How Patience Helps You Win Your Soul

JESUS WAS A PATIENCE PROMOTER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Luke 21:19 In your patienceye shall win your souls.
GreatTexts of the Bible
The Winning of the Soul
Our Lord’s sojourn upon earth was now drawing to a close;and, in
proportion to the magnitude of approaching events, His statements rose in
dignity and importance. Not like a false teacher, seducing with pleasant
prospects, but as one who would not concealthe dark future, however
disheartening it might be, He draws up the veil, and bids His disciples behold,
as in a mirror, the scenes oftrouble and conflictin which they would have to
wrestle;He causes to pass before their eyes, as in a vision, the fiery
persecutions and sanguinary struggles in which Christianity was to be cradled
and baptized; and, addressing His followers as those who were to share in the
suffering—nay, to go hand in hand into the furnace—He assures themwith
the promise “In your patience ye shall win your souls.”
In the Authorized Version this verse is treatedas if it were merely an
exhortation to the disciples to be patient under the pressure of persecution
and peril. But that is not what our Lord said at all. He did not bid these
disciples possesstheir souls in patience. He said a far more striking and
significant thing. He said that it was by patient endurance they were to win, to
get possessionof, their souls—“Ye shallwin your souls”!It is a notable and
suggestive saying. It is perfectly true that some of the commentators take all
the suggestiveness outof it by explaining that it really means nothing more

than this: that, if the disciples remain steadfastin the midst of all their
troubles, and do not turn apostate, then they shall win life in the resurrection
of the just. This is, indeed, how the Twentieth-century Testamenttranslates
the verse:“By your endurance you shall win yourselves life.” But I cannot
help feeling that such a translation is a case ofconventionalizing and
stereotyping what is a very unconventional and unusual expression. At any
rate, I am going to take the phrase at its face value. “Ye shall win—ye shall
gain possessionof—yoursouls.” And the main and central suggestionofthe
phrase to me is this: our souls are not given to us ready-made, finished and
complete. They have to be made. They are prizes to be won. We do not start
with them—we gradually getpossessionofthem. “Life,” says Browning
somewhere, “is a stuff to try the soul’s strength on and educe the man.” I
know of no sentence that constitutes a more illuminating commentary on this
word of Christ’s. The soul is not an inheritance into which we are born; it is
something we make and fashion and win for ourselves out of the varied
discipline and experience of life.1 [Note:J. D. Jones, The Hope of the Gospel,
98.]
In one of Westcott’s letters he has this most significant reference to the words
of the text: “Ofall the changes in the RevisedVersion, that in Luke 21:19 is
the one to which perhaps I look with most hope. We think of our souls as
something given us to complete, and not as something given to us to win.” It is
a most suggestive distinction, and the failure to recognize it has been fraught
with perilous mistakes. There is a very big difference betweenpossessing a
thing and making it entirely your own. For instance, I may possess a book, but
the winning of its treasure is quite another thing. I may have come into
possessionofa musical instrument, but to woo and win its secretmelody is
quite another thing. It was one thing for Britain to come into possessionofthe
Transvaal;it is quite another thing to win the people of the Transvaalto our
rule. And these analogiesmay help us in the interpretation of the text. To win
the soulis to bring all its rebel powers into willing homage to King Jesus. To
win the soul is to elicit all its latent music and cause it to spring forth in
constantpraise. To win the soul is gradually to constrainall that is within us

to praise and bless His holy name.2 [Note: J. H. Jowett, in The British
Congregationalist, March4, 1909, p. 178.]
I
The Promise
“Ye shall win your souls.”
1. What is meant by a man winning his own soul? We can understand winning
others to the side of right; but here it speaks ofa man winning his ownsoul as
if he could be, so to speak, the makerof his own soul, along with its Creator. If
we thoughtfully turn over the subject for a little while we shall see that there is
deep significance in this fact. We do not come into the world fully developed.
Man is born with a greatmany potentialities. God creates nothing perfect, but
everything for perfection. There is a certain sense in which a man wins his
body. When we look at a child lying helpless in its cot, we think what a long
way it has to travel, so far as its bodily structure is concerned, before it can
stand forth in the full strength of manhood. If that child were restrained from
all exercise of its powers it would be helpless all its life. But as it puts forth its
powerit gains power, and the result is that at length it stands forth in the
strength of manhood. It is preciselythe same in regardto the mind. If any one
were kept in absolute intellectual sluggishness,the mind would never be
developed. Education depends not so much on putting knowledge into the
child’s mind as on drawing powerforth from it by the exercise ofpower. Thus
it may be said that a man may win his mind. And we can understand the same
thing in regard to the bodily and mental power;but the time will come when
the body and the mind have done their work, when the spiritual nature should
receive its full development. And when this has been achieved, then a man
may be said to have won his own soul.

Every time we choose the hard right way rather than the easywrong way we
gain soul. Every time we sacrifice easeand comfort to do service to our
fellows, we gain soul. Every time we say a kindly word and do a loving deed,
we gain soul. When F. N. Charrington gave up a fortune to fight the drink, he
gained soul. When Frank Crossleygave up comfortin Bowdon, and went and
lived in Ancoats to minister to the poor, he gained soul. When Dr. Peter
Frasergive up position and fame at home to go and be a missionary in the far-
off Khassia hills, he gained soul. For the soul lives and grows and expands on
love and kindness and sacrifice. Ourheart is always enlargedwhen we run in
the wayof God’s commandments.1 [Note: J. D. Jones, The Hope of the
Gospel, 108.]
2. There may be a loss or shrinkage of soul. The heat and drought of
worldliness cause the souls of men to shrink. Their very souls seemsometimes
to become dry, hard, and small in selfishness. The process ofsoul-wasting and
soul-shrinking is continually going on in the world. There was a man born
apparently for large things. His mother’s eye brightened as she lookeddown
through the years awayinto his golden prospects. His father’s pride saw him
climbing thrones of power. At thirty, at fifty, people who knew him when a
boy, speak of what a man he might have been. Some sin at the root of the life
has shrivelled the soul, which once beganto grow. When a soul is dissipated
before the body decays, when man’s worldly interests destroy his capacityfor
truth and honour, chivalry and love, when sin exhausts his force as weeds do
the soil, then a man is losing soul. Every departure from love and truth means
shrinkage of soul; every trick, every falsenessleaves a man so much less a
living soul.
Men have I seen, and seenwith wonderment,
Noble in form, “lift upward and divine,”

In whom I yet must search, as in a mine,
After that soul of theirs, by which they went
Alive upon the earth. And I have bent
Regardon many a woman, who gave sign
God willed her beautiful, when He drew the line
That shaped eachfloat and fold of beauty’s tent:
Her soul, alas, chambered in pigmy space,
Left the fair visage pitiful-inane—
Poorsignalonly of a coming face
When from the penetrale she filled the fane!—
Possessedof Thee was every form of Thine,

Thy very hair replete with the Divine.1 [Note: George MacDonald, “Sonnets
Concerning Jesus” (PoeticalWorks,i. 253).]
3. The winning of the soul is a continuous process. The religious life is the
fulfilment of one’s own nature in truest, largestways. It is the unfolding of
one’s truest self, under the Fatherhoodof God—the Godwho gives the life,
sustains and nourishes it. It is the Divine within us responding to the Divine in
God—reaching out and striving to measure itself up in beauty beside His
perfect life. It is a spiritual energy welling up from within and realizing itself
in all lovely thoughts and deeds, in purity of heart, high aspirings and service
of mankind.
This conceptionof the religions life as developedfrom within is true to the
now known laws of nature. Nothing in nature is superadded, put in from the
outside; all is the result of the wonderful processesoffulfilment from within,
the first germ of life gradually expressing itself in a million forms and
beauties.
Growth is a vital as distinguished from a mechanicalprocess;it partakes,
therefore, of the mystery which envelops the essenceoflife wherever it
appears;it is inexplicable and unsolvable. It cannot be understood and it
cannot be imitated; it has the perennial interest and wonderof the
miraculous. As we study it, the impression deepens within us that we are face
to face with a method which not only transcends our understanding but from
which our finest skill is differentiated, not only in degree, but in kind. Men
have done wonderful things with thought, craft, and tools;but the manner of
the unfolding of a wild flower is as greata mystery to-day as it was when
science beganto look, to compare, and to discover. Betweenthe thing that
grows and the thing that is made there is a gulf set which has never been
crossed. Mechanismis marvellous, but growthis miraculous. From the seedto
the fruit, from the egg to the perfected animal, from the primordial cell to the

complete man, the process by which life evolves its potency and discloses its
aims is the process ofgrowth. No other method is knownto nature, and the
universality of this method, and the completeness withwhich, so far as we can
see, life is limited to it, put it in importance on a level with the mysterious
force to which it is bound in indissoluble union. Hence, next in importance to
the factof life, comes the method of life-growth, not by additions from
without, but by evolution from within.1 [Note:H. W. Mabie.]
4. The growth of the soul, though imperceptible, may be none the less real.
Nature moves slowly, advancing by hair’s-breadths, augmenting by the
scruple. If we had lived on this earth from its very beginning until now, we
should have thought it standing still, so tardy its action and minute the
individual result; but if we recall the geologicalage whennot a plant was on
the earth, and then compare that barren epochwith the modern world
blushing like a rainbow with ten thousand flowers, it is patent, after all, that
the development of the planet has gone on un-restingly, howeversilently and
deliberately. It is the same with the history of civilization. Had we lived
through the long ages since man first appeared on the earth until now, we
should have thought him ever standing still, so gradual and insignificant have
been the successivechangesand transformations of which he has been the
subject; but compare the flint instruments, the rude vessels, and the grotesque
decorations ofa primitive kitchen-midden, with the splendid treasures of an
International Exhibition, and the progress is as indisputable as it is glorious.
So with the spiritual development of the race;we cannotmark the steps of its
onward march; but the moral barbarism of the ages, by fine degrees which
escape oureye, passes into the pure splendour of the millennial world. “What
is to last for evertakes a long time to grow.” And so it is also with the spiritual
development of a man’s life.
Mostmen, when they grow old, are satisfiedto be what they are. They have
lived their lives, and wait quietly for the final summons. Their habits are too
rigid to be easilychanged, and they have no longerthe force to make the

attempt. Or they become indifferent, first about outward things, and then
about themselves. Or they live in the past and think of what they have been,
not of what they are, still less of what they may become. Or, if unsatisfied with
themselves, they despair of improvement and sadly say, with Swift: “I am
what I am.” Jowett, as we know, thought very differently. To the lasthe
wished to make the most of life, improving not others only, but himself. With
him moral growth was a life-long process;the ideal was always before him,
leading him upwards and onwards. Often weary, often in pain, conscious of
failing powers in body and mind, through doubt and failure, he toiled on,
still hoping, ever and anon,
To reach, one eve, the better land.
“I wonder whether it is possible,” he asks, in writing to a friend, “to grow a
little better as one grows older. What do you say? I rather think so. Will you
take the matter into considerationfor you and for myself? People seemto me
to have lost the secretof it, and to keepto the old routine, having taken in
about as much religion or truth or benevolence as they are capable of. Against
this I venture to setthe homely doctrine, that we should be as goodas we can,
and find out for ourselves ways ofbeing and doing good.”1[Note:Abbot and
Campbell, Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett, ii. 352.]
Thy hills are kneeling in the tardy spring,
And wait, in supplication’s gentleness,
The certainresurrection that shall bring

A robe of verdure for their nakedness.
Thy perfumed valleys where the twilights dwell,
Thy fields within the sunlight’s living coil,
Now promise, while the veins of nature swell,
Eternal recompense to human toil.
And when the sunset’s final shades depart,
The aspirationto completedbirth
Is sweetand silent; as the soft tears start,
We know how wanton and how little worth
Are all the passions ofour bleeding heart
That vex the awful patience of the earth.1 [Note:G. C. Lodge, Poems and
Dramas, i. 76.]

