The Lord said to his disciples, "Beware of men who will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be a time for you to bear testimony. Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.
The Paradox
This is the true paradox of the Christian life. It is the ultimate goal to protect ones on life but to do so requires losing that life. How do we resolve this apparent paradox? It is by realizing that this life is but for a moment compared to eternity.
How Then Do We Live?
We are told that the way to live this life is to keep ourselves in the love of God.
Jude 1:21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
The word, "keep" in this verse is a verb in the aorist tense and it is active. It requires effort (the active part of the verb) without regards to time (the aorist part). The aorist tense -
Is characterized by its emphasis on punctiliar action; that is, the concept of the verb is considered without regard for past, present, or future time.
This "keeping" is not a completed act, but it is on-going throughout our entire life in Christ.
