“But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
– Mark 13:13
Now, there’s a specific context here in Mark chapter 13. Jesus is speaking to his disciples about the end times. There’s a lot we could discuss based on this passage.
Mark 13:13 Is a Calling to Endurance amidst Difficulties
But this verse transcends in a sense, this passage. We see it in so many different places in the Bible. Specifically in the New Testament, there are calls from Jesus to his followers for endurance. It’s one of my favorite phrases in the Book of Revelation. For example, as Jesus’s speaking to his church in the first century, in the middle of persecution and temptations to worldliness, and he tells them over and over again to endure with patience. There’s this constant phrase, patient endurance that you see in. It’s the same sentiment here in Mark 13:13, the one who endures to the end will be saved.
And I want to just encourage you to think about that word in your life today. Yes, there’s a sense in which God has called us to thrive and excel and run the race before us. These are words and phrases, images that we see in the Bible. But we also see endure on days when it’s really hard to run. And on days when we don’t feel like we’re thriving to endure, to patiently walk and trust in God when it’s hard, when it’s difficult, when despair or darkness seems to be setting in or surrounding you.
Maybe on a particular day, over many days or months or years to endure in the middle of it all. The one who endures to the end will be saved. How do you endure? You know that your endurance is not the end of the story.
Or you endure when you know that your salvation is the end of the story. You endure when you know that darkness is not the end of the story. Deliverance is the end of the story. That light’s coming even when you can’t see it, when you’re in the middle of the tunnel, light is coming. The one who endures to the end will be saved. In other words, and I just want to encourage you to hold onto this. If you’re in challenging dark despairing days, know that challenges are not the end and darkness is not the end and despair is not the end.
Mark 13:13 Reminds us of the Joyful unfolding of History
That in Christ you always have hope and you have strength to endure, and you have patience to endure and love to endure. And God promises you everything you need. Peace, help to endure all the way to the end, and the end will be good.
The end will be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more difficulties, no more crying, no more pain, no more tears. He will wipe every single one of those from your eyes. The end will be glorification. The end will be you with God, dwelling with God free from all of these things to enjoy him and his family forever in eternity. So endure today in view of that day. God, I just pray Mark 13:13 over every single person listening right now, and especially those who are walking through all kinds of challenges or God, I think about those who are just fighting certain temptations to sin right now.
God, I pray for their endurance in the battle against sin, and I pray for endurance and battles with suffering and difficulty and despair. Lord, I pray for endurance today and for new mercy tomorrow to endure tomorrow and for new mercy the next day and the next day to endure all the way to the end as we trust in where the end is going, that suffering and difficulty and despair and darkness will not have the last word.
God, I just pray that over every single person listening right now, and we pray that we would be counted by your grace, by your power at work within us counted among those who endure to the end and are saved. And God, we pray this especially for brothers and sisters who much like the context here in Mark 13 are being persecuted for their faith.
Praying for the Chong People
So we pray for unreached people around the world like the Chong in Cambodia. We pray for those who are on the front lines, sharing the gospel with the Chong in Cambodia and other unreached people around the world who are facing difficulty and danger as they do. God, we pray that you would help them to endure. We pray for missionaries. Lord, we pray for indigenous brothers and sisters in really hard places in the world help them to endure. We pray for their endurance, for their salvation, their glorification, and for the salvation of the Chong in Cambodia, and thousands of other people, groups like them. God, we pray for endurance all the way to the end in each of our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
