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14. patience
This document discusses the concept of patience. It begins by welcoming the reader and quoting a passage from 1 Thessalonians encouraging rejoicing, prayer, and thanksgiving. It then states that patience is a complex concept involving calmness under provocation, not becoming angry in difficulty, extensively tolerating others, enduring annoyance or problems, and persisting in difficult situations. The document goes on to explore different aspects of growing in patience such as suffering mistreatment, responding to provocation, tolerating shortcomings, waiting for God to act, and persevering through adversity.
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14. patience
- 1. Welcome to Grace! Rejoicealways, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
- 2.
- 3. Patience • Introduction • Patience– a many-stranded string
- 4. Patience • Introduction • Patience– a many-stranded string • Μακροθυμια – calm, non-irritation under provocation or in misfortune, Gal. 5:22, Jas. 5:10 • Ανεξικακος – not angry at difficulty or upset, Eph. 4:2, Rom. 2:4 • Τροποϕορεω – extensive putting up with someone, Acts 13:18 • Στεγω – putting up with annoyance or difficulty, 1 Cor. 9:12, 1 Thess. 3:5, Rom. 9:22 • Καρτερεω – persisting in an untoward situation, Heb. 11:27 • ‘υπομονη – enduring & keeping going in difficult circumstances, 1 Thess. 1:3, 2 Tim 2:10, 3:11
- 5. Patience • Introduction • Patience– a many-stranded string • Growing patience suffering mistreatment and abuse
- 6. Patience • Introduction • Patience– a many-stranded string • Growing patience suffering mistreatment and abuse • Justice
- 7. Patience • Introduction • Patience– a many-stranded string • Growing patience suffering mistreatment and abuse • Growing patience responding to provocation
- 8. Patience • Introduction • Patience– a many-stranded string • Growing patience suffering mistreatment and abuse • Growing patience responding to provocation • Growing patience tolerating shortcomings
- 9. Patience • Introduction • Patience– a many-stranded string • Growing patience suffering mistreatment and abuse • Growing patience responding to provocation • Growing patience tolerating shortcomings • Growing patience WAITING for God to act
- 10. Patience • Introduction • Patience– a many-stranded string • Growing patience suffering mistreatment and abuse • Growing patience responding to provocation • Growing patience tolerating shortcomings • Growing patience WAITING for God to act • Growing patience persevering through adversity
- 11. Patience • Introduction • Patience– a many-stranded string • Growing patience suffering mistreatment and abuse • Growing patience responding to provocation • Growing patience tolerating shortcomings • Growing patience WAITING for God to act • Growing patience persevering through adversity • Conclusion
Editor's Notes
- #3 You can tell people to BE patient as much as you like. But it’s one of those things that the very TELLING of is likely to lead to the opposite effect. Being patient – like being calm and a host of other things it might be GOOD to be – is unlikely to get easier by being told to DO it. And you tell yourself you SHOULD be, because God is gloriously patient with you, but this thrashing YOURSELF over the matter doesn’t make it easier, either. It’s a leading characteristic of our God. His patience with His people’s beyond legendary. But it doesn’t come easily at all to our human, fallen, nature. So for Christians it grows on them as the fruit of the Spirit, Who being GRACIOUS God possesses it naturally, and grows it on those grafted into His vine. See – patience doesn’t grow like an airplant … the genus bromeliaciae grow unrooted in any particular soil, catching nutrients that are floating around in their atmosphere. Christian patience grows rooted in God, buffeted by its environment but strengthened to deal with it PATIENTLY as we draw on our rootstock for strength. It grows in drawing strength and leadership from God in a number of ways, in response to various TESTS of that patience that come our way …
- #4 We have ONE word for patience in English. It derives, and this is no accident, from the Latin verb patio which has nothing to do with gardening and everything to do with suffering … But the Bible has a range of words we always translate ‘patience’, which reflect responses to different forms of testing … so the unitary word ‘patience’ in English translates a set of Greek words used to describe the right response to a range of situations that call it forth. So … patience becomes a many stranded rope
- #5 Louw & Nida: this idea of patience is portrayed in other languages: To remain seated in one’s heart To keep one’s heart from jumping To have a waiting heart The word used in Gal. 5:22 and James 5:10 is Μακροθυμια … Louw & Nida: “A state of emotional calm in the face of provocation or misfortune and without complaint or irritation – ‘patience’.” So Heb. 6:12 urges us to take the prophets as an example of suffering and patience and James 5:10 sees it as patience formed in the face of suffering. But Galatians 5 makes clear that this is patience formed IN those experiences BY keeping in step with and living by the Holy Spirit as we go through these challenging experiences of life. It’s the blowing of the gale against the tree on the exposed hilltop that makes it draws all the more strongly on the supplies of its rootstock, and that builds the strength and resilience of that tree. So given that this thing is desirable, and living in the Spirit is the way it is strengthened, WHAT is the ground in which it grows? If it’s the fruit of the Spirit, where’s it grown?
