Patience

"The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness"

-Exodus 34.6

The first three fruit of the Spirit sound so spiritual: love, joy, peace. But patience, that just sounds like hard work. When Paul listed ‘patience’ in of the fruit of the Spirit the word he used literally means ‘long-tempered’ and some English translations go with ‘long-suffering’ or forbearance. (I’m tempted to make a joke here about being a long-suffering Detroit Lions fan, but I’ll pass … or did I?)

Patience as Fruit of the Spirit means two things according to Old Testament Theologian Chris Wright:

a) 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.

b) the ability to put up with the weakness and foibles of others, and to show forbearance towards them without getting quickly irritated or angry enough to want to fight back.

So, patience is the ability to exercise control over our reactions to others. Patience begins with non-reactivity. Patience is maintaining power over yourself by not giving it to someone else who can alter your behavior by their own actions.

When I was about 9 years old I decided to run away from home. I packed up a change of clothes, gathered my arsenal of rubber bands and paper wads and my lightsaber (the broken leg from a telescoping camera tripod). As I was about to head out the door my mother handed me a sack lunch and waved me goodbye. I didn’t make it a block.

Looking back, she exercised patience. She did not let my anger, packing of essential weapons and leaving in a huff lead to a reaction from her. In fact, I think that is exactly what I wanted as a kid. I never really wanted to run away. I wanted to manipulate her into letting me get my own way.

God is patient. Exodus 34 tells us God is gracious and slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. (other passages: Ps 103.8-10; Micah 7.18-19; Hosea 11.1-4; Jer 3.19-20, 8.4-7; Is 43.23-34, 53.4,6,12)

Peter sees the patient suffering of Jesus as a model “If you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2)

The Fruit of the Spirit is the Fruit of Jesus. The fruit of patience bears the qualities in Jesus as he patiently and graciously bore his suffering.

What does it look like when Jesus-like patience grows in our life?

First, it means enduring suffering. When we suffer we shouldn’t be surprised by it (Jesus repeatedly warned suffering was coming for his disciples. We should not retaliate, b/c we follow Jesus example who was crucified and falsely accused and never fought back. We also do not quit. We commit ourselves to God’s care and trust in him.

Second, patience means forgiving one another. It means putting up with people and the things other people do even when we don’t particularly like them or agree with them. Forbearance is a great word for this. Forbearance is when we choose to overlook something that was unkind or hurtful. It is not holding grudges. This kind of patience, we have learned since Covid, might be the most needed kind for our church and families and community to thrive.