In Mark’s gospel chapter 4 verses 1-20 Jesus tells the very famous parable of the sower and soils. Regarding the seed that fell in the rocky soil, He says that this applies to those who hear His message, “receive it with joy; [but] they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away”. As to the seed that fell among the thorns, He explains those persons are unfruitful, due to being ‘choked out’ by the ‘thorns’ of “worries of the world, ..deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things, [which] enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful“.
If some thing is temporary, it is short-lived, either by design or by a lack of material strength, or faulty engineering. A dentist might install a temporary crown on a tooth, while the permanent or ‘enduring’ crown is waiting to be fabricated. For something to endure or last, it must be properly designed and made of materials that will enable the product to tolerate many hours or cycles of use, sometimes in a rather dirty or adverse environment [think of heavy dirt moving equipment]. We are always disappointed when something we purchased promptly breaks or fails to last even a reasonable length of time. Even some human relationships that we might invest in heavily with our time, energy and emotions may breakup and dissolve leaving behind deep wounds, and disappointment in our lives.
Sometimes tools are labeled ‘light duty’, whereas others are dubbed ‘heavy duty’ and the price for them is ‘heavier’ also. Trying to use a light duty tool in a heavy duty environment will often lead to a tool breakdown. That light duty tool was not built to last through a more rigorous and demanding use requirement.
The New Testament does not cast a vision of following Christ as a ‘light duty’ experience, though some Christians might try and make it so. We have been warned by the Lord and affirmed by the apostolic writers that followers of the Way would encounter opposition and suffering and would need endurance to make it to the end. In this regard the writer to the letter to the Hebrews says: “But remember the former days, when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations…Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” [Hebrews 10: 32-33,35-36].
God did not call us to be ‘temporary’ disciples of Jesus but enduring followers of our Lord. Of course in one sense in this earthly life, all of our ‘faith’ is temporary since it is meant to endure for this life only, becoming unnecessary when we see the Master, ‘then face to face‘ [I Cor 13:12]. In the meantime our Lord calls us to persevere in faith and endure to the end of our earthly life.
Will history record that you were a ‘light duty’ Christian who failed to last? That your ‘endurance’ was actually only temporary? That you had joined the ranks of those who abandoned the faith in times of stress, disappointment, bewilderment, pressure, opposition or loss, and had concluded that Jesus did not, after all, “have words of eternal life? [Jn 6:68] That you had earned only a ‘one-star’ rating, so to speak, for endurance in the faith?
“…For you have need of endurance...”
CJS
We do have need of endurance. For we, too, can break as a “light duty” tool and we need to hone ourselves into a “heavy duty tool” through necessary tribulations in faith. Am I getting the point here?
Yes, you clearly got the point!