Patience

“Patience is a virtue. Possess it if you can…” Who can finish that for me?

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…

The word here has two meanings. Firstly, being able to keep going without giving up; the ability to wait, to endure hard times knowing there are better times ahead. The ability to persevere.

James 5:7-11

7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

The context in this passage is “until the Lord’s coming”. Persevere, do not giving up, stand firm until the Lord’s coming. When Jesus returns it will all be worthwhile. Do not give up now and miss out on the salvation ahead; run the race to the finishing line.

He gives three examples of patient waiting: the farmer who plants seeds and then has to wait. There is no instant crop. He just has to wait for the autumn rains and the spring rains, but with an expectation that one day there will be a crop.

The second example is the prophets. They experienced all sorts of opposition but they persevered. James uses the word “persevere” twice. The prophets suffered but stayed faithful to God.

It is worth the wait. James says, “We consider blessed those who have persevered”. They got the prize.

He uses Job as another example. Job’s patience is proverbial. Job suffered hugely, and experienced unhelpful and critical comments from others, but kept trusting God. “You have seen what the Lord finally brought about”. In other words, we have seen how God came through for Job in the end. You see in Job’s story that God is faithful: “what the Lord finally brought about”. Finally! Yes it took a long time. Yes, Job had to endure, but God was faithful. As James says, the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Patience means believing that there is good ahead and being willing to wait for that.

The second meaning is being provoked yet being slow to react.

I guess we all know people who fire up very quickly – the person who reacts angrily before even thinking, or the person who takes offence at the slightest thing, the person who is blasting his horn within milliseconds of something upsetting him. Patience is the ability to absorb provocations without reacting.

The Greek word here is makrothumia. Makro means big or long. Thumia means heat or temper. With my superficial knowledge of Greek, I could think makrothumia therefore means “big heat, very angry, angry for a long time”. It actually means the opposite: long-tempered, the opposite of short-tempered. It means patience or long-suffering, or forbearance: patient self-control, restraint, putting up with annoyances.

One person has called patience “sanctified slow reactions”; Holy Spirit slow reactions. John Chrysostom, the bishop of Constantinople in the 4th century, described makrothumia as the spirit that could take revenge but refuses to do so. The patient person does not retaliate – does not hit back. It is sometimes said that hurt people, hurt people. But the Holy Spirit enables us to receive hurt without hurting back.

I do not want to start an argument but I saw Benjamin Netanyahu quoted during the week saying, “I have set a clear principle: whoever strikes us, we will strike him” or “Whoever hurts us, we will hurt him”. Someone might say Israel has no choice. Maybe that is true. That is not my point. My point is that Jesus said the opposite: “If someone strikes your left cheek, let him strike the other cheek as well.” Or, as Paul said, “Do not take revenge; leave that up to God.” Not striking back is patience.

Jesus was nailed to a cross. He didn’t even resist and then, amazingly, He prayed for the forgiveness of those who had done it. Extraordinary! With one word, He could have wiped them out; He didn’t. Jesus was accused of all sorts of things but stood silently before His accusers? Extraordinary!

1 Peter 2:23

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Patience is a virtue. But, actually, in Greek thought, patience was not a virtue. The Greeks admired the person who refused to tolerate any insult or injury. The hero for the Greeks was the man who got even. Jesus taught the opposite. The hero for the Christian was the person who refused to get even.

Please do not hear me saying that you must submit to abuse. Sometimes you need to get out of there. But God is saying don’t abuse back. There are proper, Christ-like, Holy Spirit ways of dealing with people and injustices.

Neither does patience mean that a Christian should never get angry. It means being slow to anger. It waits; it considers; it remains calm. There might be a need to respond but it will be a considered response, not an emotional reaction. It is the difference between reacting and responding.

Jesus got angry; Jesus challenged people. Sometimes that is the right and godly response. But Jesus never lashed out to hurt. Even His anger came out of His love for His Father and His love for people.