- #6 Are you good at suffering for a long while the mistreatment of others without growing resentful or bitter? When the King James Version translates Μακροθυμια as ‘long-suffering’, this is the sort of thing it is driving at. Paul stresses the need for long-suffering on the life of a believer. In 1 Corinthians he raises this three times … particularly (to that internally troubled church) in the thirteenth chapter’s list of the qualities of love. Of course it arises here in the list of the fruit produced in the lives of believers in Gal. 5:22 and it crops up in the description in Ephesians of the life worthy of God’s calling. He stresses it to the Thessalonian church – born straight into opposition and persecution and it seems to be something he commends his own ministry to hostile people for as well. So what do you preach to yourself when you suffer mistreatment and abuse to make sure you grow this fruit of the Spirit in response to it? (Notice please by the way you don’t get this fruit growing on you out of nothing (that’s for airheads and airplants) but in response to God’s truth as the Spirit has revealed it).
- #7 God is the Judge, and does it justly. So 1 Peter 2:23 attributes the way Jesus did not retaliate or threaten when insulted and made to suffer to the way He chose instead to entrust Himself to the God Who judges justly. And Romans 12 pleads for a life of sacrifice in response to God’s mercy … “17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Jerry Bridges in his excellent book on The Fruitful Life: “One of the thoughts that most disturbs a suffering Christian who has not learned patience is this issue of justice.” If you are going to grow the patience that the Lord showed and that is the fruit of His Spirit, you’ll need to learn to cast yourself on the justice of God.
- #8 Unlike mistreatment by others, where we are fundamentally powerless to respond, provocation stimulates a response that we certainly do have the power to make. This is where the actions of others arouse anger and retribution when we are in a position to retaliate. So when we exercise patience in the face of provocation, we directly imitate God’s response to ourselves. What is God like to us? In Exodus 34:4 ff. God describes Himself to Moses in these terms: “Moses cut out two tablets of stone like the first; early in the morning he went up to Mount Sinai, just as theLord had commanded him, and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Lord by name. 6 The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, 7 keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” He shows patience in the face of human provocation, provocation He could easily crush, and He does it every hour of every long day. God Himself does this by being ‘slow to anger’ … which is what we need to learn from Him if we’re to be like this. Not being an air head … or an air plant … how do you feed all this? You do it by meditating frequently on the patience of God to us … Take another look at the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant … Matthew 18:21-35 is likely to be of very great help with this! We’re like the Unforgiving Servant when we lose our temper with the people who chose to provoke us … ignoring God’s extreme patience with us. Correct yourself with apologies, repentance and faith and fresh reflection on God’s patience with you!
