The suffering and the patience

Current favorite Greek words? θλῖψις and ὑπομονή

The first is translated “tribulation” in the KJV, but that translation doesn’t do much good for me who, after all these years, still can’t get the claws of dispensationalism totally out of my head. Seeing the word “tribulation”, I still envision either some future period of intense suffering or an exceptionally intense personal struggle.

What I am discovering; however, is that the etymology of the word is a metaphor taken from intense pressure, as in the pressing of grapes to produce wine. Fleming Rutledge notes that the word in context means suffering undertaken for a higher cause.

The second is closely related and usually translated “patience” in the KJV, but “patient endurance” is the rarer and perhaps more fitting translation.

This is how I understand the constellation of ideas these words represent.

There is pressure without to conform. There is pressure within to remain unchanged. These are not neutral pressures from societal and habitual forces alone, but are undergirded by mysterious, cosmic forces of unimaginable power and reckless malice.

Those who seek the kingdom of Jesus are members of an underground resistance. Empowered by the Spirit of Jesus to endure against powers beyond our understanding or will, we march victoriously towards a death like our founder. For our enemy’s victory is domination, but Jesus' victory is surrender.

Not the beaches of Normandy, victory won by those who take the ridge and silence the guns, but the trenches of WWI, victory to those who don’t lose their humanity to terror and rage. The victory of Viktor Frankl in Auschwitz, not General Patton at Casablanca.