. We were created and now are called to be like the one who created us.
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga. With wife, Mary Ella, they are missionaries to the Navajo Reservation.