What about Matthew 17:17: “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?”? That sounds pretty impatient: How long am I going to have to do this? Jesus was frustrated. How long was it going to take for the disciples to learn? But look at it carefully. Jesus did not say, “That’s it. No more. I give up!” Yes, it was disappointing and frustrating but Jesus was actually committing Himself to stay with them. That is patience.

Some people have the impression that God is angry and flies off the handle. The opposite is true. God is constantly seen as being patient. Despite severe provocation from us, God waits and waits and waits. In the end there will be judgement, but God waits because He gives people opportunity after opportunity to repent. God does not want to judge people. God wants everyone to be saved, and so He waits. Even when we sin against God and reject Him and hurt Him, He waits, hoping we will repent.

In 2 Peter 3:9, Peter responded to people saying Jesus was not really going to return. Time was passing. People who had expected an immanent return were disenchanted. People were getting impatient.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

God is not slow; He is patient. He will wait. 2,000 years have passed since then and God is still waiting. That is patience! Why is God waiting? God must be massively upset by all of the rebelliousness and sin He has witnessed over those millennia. Why hasn’t He just brought it all to an end and dealt with evil? Because He doesn’t want people to perish. He wants everyone come to repentance and be saved.

One day Jesus will return. One day God will judge evil and establish His Kingdom where there will be no evil. But, in the meantime, God waits. God is patient. Do you have the God-like patience?

The Galatians 5 passage about the fruit of the Spirit says, “Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature”. Walk by the Spirit. Firstly, listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We know what the Holy Spirit wants. We see it in Jesus. We read about it here. We hear the Holy Spirit by reading the Bible and listening for His still small voice – maybe His speaking through our conscience.

Walking by the Spirit then means seeking His help to do the right thing. Praying for His strength; praying for His help. It also means doing what we can. Over the years people have worked out practical advice like counting to ten before speaking or not sending that email. Just leave it in your drafts for a day or two. Cool down and listen to God before sending it.

But does it feel as if you are not making much progress? Be patient. Many years ago, I picked up a hitchhiker. He gave me a cassette tape with barbershop-type Christian songs on it, including this one.

He's still working on me
To make me what I ought to be
It took him just a week to make the moon and stars
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars
How loving and patient He must be
'Cause He's still workin' on me

There really ought to be a sign upon my heart
Don't judge him yet, there's an unfinished part
But I'll be better just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands

Chorus again

In the mirror of His word, reflections that I see
Makes me wonder why He never gave up on me
But He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the potter, I'm the clay.

It might be miraculously instantaneous. God can do that, but generally it is a slow process of transformation: becoming more and more like Jesus. God promises to transform us into the image of His Son. Isn’t that amazing? When we walk by the Spirit – walk hand-in-hand with God - the fruit of the Spirit is Christ-likeness: love, joy, peace, patience…”

Do you remember what Galatians says about the acts of sinful human nature: immorality, godlessness, selfishness, division, the very things we see all around us? The fruit of the Spirit is so utterly different that it becomes a sign. When people say, “This is not natural” they recognise the presence of the supernatural. It interests me that Jesus said, on various occasions, this is how the world will know. What were those signs? Love for one another (“by this all people will know that you are my disciples” (Jn 13:35)); unity amongst Christians (“may they all be one that the world might believe that You sent me” (Jn 17:21)), bearing much fruit (“showing yourselves to be my disciples”, (Jn 15:8)).

Compared with what we see in the world, the fruit of the Spirit is proof of the presence and power of God. We are not talking about good people; we are talking about Holy Spirit-transformed people. We are not talking about self-improvement; we are talking about God improvements – changes that make us better people because, by the power of God, we become more like Jesus.

If we listen to the Holy Spirit and determine to obey the Holy Spirit, humbly seeking His strength because we are weak, the result, God promises, will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – a supernatural life that speaks to the world about Jesus.

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