Introduction
Thus far, love, joy and peace are all fruits that immediately appear desirable and appealing. After all, who doesn’t want love, joy and peace? Patience, on the other hand, is the first fruit that comes with a sense of foreboding. Its etymology derives from the Latin pati which means suffering or enduring.
In the Bible, Job is our example of patience (James 5:11): “Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” The old reprobate Ambrose Bierce, in his Devil’s Dictionary, defined patience thus: Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.
Less despairingly, patience can be defined as the capacity to accept and endure trouble or suffering without getting angry or upset. The term Paul uses literally means “long-tempered” which is why the King James version often uses the word long-suffering as a synonym for patience. Christopher Wright notes that there are two main emphases in view here. As a fruit of the Spirit, patience means:
- The ability to endure for a long time whatever opposition and suffering may come our way, and to show perseverance without wanting retaliation or revenge.
- The ability to put up with the weakness and foibles of others (including other believers), and to show forbearance toward them, without getting irritated or angry enough to want to fight back.
This makes it clear why we find patience so difficult to practice. It is not a “natural” quality at all. In our flesh, our natural response is to “strike back” for the wrongs or injustices others inflict on us. When we are “short-tempered” we justify ourselves by pointing to the unjust provocation. But the fruit of the spirit is patience. How does this work? I want to look at two main things this morning: (1) the example of God’s patience with us, (2) how we are to imitate His example.
Our Long-Suffering Father
Our OT reading from Exodus 34 is a striking example of just how central patience is to God’s revelation of His own character. The context is important. In chapter 32, Israel had been guilty of great idolatry and iniquity. While Moses was receiving the law of the covenant from the Lord’s hand on Mount Sinai, Israel had forced Aaron to make a golden calf, which they proclaimed as the “gods who brought [us] up out of the land of Egypt!” (Ex. 32:4). In response, God threatens to destroy Israel and make Moses a great nation in their place, but Moses intercedes by pleading for the Lord to remember his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to turn from His anger and relent from such a disaster (32:13-14). After, He relents, God tells Moses to take the people to promised land so that He can do what He promised, but He will not go with them (Ex. 33:1-3). This is also a disaster and again, Moses intercedes: “Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” (33:13-16)
The Lord responds to Moses’ request to show him His glory as a sign of His favor by saying: “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (33:19). Then, at the very moment the Lord reveals His glory to Moses, He proclaims His name: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
This is who the Lord is: He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger (patient), and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. This becomes a refrain that is echoed often in the OT (Psalm 103:8-14). As a loving Father, the Lord does not deal with us as our sins deserve. He is compassionate and gracious; understanding the weak frames of His children. Moreover, in the OT one of the words that means “to forgive” means literally to carry or bear something. This is exactly what Isaiah says Jesus does for us (Is. 53:4, 6, 12). Not only does God bear with us, but he also bears the justice our sins deserve.
Put on as God’s Chosen Ones, Holy and Beloved…Patience
What this shows us is that the Lord’s patience is borne out of His steadfast love for us. Because He loves us, He is willing to bear and carry our offences. To put it another way, God’s patience is an expression of His selfless love. He loves and therefore He is long-suffering, compassionate, merciful, and forgiving. Notice how closely patience and selflessness are connected with love in 1 Cor. 13:4-7: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
The reason we find patience difficult is because we cannot love like this. In our old man, we are self-centered and self-loving and offences and irritations inevitably become sources of bitterness and anger. If we are to be vindicated we must remember and make others pay.
Our text from Colossians 3 shows us God’s incredible answer: His love makes us like Him. Notice the foundation of Paul’s exhortation to put off the practices of the old self, anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk (vs. 8), and to put on the practices of the new self. It is the fact that we are holy and beloved (vs. 12).
- We are to clothe ourselves with compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience because we have experienced God’s self-giving love.
- We are to be forbearing and forgiving because in Christ we have received forbearance and forgiveness (vs. 13).
- In Matt 18, our Father’s forgiveness should create a patient “frame of heart” in us because it puts our offences in perspective.
How do you know if you have this “frame of heart”? A simple test is how you respond to the trouble created by others? If your heart is full of the reality of God’s kindness and long-suffering toward you, overlooking transgressions and covering them with love will be a glory to you: “A man’s wisdom yields patience; it is his glory to overlook an offense.” (Prov. 19:11) It is a glory because it is an expression of the kind of love God has shown to you: “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Pet. 4:8). As I said at the beginning, this kind of love can only come from God. Apart from the Spirit’s work, offences are always an opportunity to be self-centered, nursing our wounded pride. But when the love of God is present in our lives, a remarkable thing happens: We start caring for others and seeing their needs. We are able to bear and carry their load likes Jesus did when he said from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)