Recently I was reading 2 Ne 31:20.
If ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.
I thought it was interesting that Nephi should list ?¢‚Ǩ?ìpressing forward?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and ?¢‚Ǩ?ìenduring to the end?¢‚Ǩ¬ù as prerequisites to eternal life because they seemed to me to mean similar things.
If they mean the same thing, however, why list them both? Why not list just one? Do they mean different things?
I looked up the meanings of endure and press in this context, and I discovered something interesting:
- endure = to carry on through, despite hardships; To bear with tolerance
- press = to advance or carry on vigorously
It seems to me that there is a difference then, but they are closely related. In fact, I would go so far as to say they may be two parts of the process necessary to overcome trials.
When faced with trials, we bear them tolerantly without giving up or despairing. When our trials have passed, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, then carry on stronger than before.
It makes me think about David and the 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine. So there are good times where we prepare and move forward (press) and there are the hard times where hold on (endure).
But that is off the top of my head so please don’t ask me to defend.