Hebrews 10:36 For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. I. THE CALL WHICH THE CHRISTIAN LIFE MAKES ON US FOR THIS GRACE OF PATIENCE. The need of patience results from two things — the presence of sufferings or the privation of blessings; patience is exercised either in the enduring of evils or in waiting for desired good. There are trials, besides those common to man, which are peculiar to Christians. There are spiritual trials within, from the corruptions of the heart, which none but those who have experienced them can understand. II. THE GREAT ADVANTAGES OF PATIENCE. 1. It lightens affliction, disarms it of half its sting. Impatience greatly adds to the momentum of affliction; but the firmness which belongs to patience prepares us to bear the pain. What, indeed, is fortitude but patience? 2. Patience gives room for those moral effects which are designed in the affliction. A tranquil state of mind gives us aa advantage for receiving the benefits of our affliction; being purified, having the unholy fires of the soul quenched, the beauties and beatitudes of the Spirit imparted. But these Divine purposes are not fulfilled in a turbulent mind. 3. Affliction endured with patience redounds to the glory of God. Nothing is a more practical proof of devotedness to God than submission; nothing more recognises God as the great Governor of the world than obedience to Him, as well in what He inflicts as in what He prescribes. III. CONSIDERATIONS ADAPTED TO STRENGTHEN THIS VIRTUE. 1. Affliction is sent by God; His hand is there. 2. Consider the gracious and glorious design which God has in afflicting us; it is " for our profit" — for nothing less than this — "that we may be partakers of His holiness! " 3. There are some familiar comparisons, naturally suggested to a reflecting mind, which tend to support the afflicted. One is the comparing of our trials with those of many others among the people of God. What are ours to theirs? to those of David; Isaiah, supposed to have been sawn; Jeremiah, cast into a dungeon; or the martyrs of later times? 4. What are our troubles compared with our deserts? 5. What are our sufferings compared with our eternal prospects and hopes? 6. The time is hastening on when all these afflictions will be no more. (R. Hall, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.WEB: For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. |
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