Nor is this all, God Himself determines it to mean _never ending_: He defines it to mean never-ending by specifically using it in contrast with that which does end. For example, in 2 Cor. 4:18 we read, +"While we look not on the things which are seen, but the things which are unseen: for the things which are seen are temporal+ (literally, for a season); +but the things which are not seen are eternal."+ Here the whole point is that the unseen things in distinction from the seen which are _for a season_ are for a _never ending duration_.
But even allowing that the word according to its usage could be used of that which, though it last throughout an age, or ages, has an end; even if that were true (which it is not), then the meaning of the word in any given instance would have to be determined by the context in which it is found. Now what is the context in the passage which we are studying? Let us read it again, +"And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life."+ The same Greek adjective is used in connection with "punishment" and with "life." (In the Authorised Version it is differently rendered, but in the Greek and in the Revised Version it is exactly the same.) Certainly this qualifying adjective must mean the same in the one half of the sentence that it means in the other half of the sentence. We must at least admit that Jesus Christ was an honest man, and He certainly was too honest to juggle with words: He would not use a word to mean one thing in one half of a sentence and something utterly different in the other half. _He evidently sought to convey the impression that the punishment of the unsaved was of the same duration as the life of the saved._ No one questions that the life is endless. It would be the destruction of all our hopes if it were not endless. Therefore, if we are to deal honestly with our Lord's words, He taught that the punishment of the unsaved was to be endless. We have exactly the same reason in God's Word for believing in endless punishment that we have for believing in endless life. If you give up the one you must give up the other, or else deal dishonestly with the words of Jesus Christ.