MacArthur on Perseverance

Excerpted from MacArthur’s commentary on Rm 15.4, “... perseverance, which is closely related to patience. In regard to the Lord’s return, James admonishes us to ‘be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand’ (James 5:7–8). Like saving faith, perseverance is both commanded of us and given to us by God, as Paul assures us in the next verse of our present passage (Rom. 15:5). It is continuing faithfulness to the Lord through all circumstances. Revelation 14:12 identifies perseverance with sustained faith and obedience. Second Thessalonians 1:4 says that perseverance is faith that does not fail ‘in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.’ The clearest exhortation to perseverance is given in Colossians 1:22–23: ‘Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven’ (cf. Matt. 24:13; Heb. 3:12–14; 4:11).

God also gives us encouragement to persevere. He provides this impetus by means of the Scriptures, which chronicle all the reasons to keep believing. They give us reason to sustain hope for our glorious future

John F. MacArthur Jr., Romans, vol. 2, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1991), 312–313.