Fruit of the Spirit : Week Five

And the Fruit of the Spirit is Patience

Patience Is
- Longsuffering, grace (forgiveness and mercy), humility, peace, faith

Three directions of patience
- Our patience with others
- God’s patience with us
- Our patience with God

First lets talk about what patience is. What do I mean by longsuffering? Exactly that. Suffering for a long time, on behalf of others, or with others, or in whatever sort of relationship. Patience means bearing with other people, who are sinners, and will do any number of things are not especially to your liking. Why have patience with them? For one, it is out of love. You love your brother, and so you bear with him as he annoys you. That is the essence of love. If you didn’t love him, you would not be patient with him. Second we are commanded to: Rom 15:1-2 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. As we are commanded to love one another, and therefore be patient with him, suffering long with/because of him, we are likewise commanded to bear with one another. This naturally assumes the weakness of others. We all of us are sinners and are weak. And we live together in community, not isolated as individuals. This means we will bump up against each other and discover just how sinful we each are. Therefore, bear with your neighbor’s weakness, seeking to build him up, and not shut him off.

This leads right into Grace. Patience means giving grace to one another. As we bear with one another we give grace, meaning we do not judge, condemn, exclude, shun, or anything like. Of course if the brother is unrepentant and proper steps have been taken to restore him to fellowship after grievous, unconfessed sin, then the Bible requires excommunication. But we will leave that aside for this conversation. Love covers a multitude of sins, and this means not throwing actions back in each other’s faces. Grace has a memory problem. Grace has a hard time remembering things. This is patience, and lies at the heart of forgiveness. When a brother sins against you, you must forgive them. If they sin against you seven times in one day, you must forgive them every time. This is grace, and this is patience. Bearing with the sins of others, understanding that you are made of the same metal, and they must bear with you, and forgive you when you sin against them. We have mercy on others.

Mat 18:23-27 "Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

This takes incredible humility because we human beings do not like to be offended. Our toes will not be stepped on, and our position will be respected. This is the natural man coming out in full fervor. Our sensibilities rate at the top of the importance list. And when we are sinned against, we feel the right to declare to the world that we were right, and they were wrong. The kicker is this: though that be often true, it is pride and glory-seeking to say as much aloud for all to hear. That is not love, and it is not patience. Nor be it forgiveness. To declare such things are expressions of self love and self importance. That is a far more grievous sin than what your brother did to you, for you are placing yourself in the seat of God, and all your brother did was broke your toy. No, we must humble ourselves when sinned against, for what right do we have to hold the sins of others over their heads? None. This is patience in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. God did not throw us into hell the minute we sinned. He bore with us, gave us grace, and humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross. This is patience.

Where else can peace be found, but in the fact that God has patience with us? Here is our peace with brothers: that we bear with them in humility and grace, forgiving them, and being merciful to them in their time of sin. If the Almighty Creator God of the all things has bore with us, how can we not do likewise? To do otherwise is to fill your life with anger, bitterness, anxiety, restlessness, and pride. But forgiveness and mercy and longsuffering beget peace; peace with life, peace with brethren, peace with God.

This all is fruit of the Spirit, fruit of faith. The faith that we have been given must lead to these works of longsuffering and forgiveness or else the faith is dead. That faith enables our response. It leads us to patience with others as they sin against us. That faith also leads us to patience with God. This is a different aspect of patience in that it does not bear with sin, but rather waits in hope. Our instant gratification, vending machine culture has programmed us to expect immediate responses to all inquiries. Our computer generation expects that when we input an equation, and hit enter, it will take 1 millianth of a second to receive a response. Thus we have fast food, drive up coffee shacks, and same day shipping. But God is teaching us something different. He teaches us to wait upon the Lord with hope, and to trust Him for all things. This means not receiving a desire the minute we are aware of said desire. We want a (fill in the blank), and ask God for a (said item). He chooses to give us (said item) four years later. He does this for our good, reminding us of our dependence on Him for everything.

Psa 40:1-3. I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up
from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their
trust in the LORD.

We wait on the Lord, and have patience with Him, for His ways are not our ways. This means we wait for others too in patience. Example: We want our brother to learn how to play basketball well, so that we can play with him on the same level. If we have patience, we will wait for him to attain the skill that is necessary, and we will play in good time. This means we are putting aside our own desires and needs. If we do not have patience and see our needs as more important, then we will not wait for our brother to develop and neither one will play basketball. On a deeper level, waiting on the Lord means understanding that we do not have a full grasp on even our own lives, and where we are headed. We have aspirations and desires and dreams, which are all God given. But we do not control the future. Those who have tried end in ruin. The appropriate response is to have patience with God, understanding that He is leading us, guiding us through the events of the day, with the overriding purpose of conforming us to the image of His Son. In Creation we were made in the Image of God. In the New Creation we are made in the Image of Christ. This is the purpose and meaning of Life: to wait on God as he accomplishes His purposes and give Him glory and thanks while so doing. Waiting does not mean inactivity by any stretch of the imagination. Waiting means living life knowing that God is in control; living life in obedience to His Word; and living life by enjoying our time here on earth. This is not our home. We are pilgrims. What of the hard and difficult times you might ask? They require patience to the utmost. For it is in time of need that endurance and patience show their true colors. We wait upon the Lord as He brings us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. It is not pleasant, and we will not enjoy it. But we are called to hope in the Lord, to trust Him, and to wait upon His right hand. This is where James comes in and tells us to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” This is the result of patience, or steadfastness: Joy and perfection. So, we are called to enjoy the good gifts of creation, and the fellowship we have with our brothers and sisters. And we are enabled to enjoy them through the outpouring of the Spirit.

This is what it means to Honor God as God and to give Him thanks. We wait upon Him, understanding His ways are above ours, and give thanks that they are, that He is leading us in ways we never thought possible, but in looking back, we see are the perfect plans of an loving Heavenly Father. Hindsight shows us that Patience is worthwhile. Hindsight also shows that hastiness is foolish and destructive. So give thanks to God and wait upon Him.