Enduring Love

It is humanly impossible to love certain people. It is also unreasonable to expect us to keep persevering in our faith when we are beyond our breaking point. However, the impossible and unreasonable become achievable with divine grace.

“May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God’s love and Christ’s endurance.” ( 2 Thess 3:5 NLT)

In the above verse, endurance is translated from the Greek hupomone. Here is a description of hupomone: 

“It is the courageous and triumphant ability to pass the breaking-point and not to break. It is the alchemy which transmutes tribulation into strength and glory. Hupomone describes endurance when circumstances are difficult. It is not a passive acceptance but a strong fortitude in the face of opposition or difficulty. It is the opposite of despondency. Hupomone describes that spirit which bears things not simply with resignation, but with a blazing hope. In other words, if something happens in your life that is hard and painful and frustrating and disappointing, and, by grace, your faith looks to Christ and to his power and his sufficiency and his fellowship and his wisdom and his love, and you don't give in to bitterness and resentment and complaining, then your faith endures and perseveres.” (William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible)

Divine love has to be big enough and strong enough to overcome what is impossible to achieve under our own power. God’s enduring love in us is essential to loving difficult people and persevering past our breaking points.