II
The Masteryof the Soul
1. The first essentialin the struggle to win our souls is self-mastery. We say
that a man is self-possessed. Whatdo we mean by that but that there resides
in the man a powerwhich holds all his faculties at command, and brings them
into service in spite of all distractions? There can be no better phrase to
express it. He possesses himself. He can do what he will with that side of the
self which he chooses to use. Nothing takes awayhis courage. He has that in
possession. Excitementand tumult do not take awaythe clearness ofhis
mental vision. He keeps his eye on his theme. He has possessionof his tongue.
No confusion takes from him the powerof lucid speech:and, above all, that
deep-lying personality of the man is not thrown off its feet. It asserts itself.
Men as they look and listen, perhaps as they rave, say, “The man is himself.
He is not what our threats or our tumult or our opposition make him. We
cannot take his manhood away from him. He has himself in hand. He is self-
possessed.”
The figure which our Lord uses will perhaps be best understood through the
physical analogy. Instances are common enough among us of those who have
lost the mastery over some physical power. It may be a case ofparalysis. It
may be a species ofatrophy. It may be the result of disease, orthe result of
neglect. But the powerover the limb, let us say, for any effective service, has
been lost. And we are so constitutedin this marvellous physical organism that
from the loss of one power the whole body suffers. Now, supposing it be
possible by some treatment to recoverthe possessionofthe lost power:to
reanimate the paralysed limb, renew, and as it were recreate,the decaying or
decayedfaculty, so that once again its full activity and use lies at the service of
the will—this would be the winning of the physical organism. Well, that is not

an idea which it is difficult to transfer to the spiritual nature. Who is there
who has not known instances ofan atrophied conscience? Who has not
known, alas, men with a withered faith as real, if not so visible, as the
withered hand of the man whose misery moved the compassionof Christ? Do
you suppose any man would excite the pity of God for a withered hand, and
none for a withered heart? Yet men who have thrown all their force into their
intellect and allowedtheir affections to wither are a tragic reality. It is
possible, as we know, not from prophet lips alone, but from our own
experience, to lose the vision of God. More, it is possible to lose the powerof
vision. This it was that was in the thought of Christ, surely. Ye shall win your
souls—recoveryour mastery over these God-given powers and faculties.1
[Note:C. S. Horne, The Soul’s Awakening, 257.]
Man is not God but hath God’s end to serve,
A master to obey, a course to take,
Somewhatto castoff, somewhatto become.
Grant this, then man must pass from old to new,
From vain to real, from mistake to fact,
From what once seemedgood, to what now proves best.
How could man have progressionotherwise?2 [Note:R. Browning, A Deathin
the Desert.]

I shall have frequent occasionto refer to the letters of JonathanOtley, a most
true pioneer in geologicalscience, and to avail myself of his work. But that
work was chiefly crowned in the example he left—not of what is vulgarly
praised as self-help (for every noble spirit’s watchwordis “Godus ayde”)—
but of the rarest of moral virtues, self-possession. “Inyour patience, possess ye
your souls.”3 [Note:Ruskin, Deucalion(Works, xxvi. 294).]
2. Self-possessioncomesby self-surrender. We never own ourselves till we
have given up owning ourselves, and yielded ourselves to that Lord who gives
us back saints to ourselves. Self-controlis self-possession. We do not own
ourselves as long as it is possible for any weaknessin flesh, sense, orspirit to
gain dominion over us and hinder us from doing what we know to be right.
We are not our ownmasters, then. “While they promise them liberty, they
themselves are the bondservants of corruption.” It is only when we have the
bit well into the jaws of the brutes, and the reins tight in our hands, so that a
finger-touch can check or divert the course, that we are truly lords of the
chariot in which we ride and of the animals that impel it.
The first thing to do is the thing which those men had alreadydone to whom
Jesus gave this promise that they should win their souls. What they had
done—the first decisive step which they had taken in the work of finding their
lives—was not, indeed, to acquaint themselves with all knowledge, orto peer
into all mysteries. They had not even lingered at the doors of the schoolofthe
Rabbis. But when One who spake as never man spake, and who lookedinto
men’s souls with the light of a Divine Spirit in His eye, came walking upon the
beachwhere they were mending their nets, and bade them leave all and follow
Him, they heard the command as coming from the King of Truth, and at once
they left all and followedHim. They countednot the cost;they obeyed, when
they found themselves commanded by God in Christ.

We are ever ready to think it was easyfor those who saw Christ to follow
Him. Could we readHis sympathy and truthfulness in His face, could we hear
His words addresseddirectly to ourselves, couldwe ask our own questions
and have from Him personalguidance, we fancy faith would be easy. And no
doubt there is a greaterbenedictionpronounced on those who “have not seen,
and yet have believed.” Still the advantage is not wholly theirs who saw the
Lord growing up among other boys, learning His trade with ordinary lads,
clothed in the dress of a working man. The brothers of Jesus found it hard to
believe. Besides, in giving the allegiance ofthe Spirit, and forming eternal
alliance, it is well that the true affinities of our spirit be not disturbed by
material and sensible appearances.1[Note:Marcus Dods, The Gospelof St.
John, 57.]
3. When we have masteredour souls, we have won a victory which determines
all minor issues. A greatbattle is raging. There is a fort which is the key to the
whole position. Whichever side canwin and hold that, is victor. Here, then,
the generalmasseshis troops. Other parts of the field are carriedby the
enemy. The outposts are driven in. The batteries are captured. Troops cannot
be spared for these. Everything is concentratedupon that fort, and at last it is
taken. The dead and dying lie in heaps round it, but the flag waves over. It has
been takenat the sacrifice ofminor positions, but these are of no accountnow.
The enemy will abandon these of his own accord. He has nothing to gainby
holding them any longer. They are commanded by the superior post; and, in
the light of the fact that the generalholds the point from which he can
command the whole field and dictate terms, his former dealing with the
inferior positions is explained and justified. He could afford to sacrifice them
for the sake ofholding the keyto the field. The lesserthing was wiselygiven
up for the greater. Wellfor us if we can carry that principle into our spiritual
warfare. Well for us if we shall clearly recognize the soulas the key to the
position. Well for us if we can wholly take in the meaning of the words, “What
shall it profit a man, if he shall gainthe whole world, and lose his own soul?”

It happens that I have practically some connexion with schools for different
classesofyouth; and I receive many letters from parents respecting the
educationof their children. In the mass of these letters I am always struck by
the precedence whichthe idea of a “position in life” takes above all other
thoughts in the parents’—more especiallyin the mothers’—minds. “The
educationbefitting such and such a station in life”—this is the phrase, this the
object, always. They never seek, as faras I can make out, an educationgood in
itself; even the conceptionof abstractrightness in training rarely seems
reachedby the writers. But, an education “whichshall keepa goodcoaton my
son’s back;—which shall enable him to ring with confidence the visitors’ bell
at double-belled doors;which shall result ultimately in the establishment of a
double-belled door to his own house;—in a word, which shall lead to
advancementin life;—this we pray for on bent knees—andthat is all we pray
for.” It never seems to occurto the parents that there may be an education
which, in itself, is advancement in Life:—that any other than that may
perhaps be advancement in Death; and that this essentialeducationmight be
more easilygot, or given, than they fancy, if they setabout it in the right way;
while it is for no price, and by no favour, to be got, if they setabout it in the
wrong.1 [Note:Ruskin Sesame andLilies (Works, xviii. 54).]
III
The Discipline of the Soul
“In your patience.”
1. There is need of patience. See what a fearful campaign is mapped out for
these disciples of His. War and natural convulsion in the earth; the machinery
of civil government arrayed againstthe faith; domestic affectionchangedto
gall; kindred turned into persecutors;hatred from every quarter. But see the

point on which Christ fixes the disciples’attention. It is not how all this
persecutionand sorrow are going to affectfortune and life and domestic
relations. That needs no comment. It is not how the disciple is going to be able
to break the force of these blows. He will not be able to break it. It may put an
end to his life. But it is what the disciple is going to win and bring out of it all.
Something is to be suffered. He does not concealthat; but something, and that
the greatestthing, is to be won.
In the prefatory note of Christina’s “Face ofthe Deep” she once more
mentions her sister[Maria] though not by name:—
“A dear saint—I speak under correctionof the Judgment of the GreatDay,
yet think not then to have my word corrected—this dearperson once pointed
out to me Patience as our lessonin the Book ofRevelation. Following the clue
thus afforded me, I seek and hope to find Patience in this Book ofawful
import. Patience, atthe least:and along with that grace whatevertreasures
beside God may vouchsafe me.”1 [Note:Mackenzie Bell, Christina Rossetti,
63.]
2. We are all placed differently because ofdifferent temptations; but,
whateverour position, we can win something out of the circumstances ofour
life. In the Epistle to the Romans it is said, “We are accountedas sheepfor the
slaughter.” Yet, the Apostle adds, “In all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us.” During life’s battle we win that which
will carry us into greaterlife beyond. So life may be lookedon as a school
where the young are trained. The exercises theyare engagedin to-day they
will never care for again, but meanwhile they are being shaped for the great
world. These books and exerciseswillbe simply waste paper by-and-by, but
the strength and vigour of mind they generate will be always valuable. Life,
then, is a greatschoolin which there are no holidays, in which a man is always
being shaped and trained for a greaterlife on the other side. Let a man go

