What does "you have need of endurance" mean (Hebrews 10:36)?

"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense; for ye have need of endurance in order that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise."

The apostle thus exhorts them not to throw away, not to cast off their confidence, because there is great recompense of reward laid up for them in heaven. They had a confidence; the grounds of it we have been dwelling upon. It is the same word which is translated "boldness" in the earlier part of this chapter: "Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus." They were not to cast away this boldness; they were to hold fast the rejoicing of their hope and their confidence steadfast unto the end. They had received no reward at present, save, of course, that blessed witness of the Spirit in the soul, which is its own reward; but the recompense remained. The rest was there, where God Himself was resting in His own eternal day. In a little while all the pressure of the way would be over, all the persecution for the name of Christ would be a thing of the past. How sweet in glory to be able to look back upon a course run in which Jesus had not been denied, confidence maintained, and now throughout eternity to enjoy the fulness of that blessing, the foretaste of which sweetened all their sorrows in this life! He reminds them that they have need of patience, as we all have; or as the word really is, of "endurance." And it is tribulation that "worketh patience, and patience experience." Experience and patience do not come from an unexercised life; and they needed that endurance which abode under every stress; that after they had done the will of God, after they had bowed to that will as expressed in the Gospel, had confessed and suffered for Christ, they would still cleave to Him, and thus obtain the promise which was laid up for them in heaven. All this is very simple. It needs not so much exposition as it does application, and I am sure it has a voice for our souls which will be most sanctifying if we bow to the truth which is here pressed home upon us.

hupomone (from hupomeno, "to sustain") is once rendered "enduring" (2 Cor. 1:6); "patient continuance" (Rom. 2:7); and this fully enters into the thought of the word; it is a "patient endurance," that does not succumb under trial and suffering. See Luke 8:15; Luke 21:19 (cp. Ps. 39:7, where "what wait I for" is hupomone in the LXX, Ps. 38:8); Rev. 13:10; Rev. 14:12, and in the expression, "he that endures to the end," Matt. 10:22 and Matt. 24:13 (the verb); see also Rom. 5:3-4; James 1:3-4; Heb. 10:36; Heb. 12:1. In Rom. 15:5 it is traced to its divine source for us; and, though never applied to God directly, because there could be no such testing or pressure in regard to Him, the Lord Jesus in the place He has taken as Man is our perfect example in it, Heb. 12:2-3, (the verb), who "endured" the cross, and the contradiction of sinners against Himself; with which may be compared 2 Thess. 3:5 and Rev. 3:10.

For verse 33 we quote a more exact translation: "For ye sympathized with those in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better and an enduring substance" (Numerical Bible ). Such an attitude was fully true of those who had truly received Christ. It was no small matter to have linked themselves with prisoners who suffered for Christ, exposed to the ungodly persecutor who considered himself justified in plundering their possessions because they were commonly held in contempt. But faith could rise above grieving as to temporal loss: they had what was their own, a better and enduring substance. This had given them stedfast firmness, and certainly it was no less real now.

"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." If confidence in the living God is cast away, then its character is proven to be extremely deficient, for God Himself has not changed. Persecution tests it, no doubt, and the apostle would strengthen souls to stand by true, living faith. Patient endurance would gain its recompense, for the will of God in reference to any believer is that he should prove through hard experience that his trust is actually in the living God.

One thing only was necessary, that they should continue with endurance doing the will of God. Then without fail all that had been promised would be fulfilled to them. Their very position was that they had "fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us," (vi. 18). That hope was abundantly sure, but its fulfilment can only be at the coming of the Lord, as is indicated in verse 37.

And Hebrews 10:36 tells us we have need of Endurance in order that, having done the will of God, we may receive the promise. We can see "the streaks in the sky." The Bright and Morning Star will soon appear, and make good all the promises. But now, in the darkest part of the night, just before the dawn, "Ye have need of Endurance." And those who have Endured, we call happy. "Ye have heard of the Endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful." (James 5:11). Sweet attributes are these to link up with Endurance. It did not look like tender compassion and pity in the early chapters of Job. But it was true for Job, and it is true for us. Tribulation did work Endurance, and if we let it, tribulation will work Endurance for us too, and we also will prove the Lord to be "full of tender compassion and pitiful."

In the earlier days the Hebrew Christians had suffered much for Christ: but they were in danger of slackening and drawing back. They required endurance, so that they might continue to do God's will. It would be but a very little while to Christ's coming. and faith would keep them going on till the end.

Verse 36. Still they had need of patience. For the time was not yet come for God to put them in possession of the promise. They would bear away triumphantly the prize of their high calling when once the Master should appear. Meanwhile, their calling was to do the will of God. Jesus had done it once, and perfectly, on their behalf; and now, in the confession of His name, they were to seek to follow in His steps. They were partakers of the heavenly calling. They had, therefore, done with earthly prospects, and the vain pursuits of men. The close of their brief day of patience was at hand. It might be difficult, while looking on the living scene of actual human progress, to realize the distance from the former things to which they were transported by the resurrection of the Lord. But a single glance toward the cross of the rejected One, would make them feel that stranger-ship and pilgrimage must needs be their experience until He came whom no man wished to see, save they who joyed in Him already as the Captain of their great salvation.

(Vv. 32-34). Further, the Apostle warns us not to be discouraged by sufferings, reproaches and afflictions. There is the ever present danger of shrinking from the path of faith because of the reproach and suffering entailed. These believers had begun well. Having been enlightened by the truth, they at once found themselves in conflict for the truth. But in that conflict they endured, and whole-heartedly associated with those who were suffering for Christ's Name. They even took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing they had in heaven a better and enduring substance.

(Vv. 35-39). Such confidence will have its bright reward, but in the meantime we need patience to submit to the will of God while waiting to receive the promise. The waiting time is but a little while, then “He that shall come will come and will not tarry.” Until He comes, the path of the believer is a path of faith. It ever has been, for in days of old it was as true as it is today that, according to the words of the prophet Habakkuk, “The just shall live by faith.”

The opening verses of this chapter are evidently connected with the end of the last. There we get a most important exhortation, "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back to perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul." The question of continuing, the just shall live by faith; or of drawing back is of all importance. There is the need of patience, for it is the present moment of the Lord's tarrying—the little while that becomes the test of faith. The moment that the Lord comes He will bring in that system of things which is spoken of as "the world to come"; but in the meantime we have to walk in the faith of it, with the sense that the present system of things is passing away. God has established in Christ another order of things by placing Him at His right hand. There is a blessed Man gone into heaven; it is a new thing that a Man should be there.

Nevertheless he hopes better things, for fruit, the sign of life, was there. He reminds them how much they had suffered for the truth, and that they had even received joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had a better and an abiding portion in heaven. They were not to cast away this confidence, the reward of which would be great. For in truth they needed patience, in order that, after having done the will of God, they might receive the effect of the promise. And He who is to come will come soon.