THROUGH TRIBULATION TO THE KINGDOM

Revelation 1:9

I, John, your brother and partner in tribulation, in the kingdom, and in that steadfast endurance which life in Christ alone can give, was in the island which is called Patmos, for the sake of the word given by God and confirmed by Jesus Christ.

JOHN introduces himself, not by any official title but as your brother and partner in tribulation. His right to speak was that he had come through all that those to whom he was writing were going through. Ezekiel writes in his book: ‘I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the river Chebar. And I sat there among them, stunned’ (Ezekiel 3:5). People will never listen to anyone who preaches endurance from the comfort of an easy chair, nor to someone who preaches heroic courage to others from a position of prudent safety. It is the person who has already experienced the time of trouble who can help others who are going through it. As the native Americans have it: ‘No man can criticize another man until he has walked for a day in his moccasins.’ John and Ezekiel could speak because they had sat where their people were sitting.
John puts three words together–tribulation, kingdom and steadfast endurance. Tribulation is thlipsis. Originally, thlipsis meant simply pressure and could, for instance, describe the pressure of a great stone on someone’s body. At first it was used quite literally, but in the New Testament it has come to describe the pressure of events which constitutes persecution. Steadfast endurance is hupomonÄ“. HupomonÄ“ does not describe the patience which simply passively submits to the tide of events; it describes the spirit of courage and conquest which leads to gallantry and transforms even suffering into glory. The situation of the Christians was this. They were in thlipsis and, as John saw it, in the midst of the terrible events which preceded the end of the world. They were looking towards basileia, the kingdom, into which they desired to enter and on which they had set their hearts. There was only one way from thlipsis to basileia, from affliction to glory, and that was through hupomonÄ“, conquering endurance. Jesus said: ‘Anyone who endures to theend will be saved’ (Matthew 24:13). Paul told his people: ‘It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God’ (Acts 14:22). In 2 Timothy, we read: ‘If we endure, we will also reign with him’ (2 Timothy 2:12).
The way to the kingdom is the way of endurance. But, before we leave this passage, we must note one thing. That endurance is to be found in Christ. He himself endured to the end, and he can enable those who walk with him to achieve the same endurance and to reach the same goal.

Barclay, W. (2004). The Revelation of John (3rd ed. fully rev. and updated., Vol. 1, pp. 45—47). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.

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