forth to business to confront some greattemptation, and let him, in his
integrity, by God’s grace standfirm and strong—thatman will go to bed at
night having gainedsoul.
Astronomers tell us that one, at any rate, of the planets rolls on its orbit
swathedin clouds and moisture. The world moves wrapped in a mist of tears.
God alone knows them all, but eachheart knows its ownbitterness, and
responds to the words, “Ye have need of patience.”1 [Note:A. Maclaren.]
3. The patience here spokenof is not merely submission, but active
persistence, constancy. It is not enoughthat we shall stand and bear the
pelting of the pitiless storm, unmurmuring and unbowed by it; we are bound
to go on our course, bearing up and steering right onwards. Persistent
perseverance in the path that is marked out for us is especiallythe virtue that
our Lord here enjoins. It is well to sit still unmurmuring; it is better to march
on undaunted and unswerving. And when we are able to keepstraight on the
path which is markedout for us, and especiallyon the path that leads us to
God, notwithstanding all opposing voices, and all inward hindrances and
reluctances;when we are able to go to our tasks ofwhateversort they be, and
to do them, though our hearts are beating like sledge-hammers;when we say
to ourselves, “It does not matter a bit whether I am sad or glad, fresh or
wearied, helped or hindered by circumstances, this one thing I do,” then we
have come to understand and to practise the grace that our Masterhere
enjoins.
Wherever the flowers of the North are distributed they prevail; they establish
themselves in all climates, driving out the native flowers. On the other hand,
the flowers of the South cannot establishthemselves here. The explanation is
that what the northern blooms have endured has made them robust and
victorious. The Christian religion is one of endurance. This was first and pre-
eminently true of our Lord. The first ages ofthe Church were ages of

martyrdom. Ever since then the Christian faith has borne the weight of
opposition and trial. As the glacialperiod has made the flowers hardy, so the
discipline of suffering has made the Church of Christ the very home of
patience, power, heroism. In this powerof patience we win our souls—we
realize ourselves, save ourselveseverlastingly.1[Note:W. L. Watkinson, The
Gates of Dawn, 103.]
When the Duke of Wellington saw a painting of Waterloo which represented
him sitting on horseback witha watch in his hand anxiously scanning the
hour, the greatsoldier ridiculed the picture, declaredthe posture false, and
told the artist to paint the watchout. No battle is won with a watchin our
palm. The victory over our own nature and the victory that overcomeththe
world are gained in patient faith and endeavour.
4. Christ manifested the patience that He recommended. The patience of our
Lord is remarkable. Isaiahprophesied of Him: “He shall not fail nor be
discouraged, till he have setjudgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for
his law.” Nothing is more wonderful than the serenity of our Lord in the
prosecutionof His greatmission. His zeal was a flaming fire, and His desire to
see of the travail of His soul in the establishment of His kingdom of universal
righteousness andpeace was intense, with an intensity into which we cannot
enter; but the calmness with which He carriedout His purpose was that of the
measuredand majestic movements of nature. He was never flurried or
betrayed into the agitationof hurry; but, whilst kindling with sublime and
mighty enthusiasm, He proceededto fulfil His destiny without haste and
without pause.
He who waited so long for the formation of a piece of old red sandstone will
surely wait with much long-suffering for the perfecting of a human spirit.2
[Note:Letters of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, ii. 242.]

Grant us, O Lord, that patience and that faith:
Faith’s patience imperturbable in Thee,
Hope’s patience till the long-drawn shadows flee,
Love’s patience unresentful of all scathe.
Verily we need patience breath by breath;
Patience while faith holds up her glass to see,
While hope toils yoked in fear’s copartnery,
And love goes softlyon the way to death.
How gracious and how perfecting a grace
Must patience be on which those others wait:
Faith with suspended rapture in her face,
Hope pale and careful hand in hand with fear,

Love—ah, goodlove who would not antedate
God’s will, but saith, Goodis it to be here.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti.]
The Winning of the Soul
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
On Patience
H. Blair, D. D.
Luke 21:7-28
And they askedhim, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what
sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?…
The possessionof our souls is a very emphaticalexpression. It describes that
state in which a man has both the full command, and the undisturbed
enjoyment, of himself; in opposition to his under going some inward agitation
which discomposes his powers. Upon the leastreflection it must appear, how
essentialsucha state of mind is to happiness. He only who thus possesseshis
soul is capable of possessing anyother thing with advantage;and, in order to
attain and preserve this self-possession, the most important requisite is, the
habitual exercise ofpatience. I know that patience is apt to be ranked, by
many, among the more humble and obscure virtues; belonging chiefly to those

who groanon a sick bed, or who languish in a prison. If their situation be,
happily, of a different kind, they imagine that there is no occasionfor the
discipline of patience being preachedto them. But I hope to make it appear,
that, in every circumstance of life, no virtue is more important, both to duty
and to happiness; or more requisite for forming a manly and worthy
character. It principally, indeed, regards the disagreeable circumstances
which are apt to occur. But in our present state, the occurrence ofthese is so
frequent, that, in every condition of life, patience is incessantlycalledforth.
I. PATIENCE UNDER PROVOCATIONS. We are provoked, sometimes by
the folly and levity of those with whom we are connected;sometimes by their
indifference, or neglect;by the incivility of a friend, the haughtiness of a
superior, or the insolent behaviour of one in lower station. Hardly a day
passes,without somewhator other occurring, which serves to ruffle the man
of impatient spirit. Of course, sucha man lives in a continual storm. He knows
not what it is to enjoy a train of goodhumour. Servants, neighbours, friends,
spouse, and children, all, through the unrestrained violence of his temper,
become sources ofdisturbance and vexation to him. In vain is affluence;in
yam are health and prosperity. The leasttrifle is sufficient to discompose his
mind, and poisonhis pleasures. His very amusements are mixed with
turbulence and passion. I would beseechthis man to considerof what small
moment the provocations whichhe receives, orat leastimagines himself to
receive, are really in themselves;but of what great moment he makes them by
suffering them to deprive him of the possessionofhimself.
II. PATIENCE UNDER DISAPPOINTMENTS.Are we not, eachin his turn,
doomed to experience the uncertainty of worldly pursuits? Why, then,
aggravate ourmisfortunes by the unreasonable violence of an impatient spirit
Perhaps the accomplishmentof our designs might have been pregnant with
misery. Perhaps from our present disappointment future prosperity may rise.

III. PATIENCE UNDER RESTRAINTS.No man is, or canbe, always his own
master. We are obliged, in a thousand cases, to submit and obey. The
discipline of patience preserves our minds easy, by conforming them to our
state. By the impetuosity of an impatient and unsubmitting temper, we fight
againstan unconquerable power; and aggravatethe evils we must endure.
IV. Patience under injuries and wrongs. To these, amidst the present
confusionof the world, all are exposed. No station is so high, no power so
great, no characterso unblemished, as to exempt men from being attackedby
rashness, malice, orenvy. To behave under such attacks withdue patience
and moderation, is, it must be confessed, one of the most trying exercisesof
virtue. But, in order to prevent mistakes on this subject, it is necessaryto
observe, that a tame submission to wrongs is not required by religion. We are
by no means to imagine that religion tends to extinguish the sense ofhonour,
or to suppress the exertion of a manly spirit. It is under a false apprehension
of this kind that Christian patience is sometimes stigmatized in discourse as
no other than a different name for cowardice. Onthe contrary, every man of
virtue ought to feel what is due to his character, and to support properly his
own rights. Resentmentof wrong is a useful principle in human nature; and
for the wisestpurposes was implanted in our frame. It is the necessaryguard
of private rights; and the greatrestraint on the insolence of the violent, who, if
no resistance were made, would trample on the gentle and peaceable.
Resentment, however, if not kept within due bounds, is in hazard of rising into
fierce and cruel revenge. It is the office of patience to temper resentment by
reason.
V. PATIENCE UNDER ADVERSITYAND AFFLICTION. This is the most
common sense in which this virtue is understood; as it respects disease,
poverty, old age, loss offriends, and the other calamities which are incident to
human life. In general, there are two chief exercises ofpatience under
adversity; one respecting God, and another respecting men. Patience with
respectto God, must, in the days of trouble, suppress the risings of a

murmuring and rebellious spirit. Patience in adversity, with respectto men,
must appear by the composure and tranquility of our behaviour. The loud
complaint, the querulous temper, and fretful spirit, disgrace everycharacter.
They show a mind that is unmanned by misfortunes. We weakenthereby the
sympathy of others;and estrange them from the offices of kindness and
comfort. The exertions of pity will be feeble, when it is mingled with contempt.
(H. Blair, D. D.)
Patience
DeanKitchin.
Luke 21:7-28
It should rather read, By your endurance ye shall gain possessionofyour
lives. It is also "ye shall bring your spiritual life safely through the coming
troubles." It was a sore trial for the early Christians to he severedfrom their
holy places, from their city home. In that sundering of cherishedties there lay,
we may well believe, an agonythat changedthe very nature of those who
endured it. But it taught them to look far afield, to bow down at no single
shrine, and sent them forth to evangelize the world. Out of the ruin of their
most cherishedrelics there grew up a more noble conceptionof the Church.
Age after age eachtime of change has seemedto bring with it the end; at each
crisis have been heard the same appeals to heaven, the same despair of earth;
and yet to those who had patience the evil time has passedaway, and men
have found themselves living in a fresh air of hope with expanded vision and

largerpowers for good. Our tranquility is little affectedby news of distant
suffering. It is the old Horatian difference betweenthe eyes and the ears. We
fancy that our own troubles are far the worst the world has ever been called
on to undergo. Warnings come from older men to whom the dark cloud seems
to coverthe heavens. The young see the sunshine coming up with soft rich
colours of promise from behind the storm. Are there any peculiar causes for
alarm?
I. The alarm is as old as Christendom.
II. The existence ofsome life is a cheering thing.
III. We need more manliness in our religion; more that will attract bard-knit
men.
IV. If the Christian faith is to declare its Divine origin in the face of vehement
attack or learned contempt, it cannotbe by shutting itself up in safe sanctuary
and refusing to enter the field with its antagonists. It is not without anguish
that we rise "out of our dead selves to better things." Yet there is no other
way for the nobles of mankind.
(DeanKitchin.)
Patience, the Precious Little Herb
Biblical Illustrator
Luke 21:7-28

