Patience

Luke 21:19 “By your patience possess your souls” NKJV or NIV says “By standing firm you will gain life”  

The Greek word used in these verses is hypomonē  (hü-po-mo-nā')  which means steadfastness, constancy, endurance, a patient enduring, sustaining perseverance.  In the NT it is the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith & piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.  It comes from the word hupo which means under and mone which means abide.    

Patience isn’t something we naturally have.  All you have to do is to watch a child and you can see that patience is not something that comes naturally.   We all struggle with waiting whether it be waiting for something good to happen, a bad situation to end, an answer to a question, traffic to move, or a line to end.  Paul describes Jesus as having limitless patience in 1 Timothy 1:16.  I would say that he would have to have it as many times as he has reached out to us as sinners and we reject him.  Other than the obvious fact that if more of us had patience the world would be a better place, why should we, specifically Christians, have patience?

Patience is first a trait of God.  He is a God of patience (Romans 15:5).  Think about how he has been patient with His people.  How many times He has endured rejection by those he loves, how many times He has persevered while his chosen people have forgotten Him, ignored Him, worshipped others, mocked Him.  In Ephesians 5 we are called to be imitators of God, this includes patience.

Acts 14:22 tells us that life is going to be hard, we will have many hardships before we get to enter His kingdom.  Peter tells us not to be surprised by trials (1 peter 4:12-13) we should expect them.  We experience trails so that God can learn our hearts (Deut 8:2-3), so that we may avoid sinning (Exodus 20:20) and so that we may gain patience (Romans 5:3)  We all know the story of Job, a man who had it all, lost everything, went through a terrible ordeal emotionally, physically, financially etc.  He remained steadfast, James calls him patient in chapter 5:11 (KJV), and in the end he was rewarded.  Let me point out that Job complained.  He cursed the day of his birth, he begged for death, he complained in the bitterness of his soul.  Kind of goes against our modern definition of the word patience (the quality of bearing misfortune, provocation, annoyance, delay, hardship, pain etc with fortitude and calm and without complaint anger or the like)  Even God complained when the Israelites repeatedly turned from him.  Patience is not putting on your big girl britches and your happy face and pushing through it.  Patience is hanging in there and making the best of it without sacrificing your faith, your purpose, your beliefs, your trust in God.  Did you get that?  Patience is trusting that God has a plan in your life and that He knows what He is doing.  You abide under all circumstances because you know He is in control. 

In the end Job received much more than he had to begin with.  It wasn’t the same, it was better.  He gained twice as much as he had before he was tested, his daughters were the most beautiful in the land.  We too have a reward for our patience.  Matthew 24:13 tells us that “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”  James 1:12 tells us that “blessed is the (wo)man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised them that love him.”  2 timothy 2:12 tells us that “if we endure, we will also reign with him (Jesus)”  

Now some of us are sitting here thinking, “I got this one covered.  I have no problem with being patient when the going gets tough.”  Great!  For some, that is a tough lesson to learn.  But I got news for you, patience isn’t just about abiding under, patience is also about self-control.  

You see, two different words in Greek are often translated as patience.  I am sure you have heard of the fruits of the Spirit, traits that give evidence of the Holy Spirit living in you.  Lets look at Galatians 5:22.  

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,"

 

 What is that 4^th word?  Depending on your version of the Bible it either says “longsuffering” or patience.  In Greek this word is makrothymia (mä-kro-thü-mē'-ä) and it means self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong.  This is the “patient” that Paul urges us to in Ephesians 4.  1 Corinthians 13:4 tells us that love IS patient.  Again I remind you that we are called to imitate God and 1 John 4:8 tells us that GOD IS LOVE.  If God is love, and love is patient, then God is patient and we should be patient, we should maintain self-restraint when dealing with others, especially when we feel wronged.  2 peter 3:9 tells us that God is patient with us because he doesn’t want any of us to perish.  Take a moment to think about your life.  Have you ever wronged God?  Did He retaliate?  Now let me ask you another question, have you ever felt as if you were wronged?  How long did it take you to retaliate?  If God can be patient with us in an attempt to save us from a miserable eternity, can we not be patient with others in an attempt to show them God’s love?  Isn’t that one of our purposes, to show others the love of God so that they may know Him?

Notice that the Greek meaning doesn’t say “does not retaliate” it says “does not hastily retaliate.”  We are called to correct each other.  Matthew 18:15 tells us that when someone sins we should correct them privately.  Luke 17:3-4 tells us to rebuke them and if they repent to forgive them, repeatedly.  1 Timothy 5 gives us a clue about this though.  Timothy tells us not to rebuke our elders harshly, but to speak to them as a parent, in other words with respect.  I believe that we can take it a step further because We are called to encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thess. 5:11) which is a difficult task if we are hastily retaliating perceived wrongs and doing so harshly.  In our haste to correct we often tend to react in anger.  We attack the person rather than the action.  Correction isn’t intended to belittle them, but to help them to understand (Prov 15:32).  This patience calls us to be more concerned with the other person than ourselves, just as God is more concerned with our salvation than with the wrongs we have commited against him.  Peter tells us that Our Lord’s patience means salvation. (2 peter 3:15)  If He is patient enough to react slowly to our transgressions, shouldn’t we as imitators of God, react slowly to the transgressions of others upon us?  

This patience is a fruit of the Spirit, evidence of His work in us.  Fruit is a thing that is a result of effort, therefore patience requires effort.  Read a little farther after we learn of the fruit in Galatians 5, verses 24-26 say, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”  We must crucify our desire to retaliate hastily, we must not provoke one another.  

Patience, whether in our circumstances or with others, isn’t something we can just do, or just have.  Remember our picture of a child being asked to wait, patience doesn’t come naturally.  That is why we are tested, repeatedly.  Psalm 119:71 tells us “it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes”  Patience is learned through affliction, whether it be the affliction of circumstances or the affliction of being wronged by others.  Look at Paul.  This is a man who was blinded, had numerous attempts on his life often causing him to flee the city he was in, was stoned to the point that witnesses thought he was dead, and he was imprisoned.  That is a lot of difficult testing and a lot to be patient through.  His circumstances were difficult and he was definitely wronged by others repeatedly.  However,  Paul tells us that he has leaned the secret to contentment in all circumstance in Phil. 4:11-13.  His secret? The strength of Christ.  Let’s look at Christ.  Isaiah 53:4 tells us that, “surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (our wrongs) yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted”  He was pierced, he was crushed, he was punished, he was wronged.    But fortunately, Jesus has a limitless ability to abide under as we saw in 1 Timothy 1:16, as well as being slow to anger (look at Psalm 103:8) As Christians we have the gift of the Spirit in us that allows us to draw upon the strength of Christ, the ability to abide under hardship and the ability to be slow to anger and to not respond hastily.  So when we again look at the opening verse, that by our patience we possess our soul, it is through Jesus that we are able to possess our soul, or receive the gift of an eternity with God.  What good does it do to gain the whole world through our impatient acts, and yet forfeit our soul?  (Mark 8:36)

Verses to consider in the following weeks:

Proverbs 14:29                                  Proverbs 16:32

Proverbs 25:15                                  Proverbs 15:18

Proverbs 19:11                                  Ecclesiastes 7:8

1 Thessalonians 5:14                        Psalm 37: 7-9

Romans 12:12                                   1 Thessalonians 5:14

James 5:8                                          1 Timothy 6:11-14

Hebrews 12:1                                     Luke 8:4-15 (especially verse 15)