Through Tribulation To The Kingdom

1:9 I, John, your brother and partner in tribulation, in the kingdom, and in that steadfast endurance which life in Christ alone can give, was in the island which is called Patmos, for the sake of the word given by God and confirmed by Jesus Christ.

John introduces himself, not by any official title but as your brother and partner in tribulation. His right to speak was that he had come through all that those to whom he was writing were going through. Ezekiel writes in his book: "Then I came to the exiles at Telabib, who dwelt by the river Chebar, and I sat there overwhelmed among them" ( Ezekiel 3:15 ). Men will never listen to one who preaches endurance from the comfort of an easy chair, nor to one who preaches heroic courage to others while he himself has sought a prudent safety. It is the man who has gone through it who can help others who are going through it. As the Indians have it: "No man can criticize another man until he has walked for a day in his moccasins." John and Ezekiel could speak because they had sat where their people were sitting.

John puts three words together--tribulation, kingdom, steadfast endurance. Tribulation is thlipsis ( Greek #2347 ). Originally thlipsis meant simply pressure and could, for instance, describe the pressure of a great stone on a man's body. At first it was used quite literally, but in the New Testament it has come to describe that pressure of events which is persecution. Steadfast endurance is hupomone ( Greek #5281 ). Hupomone ( Greek #5281 ) does not describe the patience which simply passively submits to the tide of events; it describes the spirit of courage and conquest which leads to gallantry and transmutes even suffering into glory. The situation of the Christians was this. They were in thlipsis ( Greek #2347 ) and, as John saw it, in the midst of the terrible events which preceded the end of the world. They were looking towards basileia ( Greek #932 ), the kingdom, into which they desired to enter and on which they had set their hearts. There was only one way from thlipsis ( Greek #2347 ) to basileia ( Greek #932 ), from affliction to glory, and that was through hupomone ( Greek #5281 ), conquering endurance. Jesus said: "He who endures to the end will be saved" ( Matthew 24:13 ). Paul told his people: "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" ( Acts 14:22 ). In Second Timothy we read: "If we endure, we shall also reign with him" ( 2 Timothy 2:12 ).

The way to the kingdom is the way of endurance. But before we leave this passage we must note one thing. That endurance is to be found in Christ. He himself endured to the end and he is able to enable those who walk with him to achieve the same endurance and to reach the same goal.