Two little German girls, Brigitte and Wallburg, were on their way to the
town, and eachcarrieda heavy basketoffruit on her heart. Brigitte
murmured and sighedconstantly; Wallburg only laughed and joked. Brigitte
said: "What makes you laugh so? Your basketis quite as heavy as mine, and
you are no strongerthan I am." Wallburg answered:"I have a precious little
herb on my load, which makes me hardly feelit at all. Put some of it on your
load as well." "O," cried Brigitte, "it must indeed be a precious little herb! I
should like to lighten my load with it; so tell me at once what it is called."
Wallburg replied, "The precious little herb that makes all burdens light is
called'patience.'"
Patient Self-Possessionin Times of Trial
W. Binnie, D. D.
Luke 21:7-28
Be collected, that you may be strong; stand still, and stand firmly, if you can
do nothing else;do not slip back, or step aside, or attempt anything wrong or
questionable. Patience is not merely a passive submission to evil, a dull,
stupid, unfeeling indifference, like the insensibility of woodor stone; it is the
result of thought; it implies effort; it is a sort of active bearing up of oneself

under the pressure of calamity, which at once indicates self-possessionand
secures it; it reacts upon that from which it proceeds, and causes itto become
strongerand stronger. I wish now to requestyour attention to some of the
advantages whichflow from obedience to the precept, in the case of
Christians, when calledto suffer great affliction, or when exposedto the fear
of impending calamity.
1. In the first place, there is the consciousnessofnot increasing the affliction
by sin. If a Christian is impatient, and gives way to fretfulness and temper, or
other forms of restiveness under trouble, he not only loses the advantage of
calmness and self-possession, but his conscience receives a freshinjury; his
proper religious feelings are hurt; his inward personalpeace is disturbed; and
thus the trouble presses upon him with double weight. It is a greatblessing not
to be exposedto this.
2. In the next place, self-possessionin a time of trouble will enable an
individual to take a just view of his actual circumstances,and of the nature
and ends of the Divine infliction. We are under the rule and guidance of One
who has always an objectin what He does — an object worthy of Himself, and
connectedwith the peace and holiness of His Church.
3. In the third place, the man who has full possessionofhimself in a time of
affliction will be able to engage in certain exercisesofmind which trouble calls
to, but which are impossible, or next to it, when the soul is disturbed by
agitationand excitement. "In the day of adversity consider." "Callupon Me
in the day of trouble." "Glorify Me in the fire." "Enterinto thy chamber."
"Be still, and know that I am God." "My son, despise not thou the chastening
of the Lord, neither faint when thou art rebuked of Him." But none of these
things can be done, or done well, if the man is not quiet, patient, and self-
possessed;if he is the victim of hurry, alarm, consternation, and surprise.

4. Observe, fourthly, that it is only by such self-possessionas the text
inculcates, that an individual will be able to selectand apply the proper means
of escape from calamity, or which may help him to meet it, or to counteractits
effects.
5. In the lastplace, obedience to the text, explained as an exhortation, will best
prepare a man for the end and result of trouble, whatever that result may be.
If the cloud and the calamity pass away, and the man be fully delivered from
it, he will be able to look back with serenity and gratitude, free from self-
reproachor shame. If it terminate fatally, for himself or others, he will be able
to acquiesce, withintelligent faith, in the Divine will.
(W. Binnie, D. D.)
The Soul Won by Patience
DeanVaughan.
Luke 21:7-28
The Authorised Version reads, "In your patience possessye your souls." It
bids the imperilled Christian, fortified by promise, to endure to the end,
keeping his soul tranquil and trustful. A beautiful precept, yet inferior, both
in reading and rendering, but most certainly in the latter, to one other, which
is that of the RevisedVersion, "In your patience ye shall win your souls." For
the imperative we substitute the future; in other words, for preceptwe read

promise. This is one change — for "possess" we read"win"; for a soul given
in creation, we are bidden to look for a soul to be given in glory. The case is
one of those in which the word before us always means to acquire, and never
means to possess.Now we turn from a comparisonof renderings to the
application of the saying itself. "In your patience ye shall win your souls,"
"some of you shall be put to death," "ye shall be hated of all men," "not a
hair of your head shall perish,... in your patience ye shall win your souls."
Deathitself shall not prevent this; for the soul here spokenof is the life's life,
the thing which unbelief and unfaithfulness canalone forfeit for any man, the
thing which is savedby faith, the thing which is acquired, gained, wonin the
exercise ofpatience. There is a lower truth in the saying in reference to this
present life. Multitudes of human lives have been won by patience;the
histories of battles and siegesare in large part histories of the triumph of
patience;cities would have been lost, and fields would have been lost, but for
the grace ofpatience in the commanders and the leaders. But certainly the
converse is true; in patience has been defeat, has been disaster, has been
bloodshed, a thousand and ten thousand times; the analogyof earth and time
gives support to the promise when we read it as it was spokenof the soul and
of things heavenly. What is patience as Christ speaks it? The Greek wordfor
patience is made up of two parts, one meaning continuance, and the other
meaning submission; so that the combined term may be defined as submissive
waiting, that frame of mind which is will. ing to wait as knowing whom it
serves, willing to endure as seeing the Invisible; recognizing the creaturely
attitude of subjection to the Creator;recognizing also the filial relationship
which implies a controlling hand and a loving mind in heaven. Submissive
waiting, this is patience, and we see, then, why greatthings should be spoken
of it, why it should even be made the sum of Christian virtues, why to it rather
than to any other grace, the promise should be affixed, "In your patience" —
in the exercise, resolvedand unwearied, of the grace of submissive expectancy
— "ye shall at last win your souls." "Thenthe soul is not yet won?" Yes and
no; the soul, the true life of eachone, is already redeemed, bought, bought
back with precious blood; and the soul, the life's life of eachone, is already
committed to us by Christ Himself for omnipotent keeping. "Iknow," St. Paul
writes, "whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard
my deposit" — the soulwhich I have committed to Him — "againstthat day."

This is true. Our Lord speaks nothere to contradict His own word, or to
vitiate His own work, which says quite indiscriminately in Holy Scripture,
"Ye were saved," that is, on Calvary; "Ye have been saved," this is, in
redemption; "Ye are being saved," that is, in the work of grace;"Ye shall be
saved," that is, in the day of glory. But, in fullest consistencywithall these,
there is room for a promise, "Ye shalt win your souls." Let no man presume.
There is a sense in which the life's life hangs suspended on that mark, as St.
Paul calls it, which is the goalof the race. "I," he says, "countnot myself to
have apprehended." There is a grace ofsubmissive expectancy;still, and
because there is this, there is a something yet in front of me. At present I do
not quite possessevenmy own soul. Oh! it often eludes me when I would say,
"All my own I carry with me." Oh I there are many misgivings and doubtings
in us, even in the things most Surely believed. I cannotalways command the
life's life, which is the soul, when I would carry it with me to the mercy-seat. I
find earth and the world, flesh, and sense oftentimes too strong and too
predominately present with me just when I would be at my very bestfor
prayer and praise. I cannot pretend to say that I have quite attained even to
the possessionofmy own innermost being. A greatpromise. Now let us lose
ourselves for a moment in the contemplationof this promise, "Ye shall win
your souls";and then in one last word see the connectionof it with the realm
and regionof patience. "In your patience ye shall win your souls":at last my
soul shall be my own. That is the promise. It is a wonderful interpretation of a
wonderful saying appended to the parable of the unrighteous steward:"If ye
have not been faithful in the use of that which was so precarious and so
fugitive that even while you had it it might rather be called"another's" — the
possessionin greateror lessermeasure of the substance of this world —
"who," our Lord asks, "who should give you that which is your own" — that
which is your own, still to be won — the soul, the life's life of this text?
Patience may lack, often does lack, one at leastof its ingredients; there might
be a waiting which was no submission, which, on the contrary, was indolence,
was procrastination, was dallying, the man sitting still, and letting alone, and
waiting upon chances whichare no grace at all, but the opposite;or there
might be a submission which was no enterprise, and waiting upon Providence
with more or less of the resignationwhich is the ape and shadow of patience,
which has in it no doing nor daring for Christ, no present running and

fighting, and, therefore, no future crown. But who shall speak the praises of
the realgospel, Christian, spiritual patience?
(DeanVaughan.)
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
In your patience - Rather, your perseverance, your faithful continuance in my
word and doctrine. Ye will preserve your souls. Ye shall escape the Roman
sword, and not one of you shall perish in the destruction of Jerusalem. Instead
of κτησασθε, possess,orpreserve ye, I read κτησεσθε, ye shall preserve. This
reading is supported by AB-B, five others;both the Syriac, all the Arabic,
Ethiopic, Vulgate, all the Itala except two, Origen, Macarius, andTertullian.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
In your patience, possessye your souls. By patiently bearing all afflictions,
reproaches, indignities, and persecutions, enjoyyourselves;let nothing disturb
or distress you; possessthat peace and joy in your souls, which the world
cannot take away;see Romans 5:3. The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and
Ethiopic versions read, "ye shall possess":and the sense may be this; by
patient continuance, or by perseverance in the ways of God, and the truths of
Christ unto the end, ye shall be saved; shall find your lives, and enjoy your
souls, as in Matthew 10:22.
(d) Though you are surrounded on all sides with many miseries, yet
nonetheless be valiant and courageous, andbear out these things bravely.

Robertson's WordPictures in the New Testament
Ye shall win (κτησεστε — ktēsesthe).Future middle of κταομαι — ktaomaito
acquire. They will win their souls even if death does come.
Vincent's Word Studies
Possessye ( κτήσεσθε )
Wrong. See on Luke 18:12. Rev. rightly, ye shall win.
sa40
Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
In your patience possessye your souls.
In your patience possessye your souls — Be calm and serene, masters of
yourselves, and superior to all irrational and disquieting passions. Bykeeping
the government of your spirits, you will both avoid much misery, and guard
the better againstall dangers.
Calvin's Commentary on the Bible
Luke 21:19.In your patience. Here Christ enjoins on his followers a different
method of defending their life from what is dictatedby carnalreason. For
naturally every man desires to place his life in safety;we collectfrom every
quarter those aids which we think will be best, and avoid all danger; and, in
short, we do not think that we are alive, if we are not properly defended. But
Christ prescribes to us this defense of our life, that we should be always
exposedto death, and walk
through fire, and water, and sword, (Psalms 66:12.)