- #9 Some of us really don’t tolerate fools gladly … but in itself ‘fools’ is a value judgement that’s been disallowed to us. So in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says: “ “You have heard that it was said to an older generation, ‘Do not murder,’ and ‘whoever murders will be subjected to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that anyone who is angry with a brother will be subjected to judgment. And whoever insults a brother will be brought before the council, and whoever says ‘Fool’ will be sent to fiery hell. ” Sneering remarks about the stupidity, ineptitude or intellectual failings of others. They all run counter (according to Romans) to the doctrines of grace and salvation … as the out-workings of these doctrines must result (says Romans 14:1) in bearing with the failings of the weak. 1 Corinthians 4:7 makes abundantly clear that whatever gifts or abilities we possess are things we’ve not earned but received as gifts from our God. Bearing with one another in love is crucial to Christian community, as we strive to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace … and we grow it as it’s tested in experience. So Col. 3:12-13 pitches it like this: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” You only get this as you give time to letting your thinking be moulded by the Spirit as you feed your brain with thoughts of HOW God in Christ forgives you. Let THAT inspire youto tolerate what YOU see as the shortcomings of the people around you.
- #10 I’m sure you’re all really great at waiting quietly for God to act. But I have to tell you that frankly, I’m not. And many honest men among us might say the same … One of the most faith-shaking things in Christian life, can be this waiting patiently for our God to act. Abraham had been promised a son with Sarah. He couldn’t WAIT so went and slept with her slave girl … the result was Ishmael and the creation of hostility, a hostility that stretches in the flesh down thousands of years to this day. Saul is another example of someone who rushed his fences rather than wait for God’s timetable … and for this he forfeited his Kingdom. Both men lost faith in the faithfulness of God. By contrast David waited patiently for the Lord, Who heard his cry, turned to Him and lifted him up … out of the slimy pit, out of the mire and the clay: “He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.” (Ps. 40:1-2) The cure for this impatience with God is trusting yourself to Him in faith, but as it stems from real doubt in His faithfulness you need to think over the known faithfulness of God, consider the way He has always kept His promises, determine to obey His will and consciously entrust the results into His hands.
- #11 Jerry Bridges: “Endurance is the ability to stand up under adversity; perseverance is the ability to progress in spite of it.” He suggests that whereas long-suffering should be our patient response to people who mistreat and provoke us, endurance and perseverance should be our patient response to difficult circumstances that try us. Romans 15 makes it clear that whatever the source of our adversity, the key to endurance and perseverance is to trust that God is ultimately working out events … and that as He does this He does it for our good. And Romans 15:4-6 relies on godly biographies and Biblical Theology to build this trust in us … “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. 5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There are two striking associations made with endurance and perseverance in the Scriptures: They are frequently linked up to hope They are frequently linked up to suffering In each of the four instances in which Paul speaks of perseverance and endurance in Romans, the context is always of hope. In 1 Thess. 1:2-3 Paul writes: “We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” We don’t live for now. We live for then. The present experience is the early stages of an endurance race … according to Hebrews … and we must run it with perseverance with our eyes set on what lies beyond the crossing of the line sat the finish. Current adversities get put in their proper place by this! But secondly endurance and perseverance are often linked in Scripture with current adversity. Jerry Bridges is blunt that “Endurance can be produced only under stress, whether spiritual or physical.” Paul says (Romans 5:2-3) “we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we[b] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Again, James tells us (Jas. 1:2-4) “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” We all want the qualities of endurance and perseverance, but we don’t want to have to walk by the Spirit through the experience of adversity that produces them.
- #12 Where do we get this patience? From God. How do we get it? From being with God, living with Him, abiding in the Vine, keeping in step with the Spirit AS WE PASS THROUGH THE TROUBLES AND TRIALS OF THIS WORLD IN ALL ITS FALLENNESS, as those who trust Him and pursue Him to Glory. I want to give the last word here to Jerry Bridges who says this: “Trials always change our relationship to God. Either they drive us to Him, or they drive us away from Him. The extent of our fear of Him and our awareness of His love for us determines in which direction we will move.” OK Just one more thing. Patience comes from God when in these circumstances we do walk with Him, and that’s the case because He’s an inspiring personality, and being with Him is to be made patient like Him.