The phrase “endure to the end” is another phrase clearly borrowed from the KJV New Testament. The meaning transcends the language however, and is applicable to Nephi just as to the New Testament Christians. Nevertheless, the phrase in English has the unfortunate inclusion of the word “endure” which has connotations of suffering. Thus the whole idea of enduring to the end can become a metaphor for a painful process. This is surely not what is meant in the scriptural use of the term.
There are actually two very crucial words that we should understand in that phrase: “endure” and “end”. In the KJV, the word that is being translated “endure” is the Greek word hupomeno to “remain under”. Meno is to remain (hupo is “under” and the word from which we get the prefix hypo-, as in hypodermic (under skin). The larger list of meanings for hupomeno is:
“To stay behind, survive. To await another. To abide their presence. To be patient under, abide patiently, submit to. To wait for. To stand one’s ground, stand firm. Persist in doing”. (Liddell and Scott)
In the New Testament context, the meanings most applicable are “to be patient under,” and “to stand firm,” and “persist in doing.” With those meanings, not the new context it gives to the following verse:
1 Corinthians 13:7
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Understanding the Greek meanings, we see this verse as a very short chiastic contruction, with “beareth” and “endureth” being equated, and “believeth” and “hopeth” standing as equivalents. In this context, the “bearing” and “enduring” have less to do with pain and suffering as they do with persistence and steadfastness. A loose retranslation might be “Standing firm in all things, believing all things, hoping all things, persisting in doing all things.”
The second word of interest is “end.” The word “end” is translating the Greek word telos. The meanings of telos are: “the fulfilment or completion of anything. To be finished or ready. To be completed.”
There is another verse where these ideas are presented in the New Testament, and it is a verse that we might not otherwise connect with “endure to the end”:
Matthew 5:48
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
The word “perfect” is translating the Greek word teleios. Telos and Teleios are different forms of the same word. Specifically for teleios the definitions are: “having reached its end, complete. Of persons, absolute, complete, accomplished.”
In both of these cases, “perfect” and “end” both refer to something that is completed or finished. What is to be finished? The process of exaltation. We are enjoined to endure to the end, or, as it might be rephrased, persist in doing until we have been exalted. There is a goal in our mortal life that extends beyond the boundaries of this life. That is a path we are walking, and we are told to continue on that path until we reach the goal.
This persistence in working on the process of exaltation is what Alma admires in his son, Helaman:
Alma 38:2
2 And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end.
Alma uses “continue in keeping his commandments” and “endureth to the end” as equivalent phrases. In Alma’s argument, this persistence in keeping the commandments will lead one to be blessed, because we are blessed if we persist in keeping the commandments (or enduring to the end).
Christ himself clarifies to the Nephites gathered around the temple in Bountiful what the nature of the reward was when the “end” or “completion” came:
3 Nephi 15:9
9 Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.
The “end” is eternal life, which is the same as becoming celestial people. That it the “end” for which we seek.