And, indeed, no man will commit his soul into the hands of God in a right
manner, unless he have learned to live from day to day constantly prepared to
die. (132)In a word, Christ orders us to possessour life both under the cross,
and amidst the constantterrors of death.
James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
PATIENCE
‘In your patience possess ye your souls.’
Luke 21:19
I. Patience neverseems to be an heroic remedy, leastof all in the face of action
so overwhelming and scenes so terrific as those which Christ predicted as He
satwith that little knot of anxious men on the summit of Olivet on that
momentous evening.
II. And yet there are times when patience is by no means a counselof despair,
but when rather the contestlies betweenthe powerof inflicting and the power
of bearing, when in the working out of greatissues all depends on the capacity
of those involved to bide their time, to refuse to be crushed, to hold out until
the right moment.
III. So here, in answerto their nervous question as to the ‘when’ and ‘how,’
our Lord is impressing on them that, as far as they are concerned, all will
depend on their powers of bearing, that they are not to regardthemselves as
so many pawns on the board which will be sacrificedto the movements of the
biggerpieces, that every individual counts with God, that the patience will
have to last on through suffering, even possibly through physical death; that
although they may be hated and persecutedby friends, and in some cases put
to death, yet still in the highest sense not a hair of their heads should perish.
And, therefore, He would say, ‘Make your souls your own.’ Keep your heads,
keepyour independence, be as those who can saythat their souls are their
own, and so (in accordancewith another reading of these words) they shall

win their souls, and save their lives, in all that makes life valuable, in all that
counts as living.
Rev. Canon Newbolt.
Illustrations
(1) ‘The historian of the Crimean War has told us of the trial of courage
which came upon our young soldiers at the battle of the Alma, when they were
halted for a considerable time under fire, with no impetuosity of onslaught,
nothing to take the chill from their blood or to inspire them with a feeling of
action—simply to stand and be shot at, and to be told this was war.’
(2) ‘The doctors will tell us of one of the most common and dangerous diseases
which attack our suffering humanity that nothing that medical skill cando
will arrestit, only the smallestalleviations are possible, everything must be
directed to brace up the patient to endure the blows of the storm while the
tempest is at its height. It is a battle betweenonslaught and endurance until
the crisis is past.’
John Trapp Complete Commentary
19 In your patience possessye your souls.
Ver. 19. In your patience possess]Thatis, enjoy yourselves, howeverthe
world goes with you. He that cannot have patience had need made up his pack
and getout of the world, for here is no being for him. Burleigh, lord treasurer,
was wont to say that he overcame envy more by patience than pertinace.
Sermon Bible Commentary
Luke 21:19

Or, as it may rather be termed, "Byyour endurance ye shall gain possession
of your lives, ye shall secure yourselves from perils of bodily harm and
death." It is also, "Ye shall save your souls," and bring your spiritual life
safelythrough the coming troubles; though the physical salvation is more
prominent in the passage.
I. There was always in the converts of Jerusalem, a strong temptation to
relapse into Judaism; and in those disturbed times which precededthe fall,
any man with the Jewishblood in his veins, with the traditional Jewish
temper, the ancestralbeliefs, the intense love for his nation and people, must
have been hard beset. Why should he, too, not choose the heroic part; and cast
in his lot with the defenders of the sacredwalls? Why not with his dying body
make a rampart againstthe on-pressing Romans, rather than slip awayin
cowardlydesertion, like a traitor, leaving the glorious city to perish as it
might. All patriotic instincts, all that the Jew most cherished, must have
drawn the convert in that direction; it was a sore trial to have to make this
choice betweenthe Old Testamentand the New. It was by endurance and self-
denial that these JewishChristians succeededin overcoming the danger
besetting them at every turn. They endured to the end; they learnt by patience
to get a broader and wiserview of the true position and relation of the faith of
their adoption. The sneers ofthe unconverted Jews, the sense that they had
lost their patriotic standing-ground, the oppressionand sword of their Roman
masters—thesewere the bitter draughts which refreshedtheir souls, and
nerved them for independence in a larger sphere of life. By these, they not
only savedtheir souls, but ennobled their views and aims, till they were able to
enter fully into the new conditions of the Faith of Christ; and thereby take an
active part in the outward movements of a MissionaryChurch.
II. Age after age have the conditions of the world's advance called men to
display something of the same firmness, endurance, and patience. Each
change of time has seemedto bring with it the end, and at eachsuccessive
crisis have been heard the same appeals to heaven, the same despair of earth,
the same assurancesthatthe world's end was come. And yet to those who had
patience, and could endure, the evil time has always passedaway, leaving the
face of Heaven once more serene;and men have found themselves living in a
fresh air of hope, with expanded vision, and largerpowers for good. The true

Christian calling, as the Apostle has it, is to "try all things," to "hold fast that
which is good," to criticise, to select, to know the evil from the good, and
choose aright. That is the real business for which God has sent us into the
world and set us in this place, and a system of organisedprotectionfor our
opinions, be they never so holy, or never so true, is but a mean wayof fitting
out a young man for the difficulties and dangers of his coming life, when he
must take up his staff and make his way through the world. For this our faith
must be robust, as well as pure; manly and fearless,as of those who endure as
seeing Him that is invisible. It is not enough, to say, "Let us live the devoted,
self-denying life, which befits the humble followers of Christ, and leave aside
all that distresses ordistracts." We have a higher duty than this. The nobler
our idea of the Divine nature, the higher we rate our Christian privileges—the
better our lives, the more we shall desire to testify of those things before the
world of unbelief. If to our souls the revelation of Jesus Christprovides
solutions for admitted ills; if it can comfortour aching hearts in sorrow, and
stir us to noble acts in danger; if it weds the ideal to the commonplace, and
draws man ever from himself, then, surely, we need not be afraid to be left
face to face with the materialist or the sceptic. There is in the Gospela
spiritual power which bears the pilgrims safelythrough the waterfloods;we
may tremble and be perplexed, yet we will not fail nor fall. "If God be with
me, I will not fear what man can do unto me." So to us, as to the Jewish
Christians to whom the Lord spoke of patience, the darkestcrisis will not be
fatal, frightful though it may be; but from the wrecks ofthe past we, too, shall
emerge, strong in endurance, possessing oursouls, ready for a larger future of
faithful works.
G. W. Kitchin, Oxford and Cambridge Journal, March 1st, 1877.
Making for Ourselves Souls.
The RevisedTranslationrestores this word of Jesus to it original force. The
Lord did not bid His disciples simply to possess theirsouls in patience. He told
them that through endurance they were to win their souls. Souls, then, are for
us to win. Literally, the word used by Jesus means, "Procure foryourselves
souls." Life is to be to us, in some sense, anacquisition of soul. We usually
think of human souls as so many ready-made products of nature bestowedon

us at birth, so many receptaclesforlife of different sizes;and we are to fill
them up with experience and educationas best we can, as bees fill their hives.
But Jesus usedof the souls of His disciples a word of purchase and acquisition.
In some real sense a true life will be an acquisition of soul. Its daily ambition
may be—more soul and better. In what ways are we to setabout procuring for
ourselves souls?
I. The first thing for us to do is the thing which these men had already done to
whom Jesus gave this promise that they should win their souls. They counted
not the cost;they obeyed when they found themselves commanded by God in
Christ. The promise, "Ye shall win your souls," was addressedto men who
had surrendered themselves wholly to that which they had seenand knew of
God. It was a pledge of soul made to men who had the wills of disciples. The
first step in the way of acquiring our souls is the decisionof discipleship.
II. We are to acquire soul by living now with all the soul we do have. If we are
to win souls from life, we must put our whole souls into life, but the trouble
with us is, that we often do not: we live half-hearted, and with a certain
reserve, often of ourselves from our everyday life in the world. But you
remember how Jesus insisted that His disciples should serve God and love
man with all their souls and with all their strength. The way to gain more soul
and better is to live freely and heartily with all the soul we do have. "In your
patience ye shall win your souls." Godgives to common people this
opportunity of winning on earth souls large enough—goodenoughto
appreciate by and by what heaven is. Patience may be the making of a soul.
That regiment of men is held all the morning waiting under fire. They broke
camp with enthusiasm enough—to sweepthem up to any line of flame. But
they are held still through long hours. They might show splendid courage in
action, but the orders are to stand. Only to stand still under fire! But that day
of endurance is enough to make a veteran of the recruit of yesterday. The
discipline of waiting under life's fire makes veteransouls. Through the habit
of endurance God trains often His best souls. If you keep up heart in your life
of trial, by that patience what a soul for God's kingdom may be won!
N. Smyth, The Reality of Faith, p. 135.

References:Luke 21:23.—S. Greg, A Layman's Legacy, p. 168. Luke 21:24.—
E. Cooper, PracticalSermons, vol. ii., p. 127. Luke 21:25-33.—Homiletic
Quarterly, vol. i., p. 472;Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iii., p. 290. Luke
21:27.—Ibid., vol. v., p. 31. Luke 21:28.—J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to
Christmas Eve, p. 300;Parker, ChristianCommonwealth, vol. vi., p. 479.
Luke 21—F. D. Maurice, The Gospelof the Kingdom, p. 312;C. Kingsley,
WestminsterSermons, p. 109;E. Thring, Church of England Pulpit, vol. xiv.,
p. 149.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible
Luke 21:19. In your patience possess ye your souls.— "Keepthe government
of your own spirits through grace in these awful scenes, whichwill bear down
so many others;and you will secure the most valuable self-enjoyment, as well
as be able most prudently to guard againstthe dangers which will surround
you." See the Inferences.
Greek TestamentCriticalExegeticalCommentary
19.]By your endurance (of all these things), ye shall acquire (not, possess,
which is only the sense ofthe perf. κέκτημαι)your souls:this endurance being
God’s appointed way, ἐν (in and by) which your salvationis to be put in your
possession.
κτήσ. as εὑρήσει, Matthew 16:25— σῶσαι, ch. Luke 9:24.
Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament
Luke 21:19. ὑπομονῇ ὑμῶν) in your patience, to which ye have been called. A
Paradox. The world tries to obtain the safety of its followers’souls by

repelling force with force. Not so the saints:Revelation13:10 [“He that killeth
with the swordmust be killed with the sword.” But, “Here is the faith and
patience of the saints”].— κτήσεσθε)ye shall obtain (ensure) the safetyof
(Matthew 24:13 [He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved]),
with enjoyment and lasting advantage to yourselves.(224)— ψυχὰς,your
souls)Even though ye should lose all other things. [Patient endurance is the
most conducive of all things. By struggling and kicking back against(the
pricks) we consult worstfor our true interest.—V. g.]
Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
Patience is either passive, seenin a quiet, free, and courageoussuffering those
evils which God will please in his providence to order us for our portion; or
active, seenin a quiet believing, waiting for, and expectationof what God hath
promised.
Possessyour souls, that is, yourselves;do not decline suffering for my name’s
sake, but live in the exercise ofChristian courage and fortitude until the Lord
will please to release you. In this sense James expounds this prase, James 1:4,
But let patience have her perfectwork, that ye may be perfectand entire,
wanting nothing. Others say, possess yoursouls is the same with save your
souls. So it seems to be expounded by Matthew 24:13, and Mark 8:13, But he
that shall endure to the end shall be saved.
Alexander MacLaren's Expositions ofHoly Scripture
Matthew
TWO FORMS OF ONE SAYING
Matthew 24:13. - Luke 21:19.
These two sayings, different as they sound in our Version, are probably
divergent representations of one original. The reasons forso supposing are

