The Call to Finish What God Started

By: John Hill, Editor & CEO,

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” — Philippians 1:6, KJV

The New Year tempts us to start fresh—to turn pages, set goals, and imagine better versions of ourselves. But Scripture presses us beyond beginnings. God is not merely interested in what we start; He is committed to what He finishes. The real spiritual challenge of this season is not novelty, but completion. Not enthusiasm, but endurance. Not intention, but faithful obedience over time.

Philippians 1:6 is often quoted as comfort, but it is also a call to accountability. Paul does not say God might finish His work, or that He will do so without our participation. He speaks with confidence because God is faithful—but that faithfulness summons our perseverance. God finishes His work in willing, yielded, obedient vessels. He completes what He begins in those who do not quit when the process grows costly.

God Begins with Purpose, Not Accident

When God begins a work in a soul, it is never accidental or shallow. Salvation is not a trial run. Calling is not a passing interest. Conviction is not a momentary emotion. God does not initiate transformation casually, nor does He abandon what He starts impulsively. Scripture affirms that His purposes are deliberate and enduring.

Yet many believers live as if God’s work were optional—something to be paused, postponed, or abandoned when life grows inconvenient. We celebrate conversion but resist sanctification. We rejoice in forgiveness but resist formation. We want grace to cover us, but not truth to confront us. This is not spiritual maturity; it is spiritual immaturity dressed in religious language.

God’s work in us aims toward Christlikeness. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29, KJV). That image is not formed overnight. It is forged through discipline, surrender, obedience, repentance, endurance, and suffering. The work God begins is deep—and therefore demanding.

Why We Are Tempted to Quit

Most believers do not abandon the faith outright; they simply stop growing. They settle into spiritual maintenance mode. Prayer becomes occasional. Scripture becomes familiar but no longer formative. Obedience becomes selective. Convictions soften. Edges dull. The fire cools.

Why? Because finishing is harder than starting.

The Christian life inevitably reaches moments when the cost becomes clear—when obedience requires loss, when holiness requires separation, when truth requires courage, when faith requires waiting. At those moments, many step back. They rationalize delay. They reinterpret Scripture to suit comfort. They confuse God’s patience with permission.

But Scripture repeatedly warns against unfinished faith. Jesus spoke of those who begin to build and do not finish, bringing reproach upon themselves (Luke 14:28–30). The writer of Hebrews warns of those who drift, draw back, or grow dull of hearing. Paul himself testified, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means… I myself should be a castaway” (1 Corinthians 9:27, KJV).

Quitting does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like stagnation. Sometimes it looks like compromise. Sometimes it looks like comfort chosen over calling.

God Finishes Through Faithful Perseverance

Philippians 1:6 assures us that God will perform His work—but Scripture never separates God’s faithfulness from human responsibility. The same Bible that promises God’s sustaining grace commands believers to continue, endure, press on, and finish well.

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13, KJV). God works in us, but we are commanded to work it out. Divine sovereignty does not cancel human obedience; it empowers it.

Spiritual maturity is marked not by spiritual experiences, but by spiritual perseverance. Mature believers remain faithful when prayer feels dry, when obedience costs relationships, when truth is unpopular, and when God’s timing feels slow. They understand that God’s work is often most active when progress feels least visible.

God is shaping patience, humility, faith, endurance, holiness, and hope—qualities that cannot be rushed and cannot be developed without resistance. To abandon the process is to interrupt the very work we once prayed God would do.

The Day of Jesus Christ

Paul anchors completion to a future certainty: “until the day of Jesus Christ.” God’s work in us is oriented toward eternity. Sanctification is preparation for glory. Faithfulness now anticipates accountability later. Scripture reminds us that every believer will stand before Christ—not for condemnation, but for evaluation (2 Corinthians 5:10).

This truth adds urgency to perseverance. We do not grow merely for personal fulfillment, spiritual reputation, or present usefulness. We grow because one day we will see Him face to face. The unfinished work of character, obedience, forgiveness, reconciliation, and holiness matters because eternity is real.

Too many believers live as if the Christian life were a sprint rather than a long obedience in the same direction. But Scripture calls us to finish. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7, KJV). Finishing is not optional—it is the goal.

Do Not Abandon the Work

As a new year begins, the question is not what new thing you will start, but what God is asking you to continue. What obedience have you delayed? What discipline have you neglected? What calling have you sidelined? What conviction have you compromised?

God has not abandoned His work in you. He is still shaping, refining, correcting, and calling. The chiseling may be uncomfortable. The process may feel slow. The cost may be high. But the work is holy—and it is not finished.

Do not abandon the work God is still shaping. Yield to it. Cooperate with it. Persevere through it. Trust the One who began it—and walk faithfully until He completes it.

Because God finishes what He starts. And He calls His people to do the same.