The simple and literal reference to "abiding" at Corinth helps us to understand what

"continuing" in the faith implies. In an earlier epistle the Apostle has put "continuance"

in the faith over against "being moved away" from the hope (Col. 1: 23), which shows

that he had in mind the primitive meaning.

Epimeno, "To remain on", and so "persist", and so "continue". It would be best if

meno were allotted the translation "remain" and epimeno the translation "continue", so

giving the prefix epi its value.

There are, of course, many other occurrences of these words, and, moreover, many

other combinations, such as prosmeno, diameno, katameno, etc., all of which must be

consulted if the reader would be "throughly furnished". For our present purpose it is

sufficient if we have established the relation that exists between the two words translated

"endure" and "patience", and if both are seen in association with their basic idea of

abiding or remaining. To endure is "to remain under", and patience is that grace of

"remaining under", awaiting God's good time for deliverance. The man who could leap

from the contemplation of his bonds to the exultant testimony that, nevertheless, the

Word of God was not bound, was not a man to "remain under" as a result of either fear or

despondency. His endurance was willing and an act of faith, and counted as such in the

eyes of the Lord.

The Apostle knew that there was a purpose in his sufferings--"I endure all things for

the elect's sakes"--and this very knowledge was sustaining. If we can say with Job,

"He knoweth the way that I take", and if we are convinced that, at last, after we have

been tried, we "shall come forth as gold", most of the sting will be removed from

persecution, and joy will take its place. While it would be gratuitous to assume that none

of Paul's sufferings fell upon him because of his own frailty and because he was a man of

like passions with ourselves, we do know that from the moment of his commission until

the end of his course the Lord associated with his ministry the suffering of great

things for His name's sake (Acts 9: 16).

As a reference to II Cor. 11: and 12: will show, not only at the beginning of his

ministry did he endure unparalleled sufferings, but when that period came to a close and

he faced the prospect of the second ministry, visualized in Acts 20: 22-24, he spoke of a

new set of sufferings intimately associated with his ministry of the mystery, saying:

He told the Ephesians that his imprisonment was for them, and his tribulations were

for their glory (Eph. 3: 1, 13), and in his last epistle, the one before us, we find the same