manifold and obvious on a little consideration. In the first place, the two
sayings occurin the Evangelists’reports of the same prophecy and at the
same point therein. In the secondplace, the verbal resemblance is much
greaterthan appears in our Authorised Version, because the word rendered
‘patience’in Luke is derived from that translated‘endureth’ in Matthew; and
the true connectionbetweenthe two versions of the saying would have been
more obvious if we had had a similar word in both, reading in the one ‘he that
endureth,’ and in the other ‘in your endurance.’ In the third place, the
difference betweenthese two sayings presented in our Version, in that the one
is a promise and the other a command, is due to an incorrect reading of St.
Luke’s words. The RevisedVersionsubstitutes for the imperative ‘possess’
the promise ‘ye shall possess,’and with that variation the two sayings are
brought a gooddeal nearer eachother. In both endurance is laid down as the
condition, which in both is followedby a promise. Then, finally, there need be
no difficulty in seeing that ‘possessing,’or, more literally, ‘gaining your souls,’
is an exactequivalent of the other expression, ‘ye shall be saved.’One cannot
but remember our Lord’s solemnantithetical phrase about a man ‘losing his
own soul.’ To ‘win one’s soul’ is to be saved;to be savedis to win one’s soul.
So I think I have made out my thesis that the two sayings are substantially
one. They carry a greatweightof warning, of exhortation, and of
encouragementto us all. Let us try now to reap some of that harvest.
I. First, then, notice the view of our condition which underlies these sayings.
It is a sad and a somewhatsternone, but it is one to which, I think, most
men’s hearts will respond, if they give themselves leisure to think; and if they
‘see life steadily, and see it whole.’For howsoevermany days are bright, and
howsoeveralldays are good, yet, on the whole, ‘man is a soldier, and life is a
fight.’ For some of us it is simple endurance; for all of us it has sometimes
been agony; for all of us, always, it presents resistance to every kind of high
and noble career, and especiallyto the Christian one. Easy-going optimists try
to skim over these facts, but they are not to be so lightly set aside. You have
only to look at the faces that you meet in the street to be very sure that it is
always a grave and sometimes a bitter thing to live. And so our two texts

presuppose that life on the whole demands endurance, whatever may be
included in that greatword.
Think of the inward resistance andoutward hindrances to every lofty life. The
scholar, the man of culture, the philanthropist-all who would live for anything
else than the present, the low, and the sensual-find that there is a banded
conspiracy, as it were, againstthem, and that they have to fight their way by
continual antagonism, by continual persistence, as wellas by continual
endurance. Within, weakness, torpor, weariness,levity, inconstant wills,
bright purposes clouding over, and all the cowardice and animalism of our
nature warcontinually againstthe better, higher self. And without, there is a
down-dragging, as persistent as the force of gravity, coming from the whole
assemblageofexternal things that solicit, and would fain seduce us. The old
legends used to tell us how, whensoevera knight set out upon any greatand
lofty quest, his path was beseton either side by voices, sometimes whispering
seductions, and sometimes shrieking maledictions, but always seeking to
withdraw him from his resolute march onwards to his goal. And every one of
us, if we have takenon us the orders of any lofty chivalry, and especiallyif we
have swornourselves knights of the Cross, have to meet the same antagonism.
Then, too, there are goldenapples rolled upon our path, seeking to draw us
awayfrom our steadfastendurance.
Besides the hindrances in every noble path, the hindrances within and the
hindrances without, the weight of selfand the drawing of earth, there come to
us all-in various degrees no doubt, and in various shapes-but to all of us there
come the burdens of sorrows and cares, andanxieties and trials. Wherever
two or three are gatheredtogether, even if they gatherfor a feast, there will be
some of them who carry a sorrow which they know well will never be lifted off
their shoulders and their hearts, until they lay down all their burdens at the
grave’s mouth; and it is wearywork to plod on the path of life with a weight
that cannotbe shifted, with a wound that cannever be stanched.
Oh, brethren, rosy-colouredoptimism is all a dream. The recognitionof the
goodthat is in the evil is the devout man’s talisman, but there is always need
for the resistance andendurance which my texts prescribe. And the youngest
of us, the gladdestof us, the leastexperiencedof us, the most frivolous of us, if

we will question our own hearts, will hear their Amen to the stern, sadview of
the facts of earthly life which underlies this text.
Though it has many other aspects, the world seems to me sometimes to be like
that pool at Jerusalemin the five porches of which lay, groaning under
various diseases, but none of them without an ache, a great multitude of
impotent folk, halt and blind. Astronomers tell us that one, at any rate, of the
planets rolls on its orbit swathedin clouds and moisture. The world moves
wrapped in a mist of tears. Godonly knows them all, but eachheart knows its
own bitterness and responds to the words, ‘Ye have need of patience.’
II. Now, secondly, mark the victorious temper.
That is referred to in the one saying by ‘he that endureth,’ and in the other ‘in
your endurance.’ Now, it is very necessaryforthe understanding of many
places in Scripture to remember that the notion either of patience or of
endurance by no means exhausts the powerof this noble Christian word. For
these are passive virtues, and however excellentand needful they may be, they
by no means sum up our duty in regardto the hindrances and sorrows, the
burdens and weights, of which I have been trying to speak. Foryou know it is
only ‘what cannot be cured’ that ‘must be endured,’ and even incurable
things are not merely to be endured, but they ought to be utilised. It is not
enough that we should build up a dam to keepthe floods of sorrow and trial
from overflowing our fields; we must turn the turbid waters into our sluices,
and getthem to drive our mills. It is not enough that we should screw
ourselves up to lie unresistingly under the surgeon’s knife; though God knows
that it is as much as we can manage sometimes, and we have to do as convicts
under the lash do, geta bit of lead or a bullet into our mouths, and bite at it to
keepourselves from crying out. But that is not all our duty in regardto our
trials and difficulties. There is required something more than passive
endurance.
This noble word of my texts does mean a great dealmore than that. It means
active persistence as wellas patient submission. It is not enoughthat we
should stand and bear the pelting of the pitiless storm, unmurmuring and
unbowed by it; but we are bound to go on our course, bearing up and steering

right onwards. Persistentperseverancein the path that is marked out for us is
especiallythe virtue that our Lord here enjoins. It is wellto sit still
unmurmuring; it is better to march on undiverted and unchecked. And when
we are able to keepstraight on in the path which is marked out for us, and
especiallyin the path that leads us to God, notwithstanding all opposing
voices, and all inward hindrances and reluctances;when we are able to go to
our tasks ofwhateversort they are and to do them, though our hearts are
beating like sledge-hammers;when we sayto ourselves, ‘It does not matter a
bit whether I am sad or glad, fresh or wearied, helped or hindered by
circumstances, this one thing I do,’ then we have come to understand and to
practise the grace that our Masterhere enjoins. The endurance which wins
the soul, and leads to salvation, is no mere passive submission, excellentand
hard to attain as that often is; but it is brave perseverance in the face of all
difficulties, and in spite of all enemies.
Mark how emphatically our Lord here makes the space within which that
virtue has to be exercisedconterminous with the whole duration of our lives. I
need not discuss what‘the end’ was in the original application of the words;
that would take us too far afield. But this I desire to insist upon, that right on
to the very close oflife we are to expectthe necessityofputting forth the
exercise ofthe very same persistence by which the earlierstages ofany noble
careermust necessarilybe marked. In other departments of life there may be
relaxation, as a man goes on through the years; but in the culture of our
characters, andin the deepening of our faith, and in the drawing near to our
God, there must be no cessationordiminution of earnestness andof effort
right up to the close.
There are plenty of people, and I dare saythat I address some of them now,
who begantheir Christian careerfull of vigour and with a heat that was too
hot to last. But, alas, in a year or two all the fervency was past, and they
settled down into the average, easygoing,unprogressive Christian, who is a
wet blanket to the devotion and work of a Christian church. I wonder how
many of us would scarcelyknow our own former selves if we could see them.
Christian people, to how many of us should the word be rung in our ears:‘Ye
did run well; what did hinder you’? The answeris-Myself.

But may I saythat this emphatic ‘to the end’ has a speciallessonforus older
people, who, as natural strength abates and enthusiasm cools down, are apt to
be but the shadows ofour old selves in many things? But there should be fire
within the mountain, though there may be snow on its crest. Many a ship has
been lost on the harbour bar; and there is no excuse for the captain leaving
the bridge, or the engineercoming up from the engine-room, stormy as the
one position and stifling as the other may be, until the anchoris down, and the
vesselis moored and quiet in the desired haven. The desert, with its wild
beasts and its Bedouin, reaches right up to the city gates, and until we are
within these we need to keepour hands on our sword-hilts and be ready for
conflict. ‘He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.’
III. Lastly, note the crownwhich endurance wins.
Now, I need not spend or waste your time in mere verbal criticism, but I wish
to point out that that word ‘soul’ in one of our two texts means both the soul
and the life of which it is the seat;and also to remark that the being savedand
the winning of the life or the soul has distinct application, in our Lord’s
words, primarily to corporealsafetyand preservation in the midst of dangers;
and, still further, to note the emphatic ‘in your patience,’as suggesting not
only a future but a present acquisition of one’s own soul, or life, as the result
of such persevering endurance and enduring perseverance.All which things
being kept in view, I may expand the greatpromise that lies in my text, as
follows:- First, by such persevering persistence in the Christian path, we gain
ourselves. Self-surrenderis self-possession. We neverown ourselves till we
have given up owning ourselves, and yielded ourselves to that Lord who gives
us back saints to ourselves. Self-controlis self-possession. We do not own
ourselves as long as it is possible for any weaknessin flesh, sense, orspirit to
gain dominion over us and hinder us from doing what we know to be right.
We are not our ownmasters then. ‘Whilst they promise them liberty, they
themselves are the bond-slaves of corruption.’ It is only when we have the bit
well into the jaws of the brutes, and the reins tight in our hands, so that a
finger-touch can check or divert the course, that we are truly lords of the
chariot in which we ride and of the animals that impel it.

