Bible verses about "perserverance" | Riverside

⁸ Love never fails; but if there are prophetic powers, they will become useless; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will become useless.

¹³ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit!

¹ FOR I wish you to know how I am wrestling for you and for those in Laodicea and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh, ² that your hearts may be encouraged and that joined together in love you may reach all the wealth of the full assurance of insight into the knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ. ³ In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie hidden. ⁴ I say this that no one may deceive you by plausible arguments. ⁵ For even though I am absent in the flesh, yet in the spirit I am with you, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ⁶ Since, then, you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, live in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, growing strong in the faith as you have been taught, and overflowing with thanksgiving. ⁸ Beware that no one carries you away captive by his philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary teachings of the world and not according to Christ. ⁹ For in him dwells all the fullness of God in bodily form, ¹⁰ and you have been filled in him. He is the head of every archangel and authority. ¹¹ In him you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by hands, by laying aside your fleshly body in the circumcision of Christ. ¹² You were buried with him in baptism and raised again through faith in the inworking of God who raised him from the dead. ¹³ You who were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh God has made alive with him, and has forgiven us all our sins. ¹⁴ He erased the writing that was against us in the rules, the writing that was opposed to us. He has taken it out of the way by nailing it to his cross. ¹⁵ He despoiled the archangels and authorities and fearlessly made an example of them when he triumphed over them on the cross. ¹⁶ Let no one then judge you in the matter of food or drink or in regard to a festival or new moon or Sabbath. ¹⁷ These were a shadow of coming things, but the body is Christ's. ¹⁸ Let no one as umpire defraud you of your prize, if he delights in excessive humility and ceremonial worship of the angels, searching into his own visions, emptily puffed up by his fleshly mind ¹⁹ and not holding to the Head, from whom the whole body, supplied and held together by joints and bands, grows as God gives it growth. ²⁰ If you died with Christ to the elementary teachings of the world, why do you, as if still living in the world, have such rules as, ²¹ "Do not touch," "Do not taste," "Do not handle" ²² referring to things that perish when used? ²³ These rules follow the commandments and teachings of men. They have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed ceremonial and excessive humility and severity to the body, but have no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, that no one may boast.

²³ For if one is a hearer of the message and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ He looks at himself and is gone, and immediately forgets what sort of man he was. ²⁵ But he who looks earnestly into the perfect law of liberty and continues to do so, and becomes not a forgetful hearer but a doer of work — that man will be blessed in what he does.

³ Think of him who endured such hostile speaking of sinners against him, that you may not grow weary and despondent in heart.

¹ LET me recall to your minds, brethren, the good news which I announced to you and which you accepted, in which also you stand, ² through which also you are being saved, if you hold fast the message that I announced to you, unless your faith was thoughtless. ³ For among the first things I passed on to you what I had received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve, ⁶ then he was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, of whom the most are still living, but some have fallen asleep, ⁷ then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as if to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles and am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not without result, but I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you believed. ¹² But if Christ is proclaimed — that he has been raised from the dead — how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. ¹⁴ If Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is an empty thing and your faith is an empty thing. ¹⁵ And we are found false witnesses of God because we testified regarding God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise if the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. ²⁰ But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruit of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since by a man came death, by a man also came resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. ²³ But each in his own order. The first-fruit is Christ, then those who are Christ's, at his coming. ²⁴ Then will be the end when he delivers up the kingship to God his Father, when he has defeated every archangel and authority and power. ²⁵ For he must be king until he "puts all his enemies under his feet." ²⁶ The last enemy to be defeated will be death. ²⁷ For "he subjected all things under his feet." But when it says, "all things have been subjected," it is plain that it means all things except God who subjected all things to him. ²⁸ But when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all. ²⁹ Then what shall they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why are they then baptized for them? ³⁰ And why do we run risks every hour? ³¹ I die every day, I swear it by the boast I make of you and which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. ³² If, humanly speaking, I fought wild beasts at Ephesus, what is my gain? If the dead do not rise, "let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." ³³ Do not be led astray; "bad associations corrupt good morals." ³⁴ Return to soberness and cease to sin, for some are ignorant of God. I say it to your shame. ³⁵ But some one will say, How are the dead raised, and with what sort of bodies do they come? ³⁶ Thoughtless man! What you yourself sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ And what you sow is not the body that will come, but a mere grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. ³⁸ But God gives it a body as he has pleased, and to each kind of seed a body of its own. ³⁹ All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another flesh of birds, and another flesh of fishes. ⁴⁰ There are bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial. But the glory of the celestial is of one kind and the glory of the terrestrial is of another. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars. For star differs from star in glory. ⁴² So also will be the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in decay; it is raised imperishable. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown an animal body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is an animal body there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ Just as it is written, "The first man Adam became a living animal," the last Adam became a lifegiving spirit. ⁴⁶ But the spiritual is not first, but the animal, then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man is the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸ As is the earthly man such are also those who are earthly, and as is the heavenly man such are also those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹ And as we have borne the image of the earthly man, we shall bear the image of the heavenly man. ⁵⁰ But I say this, brethren, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor will decay inherit imperishability. ⁵¹ I am telling you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be transformed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet-call. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be transformed. ⁵³ For this perishable must clothe itself with imperishability, and this mortal must clothe itself with immortality. ⁵⁴ When this perishable has clothed itself with imperishability and this mortal has clothed itself with immortality, then will come to pass the word that is written, "Death has been swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ O Death, where is thy victory? O Death, where is thy sting?" ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! ⁵⁸ So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; since you know that your labor is not fruitless in the Lord.

¹³ But you, brethren, must not become discouraged in doing well.

²⁴ Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, yet one gets the prize? Run so as to win. ²⁵ Every one who contends in the games practices self-restraint in all things. They do it to win a fading crown, but we for an unfading one. ²⁶ Thus I run with no uncertain goal: thus I strike, not as if pounding the air. ²⁷ On the contrary, I maul and master my body so that I may not, after preaching to others, become myself unable to stand the test.

³ Not only so, but we also exult in trials, knowing that trial develops endurance,

¹ THEREFORE, surrounded as we are by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that lies before us, ² looking to Jesus the beginner and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured a cross, thinking little of the shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

⁹ Let us not grow discouraged in doing what is noble, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow faint.