“if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.”

These deep and great provisions made for us by God are ours and are the reality of our lives if we continue in the faith. We have the call to persevere to the end and make our salvation a reality. We must endure many things and keep close to the Word of God and make our calling and election sure.

“But he who endures to the end, the same will be saved.”

Matthew 23:13

We must be grounded and steadfast if we are to endure to the end of the road. The road is long and full of temptations and dangers and if we are to be over-comers, we must ground ourselves in the Word of God and remain committed to following the Lord Jesus. We rejoice to read the Scriptures everyday and meditate on its precepts and put them into practice in our lives. The Scripture is the only foundation for our faith and life, and we must not deviate from it or look for other sources of teaching and comfort. God is our teacher and the Spirit within will direct our thoughts and give us good motivations to obey and serve. He will give us the grace to persevere and continue safely to the heavenly home and the full fruition of our salvation.

Our hope for the future is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no other message of salvation and no other means whereby we can come to God. The truth about the coming kingdom and the promise of complete salvation from our sin and a hope in heaven is our hope, not the things of this life. Even the reality of Christian fellowship is not the ultimate comfort to us, but the fact that we are included in the kingdom and will one day be with Christ and reign with Him. Our union with Christ is everything and powers and enervates all we do and is our motivation for life and service.

This gospel is still being proclaimed and beloved by all who are marked for salvation. The message of the gospel is being spread through the whole earth and we keep it free from contamination of falsehood and false “Christian” religion. We keep to the message revealed in the Scripture and handed down to us from the Apostles. It is easy to contaminate the message, but God will keep His people and ensure all who will come to Him will be saved. There is much falsehood today and so many voices that preach and teach and call us to listen. We must be discerning about what we listen to and judge correctly about what is from the Word of God and what is not.

Paul is a servant in this regard and has laid down his life to spread and guard this message of the gospel so that many will be saved and come to know Christ. God has set Him apart to do this and this is the calling of all those who know the Lord Jesus, to spread the good news and rejoice in the forgiveness of sins. We continue to search the Scriptures to fill our minds with the truth of it, so that our discernment will grow and our courage to stand for the truth is strong. God will honour us if we put Him first and keep the message of the gospel true to His revealed Word and obey Him. Then our hope will be sure and steadfast and we will endure to the end.