And such self-controlwhich is the winning of ourselves is, as I believe,
thoroughly realisedonly when, by self-surrender of ourselves to Jesus Christ,
we get His help to governourselves and so become lords of ourselves. Some
little petty Rajah, up in the hills, in a quasi-independent State in India, is
troubled by mutineers whom he cannotsubdue; what does he do? He sends a
messagedownto Lahore or Calcutta, and up come English troops that
consolidate his dominion, and he rules securely, when he has consentedto
become a feudatory, and recognisehis overlord. And so you and I, by
continual repetition, in the face of self and sin, of our acts of self-surrender,
bring Christ into the field; and then, when we have said, ‘Lord, take me; I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’; and when we daily, in spite of
hindrances, stand to the surrender and repeatthe consecration, then ‘in our
perseverance we acquire our souls.’
Again, such persistence wins even the bodily life, whether it preserves it or
loses it. I have said that the words of our texts have an application to bodily
preservationin the midst of the dreadful dangers of the siege and destruction
of Jerusalem. But so regardedthey are a paradox. For hear how the Master
introduces them: ‘Some of you shall they cause to be put to death, but there
shall not a hair of your heads perish. In your perseveranceye shall win your
lives.’ ‘Some of you they will put to death,’ but ye ‘shall win your lives,’-a
paradox which can only be solved by experience. Whether this bodily life be
preservedor lost, it is gained when it is used as a means of attaining the higher
life of union with God. Many a martyr had the promise, ‘Not a hair of your
head shall perish,’ fulfilled at the very moment when the falling axe shore his
locks in twain, and severedhis head from his body.
Finally, full salvation, the true possessionofhimself, and the acquisition of the
life which really is life, comes to a man who perseveres to the end, and thus
passes to the land where he will receive the recompense ofthe reward. The
one moment the runner, with flushed cheek and forward swaying body, hot,
with panting breath, and every muscle strained, is straining to the winning-
post; and the next moment, in utter calm, he is wearing the crown.

‘To the end,’ and what a contrastthe next moment will be! Brethren, may it
be true of you and of me that ‘we are not of them that draw back unto
perdition, but of them that believe to the winning of their souls!’
Justin Edwards' Family Bible New Testament
In your patience possessye your souls; the word "possess"is here to be taken
in the sense ofgaining or saving. The whole verse might be rendered, By your
endurance save ye your souls;the same as, "He that shall endure unto the
end, the same shall be saved." Matthew 24:13.
Cambridge Greek Testamentfor Schools andColleges
19. ἐν τῇ ὑπομονῇ ὑμῶν κτήσασθε. On the verb κτῶμαι comp. Luke 18:12; 1
Thessalonians 4:4. With the better reading it means ‘By your patience ye shall
gain your souls’or ‘lives.’ Mark 13:13. The need of patience and endurance to
the end is prominently inculcatedin the N.T., Romans 5:3; Hebrews 10:36;
James 1:4, &c.
PeterPett's Commentary on the Bible
“In your patience endurance you will win your souls.”
Note how in the chiasmus this statementparallels the earlier“It will turn out
to you for a testimony” (Luke 21:13). By their patient endurance as they gave
testimony to Him and endured persecutionthey would gain in its fullest
realisationthe eternal life that they have receivedthrough Jesus. Theywill not
lose their souls (Luke 12:5; see especiallyMark 8:36). So the essence ofthese
verses is twofold. The dreadful persecutions that must be facedand the
certain security of all who are in Christ.
Expository Notes ofDr. Thomas Constable

By persevering faithfully when persecutedthey would preserve their lives (Gr.
ktesesthe tas psychas hymon). That Isaiah , they would not die before it was
God"s will for them to die ( Luke 21:18). Some interpreters believe that this
verse simply restates in different terms the principle that those who endure to
the end will experience salvation( Matthew 24:13; Mark 13:13). [Note:E.g,
Martin, p257.]Matthew and Mark recorded a principle for disciples living
just before the Lord"s return. Those who remained faithful to the end of the
Tribulation would enter the kingdom without dying ( Matthew 24:13;Mark
13:13). Howeverthe differences in terminology in Luke argue for a different
meaning here. This verse seems to be an additional promise. It cannotmean
that martyrs canearn justification by remaining faithful rather than
apostatizing since justification comes by faith, not works (cf. Romans 2:7). It
may mean that perseverance willearn an eternal reward (cf. Luke 21:36;
Revelation2:10).
Schaff's Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Luke 21:19. In your patience, or ‘stedfastness,’ye shall win your souls, or
‘lives.’ In the endurance of these predicted afflictions they should gain, or
come into the possessionof, their true life. If Luke 21:18 refers to physical
safetythis promise also does. ‘In’ means: in this God appointed way, not
strictly, by means of it. The whole verse is not a command but a promise: and
the E. V., following an incorrectleading, misleads the reader. The word
‘souls’ (or ‘lives’) opposes thatview of Luke 21:18, which refers it to the
preservationof every hair in the resurrection.
The Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 21:19. κτήσεσθε or κτήσασθε, ye shall win, or win ye; sense the same.
Similar various readings in Romans 5:1, ἔχωμεν or ἔχομεν.
George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
In your patience, &c. We then truly possessoursouls, when we live in all
things perfect, and from the citadel of virtue command and controlall the
motions of the mind and heart. (St. Gregory, Mag. Moral. v. chap. 13.)
E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes
patience = patient endurance.
possessye = ye shall possess.Occurs only here, and Luke 18:12. Matthew
10:9. Acts 1:18; Acts 8:20; Acts 22:28. 1 Thessalonians 4:4.
souls = lives. App-110.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(19) In your patience possessye your souls.—Better,By your endurance gain
ye your lives. The verb, unless used in the perfecttense, always involves the
idea of “acquiring” rather than “possessing,”and the command so understood
answers to the promise, “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be
saved,” in Matthew 23:13, Mark 13:13. Some of the best MSS., indeed, give
this also as a promise, “By your endurance ye shall gain.”
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES

Luke 21:19 "By your endurance you will gain your lives.
KJV Luke 21:19 In your patience possessye your souls.
NLT Luke 21:19 By standing firm, you will win your souls.
Luke 8:15; Ps 27:13,14;37:7; 40:1; Romans 2:7; 5:3; 8:25; 15:4; 1 Th 1:3; 2
Th 3:5; Hebrews 6:11,15;10:36;James 1:3; 5:7-11;Revelation1:9; 2:2,3;
3:10; Revelation13:10;14:12
Luke 21 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Luke 21:5-24 Staying Sane When the Whole World Goes Crazy - Steven Cole
Luke 21:12-19 The Persecutionand Endurance of Christians, Part 1 - John
MacArthur
Luke 21:12-19 The Persecutionand Endurance of Christians, Part 2 - John
MacArthur
Luke 21:18-19 The Undying Faith of Christians Facing Death - John
MacArthur
ENDURANCE TO
THE END
There are similar passagesin Matthew and Mark's version of the Olivet
Discourse:
Matthew 24:13 “But the one who endures (hupomeno) to the end, he will be
saved.
Mark 13:13 “Youwill be hated by all because ofMy name, but the one who
endures (hupomeno) to the end, he will be saved.
By your endurance you will gain your lives - Jesus is giving the disciples an
encouragementthat they will endure, that even if they are killed, they will still
"gainyour lives." It is also a call to remain faithful. Jesus is not saying that
one's endurance merits or earns eternal life. In other words He is not saying
one canearn justification by remaining faithful rather than apostatizing since

justification comes by faith, not works. What He is saying is that endurance
will prove that one is genuinely saved. This is not the "grit your teeth"
endurance that the world teaches. It is endurance which is enabled and
empoweredby the Spirit of God Who indwells eachbeliever. Their endurance
will prove that have a supernatural source enabling endurance which
otherwise would not be possible simply by relying on one's natural strength.
Nelson's NKJV Study Bible says "Patientallegiance to Jesus leads to eternal
life." That comment leaves the door open to the idea that it is the exercise of
our powerwhich "leads to eternal life," which of course is not the case. It is
belief in the fully atoning, substitutionary sacrifice ofthe Lamb of God that
"leads to eternallife." What the note is trying to say(in my humble opinion)
is that an individual's externally observable "patient allegiance"is a clear
demonstration of their reliance on an internally non-observable source of
supernatural strength (the Spirit of Jesus in them) enabling them to manifest
endurance to the end of their life. This is proof that they possesseternallife.
By your endurance - By your courageous andconstant tenacity with hopeful
expectancy, indicating an active endurance which opposes the evil while
patiently waiting for the Lord.
Endurance (5281)(hupomone from hupo = under + meno = stay, remain,
abide) literally means abiding under. The main idea of hupomone is to remain
under something which demands the submission of one's will to something
againstwhich one naturally would rebel. Hupomone portrays a picture of
steadfastlyand unflinchingly bearing up under a "heavy load." It describes
that quality of characterwhich does not allow one to surrender to
circumstances under trial. Hupomone does not describe a grim resignationor
a "grin and bear" attitude but a triumphant facing of difficult circumstances
knowing that even out of evil God guarantees good. It is courageous gallantry
which accepts suffering and hardship and turns them into grace and glory.
For believers, it is a steadfastness,especiallyas Godenables us to "remain
under" (or endure) whatever challenges, trials, tests, afflictions, etc, He
providentially allows in our life.

