(kopon) is the effort necessary to maintain this Christian lifestyle. Perseverance has already been mentioned as one of the marks of the servants of God (see comments on 1:9) and both Thyatira (2:19) and Philadelphia (3:10) are also praised for perseverance marked by a “steadfast adherence to a course of action in spite of difficulties and testings” (Friberg, Friberg, and Miller 2000, 392). This “patient endurance” (1:9) carries with it the expectation of eschatological reward, a hope for the realization