When John wrote these visions the Roman government had two ways of dealing with Christians. One was to send them into exile, which had already happened to the apostle John. The other method was to execute them, which had been the fate of the apostle Paul. John called for Christians of every age to look past the immediate opposition they faced.

“Patient endurance” doesn’t mean acquiescence to fate. It is a much stronger character quality than that. William Barclay was a Greek scholar who captured the essence of the word. “It is the spirit which can bear things, not simply with resignation, but with blazing hope; it is not the spirit which sits stoically enduring in the one place, but the spirit which bears things because it knows that these things are leading to a goal of glory; it is not the patience which grimly waits for the end, but the patience which radiantly hopes for the dawn…. It is the quality which keeps a man on his feet with his face to the wind. It is the virtue which can transmute the hardest trial into glory because beyond the pain it sees the goal.”

The key to that kind of attitude toward trouble is in the word translated “faithfulness” in the NIV. It is the Greek word for “faith.” A fair translation of the last phrase is, “Here is the quiet strength and the faith of the saints” (Revelation 13:10, BBE).

We can face anything because of our faith. Many believers around the world are still dying for their faith. When we believe in Jesus that secures all of us against external circumstances, no matter how difficult they may be. John wrote these words for the persecuted saints of his day and to give hope to all of us now and in the future. No matter what we face, our strength as believers is in our confidence that trouble is only temporary but our victory will be eternal. That is faith!