It is surprising that this word is used only twice in the Gospels, bothby Luke,
here and in Luke 8:15-note
Luke 8:15 “But the (GOSPEL)seedin the goodsoil, these are the ones who
have heard the word (GOSPELOF GRACE) in an honest and good(ONE
THAT IS FAVORABLE "SOIL" FOR THE SEED OF THE GOSPEL)heart
(I.E., THEY ARE SAVED. THEIR HEART IS "CIRCUMCISED"BY
GRACE THROUGH FAITH.), and hold it fast(present tense = one's lifestyle.
THE RETENTIONOF THE WORD OF GRACE DOES NOT SAVE THEM
BUT DOES SHOW THEY ARE SAVED WHICH IS AUTHENTICATED BY
FRUIT BEARING!), and bearfruit (present tense = CONTINUAL FRUIT
BEARING IS THE PRODUCT OF A GENUINE FAITH) with perseverance
(hupomone - E.G., TRIALS COME BUT THIS PERSON CONTINUESTO
ABIDE IN THE VINE WHICH IN TURN BEARS TRUE SPIRITUAL
FRUIT!)
Comment: The relatedverb hupomeno is used 4x - Mt 10:22, Mt 24:13, Mk
13:13, Lk 2:43.
Hupomone in Lk 21:19 refers to the brave holding out under adverse
situations, suffering, trials, afflictions, etc. To hold one's ground in face of
fierce opposition to Jesus!Notgiving up. Not "throwing in the towel."
(ContrastLuke 8:14-note, Mark 4:19) Jesus has promised persecution.
Genuine believers will persevere to the end of their life or the end of this age,
whichever comes first. And remember our endurance is not because ofour
natural ability but because ofsupernatural enablement for as Paul taught it is
"GodWho gives perseverance and encouragement." (Ro 15:5-note).
MacArthur - Endurance does not produce or protectsalvation, which is
totally the work of God's grace. Butendurance is evidence of salvation, proof
that a personis truly redeemedand a child of God. God gives eternal life "to
those who by perseverance in doing goodseek for glory and honor and
immortality," Paul says (Ro 2:7-note). The writer of Hebrews expresses the
same truth in these words:"Forwe have become partakers ofChrist, if we
hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end" (Heb 3:14-note).
We do not earn our salvation by endurance, but prove it. Continuance is a

verification of being a real Christian. Theologians callthis the perseverance of
the saints. The following Scriptures also emphasize perseverance:Matthew
24:13;John 8:31; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; Colossians 1:21-23;Hebrews 2:1-3;
4:14; 6:11-12;10:39; 12:14;2 Peter1:10. Persecutionquickly burns away
chaff in the church. Those who have made only a superficialprofessionof
Christ have no new nature to motivate them to suffer for Christ and no divine
powerto enable them to endure it if they wanted to. Nothing is more
spiritually purifying and strengthening than persecution(cf. James 1:12-note).
(MacArthur New TestamentCommentary – Matthew)
Darrell Bock - Saving faith does not renounce Jesus;it holds onto him even in
the face of persecution. To ceaseto trust Jesus is to never have trusted him.
Judas pictures one who failed. Peterpictures one who lapsedbut whose
commitment was real. The spiritual force of this verse reinforces that of Luke
21:18 (Plummer 1896:481). To cling to Jesus is to have life—evenin the face
of death. Mark 13:13b makes the connectionto salvationexplicit: the one who
endures to the end will be saved. (BECNT-Luke)
You will gain your lives - Literally "gainyour souls." The NLT paraphrases it
"you will win your souls." NIV has "you will gain life." NAB has "you will
secure your lives." Pauluses the verb form (hupomeno) in his lastwritten
communication stating "If we endure hupomeno in the present tense = as our
generallifestyle, not perfectionbut our general"direction"), we will also reign
with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us." (2 Ti 2:12-note). In this
passagewhatis the "opposite" ofenduring? It is denying! This is not about
loss of rewards as some falsely teach, but is about loss of eternallife that
reigns with Christ! Mark it down, no one loses their salvation!Those who
profess Christ and "appear" to lose their salvation were never genuinely
saved! (cf Jn 10:28-29)
Gain (acquire)(2932)(ktaomai)means procure, obtain or acquire something
for oneself. MostNT uses referto procuring something by purchase for a
price (Acts 1:18; 8:20; 22:28).
Lives (5590)(psuche orpsyche from psucho = to breathe, blow, English =
psychology, "study of the soul")is the breath, then that which breathes, the

individual, animated creature. Psuche is used as it is in Mark 8:35, 36 and in
John 12:25, as referring to the immaterial part of man which animates his
body, which is as such called"the life."
NET Note on lives - "your souls," but psuche is frequently used of one's
physical life. In light of Lk 21:16 that does not seemto be the case here.
Lenski - To suffer for Christ, to die for him, seemlike losing the life (soul in
this sense);but if we hold out bravely, insteadof losing anything of life or life
itself we shall do nothing but gain these very lives (souls). What is lost is
transient and lost to the soulanyway in the end. They who strive for nothing
more will have no gain of any kind at the end but an irreparable and eternal
loss;but they who suffer for Christ, even die for him with brave, true hearts,
achieve everything, gain their own "souls" in this pregnant sense of the term.
(Ibid)
RelatedResources:
What does the Bible say about perseverance?
Perseverance ofthe Saints - is it biblical?
How can I find joy in the midst of trials?
How can I keepthe faith?
pulpit commentary
Luke 21:19
In your patience possessye your souls. Quiet, brave patience in all difficulty,
perplexity, and danger, was the attitude pressedupon the believers of the first
days by the inspired teachers. St. Paul constantlystrikes this note.

Luke 21:14-19
Inevitable trial and unfailing resources.
Here we have one more illustration of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ toward
his apostles.So far was he from encouraging in them the thought that their
path would be one of easyconquestand delightful possession, thathe was
frequently warning them of a contrary experience. It was not his fault if they
failed to anticipate hardship and suffering in the neat' future; he told them
plainly that his service meant the cross, withall its pain and shame. In
reference to the apostles ofour Lord, we have here—
I. THE SEVERITYOF THE TRIALS THAT WERE BEFORE THEM. Jesus
Christ had already indicated the fact that fidelity to his cause would entail
severe loss and trial; here he goes into detail. He says that it will include:
1. Generalexecration. Theywould be "hated of all men." This is a trial of no
small severity; to move among men as if we were unworthy of their
fellowship; to be condemned, to be despised, to be shunned by all men; to be
the objectof universal reprobation;—this is a blow which, if it "breaks no
bones," cuts into the spirit and wounds the heart with a deep injury. Fidelity
to their Masterand to their mission would entail this.
2. Desertionand treacheryon the part of their own friends and kindred.
(Luke 21:16.) Very few sorrows canbe more piercing, more intolerable, than
desertionby our own family, than betrayal by our dearestfriends; it is the last
and worstcalamity when "our own familiar friend lifts up his heel against
us." Those who abandoned the old faith, or rather the Pharisaic versionof it,
and who followedChrist had to be prepared for this domestic and social
sorrow.
3. Death. (Luke 21:16.)
II. THE UNFAILING RESOURCES ON WHICH THEY COULD DEPEND.
1. Everything they suffered would be endured for the sake of Jesus Christ; all
would be "for my Name's sake" (Luke 21:17). We know how the thought that
they were experiencing wrong and undergoing shame for Christ's sake could

not only alleviate, not only dissipate sorrow, but even turn it into joy (see Acts
5:41; Philippians 1:29). To suffer for Christ's sake couldgive a thrill of sacred
joy such as no pleasures could possibly afford.
2. They would have the shield of the Master's power(Luke 21:18). Not a hair
of their head should perish until he allowedit. That mighty Friend who had
kept them in perfect safety, though enemies were many and fierce, would be
as near to them as everse His presence would attend them, and no shaft should
touch them which he did not wish to hurt them.
3. They should have the advantage of his animating Spirit (Luke 21:14, Luke
21:15). Whenever wisdom or utterance should he needed, the Spirit of Christ
would put thoughts into their mind and words into their lips. His animating
powershould be upon them, should dwell within them.
4. They should triumph in the end; not, indeed, by martial victories, but by
unyielding loyalty. "In patience" (in persistencyin the right course)"they
would possess theirsouls." Losing their life in noble martyrdom, they would
save it (Luke 9:24); loving their life, they would lose it; but "hating their life
in this world, they would keepit unto. life eternal" (John 12:25). The bright
promise of an unfading crownmight cheerthem on their way, and help them
to pursue without flagging the path of devoted loyalty.
APPLICATION.
1. Similar trials awaitthe faithful now. The dislike, the aversion, the
opposition, of some, if not the active and strong hatred of all; the opposition,
perhaps quiet enough, and yet keenand injurious enough, of our own friends
or relatives; loss, struggle, suffering, if not fatal consequencesofenmity.
Downright loyalty to Jesus Christ, tenacity and intensity of conviction, usually
carry persecutionand trial with them.
2. We have the same resources the apostles had.
The RealmOf The Real

By OswaldChambers
In your patience possessye your souls. — Luke 21:19
When a man is born again, there is not the same robustness in his thinking or
reasoning for a time as formerly. We have to make an expressionof the new
life, to form the mind of Christ. “Acquire your soul with patience” (rv). Many
of us prefer to stay at the threshold of the Christian life instead of going on to
constructa soul in accordance withthe new life God has put within. We fail
because we are ignorant of the way we are made, we put things down to the
devil instead of our own undisciplined natures. Think what we canbe when
we are roused!
There are certain things we must not pray about — moods, for instance.
Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking. A mood nearly always has
its seatin the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not
to listen to the moods which arise from a physical condition; never submit to
them for a second. We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and
shake ourselves, andwe will find that we can do what we said we could not.
The curse with most of us is that we won’t. The Christian life is one of
incarnate spiritual pluck.
END OF PRECEPT AUSTIN RESOURCES
Commentary on Luke 21:5-19
David Tiede | 1 Comment
Jesus never promised it would be easy to follow him.

Tracing his journey to Jerusalem through the long season of Pentecost
has felt more like a Lenten ordeal, testing Jesus and his followers,
including us. Like Isaiah (50:7) and Ezekiel (21:1-2) of old, Jesus "set
his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51), while his disciples, now
awed, then aghast, trudged after him, heading for the temple. On
entering Jerusalem their "whole multitude ... began to praise God
joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power they had seen,
saying 'Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (Luke
19:38). The "central section," or "travel narrative to Jerusalem" (Luke
9:51-19:39) could be called "The Gospel for the Duration," as when
soldiers were once drafted into the United States army, "for the
duration" of a war.
It is even harder in Jerusalem. On his arrival, Jesus wept, invoking
historic oracles from Jeremiah against a city that "did not recognize
the time of your visitation from God" (Luke 19:41-44). He then faced
down three efforts by the authorities to entrap him, each concluding
with Jesus silencing his opponents (Luke 20:1-19; 20:20-26; and
20:27-40).
In Luke 21, no longer defusing the attacks of others, Jesus is alerting
his followers to hardships ahead, beyond the time of his journey. The
scene of Jesus' prophetic discourse (21:5-36) is Herod's magnificent
temple, and the Jerusalem temple was revered as a sign of God's
presence, even as the dwelling place of God's sheltering protection for
Israel (see Luke 13:34-35).
But as he approached the city, Jesus had declared that God's
"visitation" had come with his reign, and the very stones of the temple
would testify against those who rejected him (19:41-44). Now Jesus
again predicts all the stones will be thrown down (21:6), as one scene
in the divine drama.
Scholars love to unsnarl the web of prophetic oracles woven through
these verses, tracking words and phrases from Jeremiah 4, 7, 14, and
21 along with Isaiah 19 and Ezekiel 14 and 38. Like the prophets

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