As the father of two young boys I find myself saying, “Be patient” quite often. Whether it is a desperate need to get shoes tied to go outside, to have a channel changed because the current program is not a “favorite” or to get the next snack on the table before someone passes out from hunger, every request needs to be fulfilled quickly. Over the last month our church has been studying God’s character so that we can more fully embrace our identity, who we have the opportunity to be in our community. As I have searched through Scripture to be sure of God’s character I have found that I Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter, describes God quite thoroughly. Of course, I John 4:8 tells us that “God is love”, so to see His character through the full description of love is understandable.
The great description of love opens with two traits that are often separated but the more I study they seem to require each other to be sustained, “Love suffers long (is patient) and is kind.” Many translations separate them by saying, “Love is patient. Love is kind.” But that does not seem to be the way that it was written. It seems to say that “Love is patient and kind.” As if these two things are not separate but that they rely on each other, they depend upon each other, I am even beginning to believe that one is not possible without the other.
As I have been searching Scripture I have been finding the enormity of God’s longsuffering. You have probably had someone tell you if you have not told others yourself, “don’t pray for patience.” The statement is usually meant jokingly, as if to say that if you ask for patience God is going to put you in positions in which you will need to wait and have your patience tested, and who wants that right? Have you ever wondered why the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write that love was patient before he said anything else about it? Why not, “Love is nice” or “Love is good” or “Love makes you happy”? Because all of those things are what we want love to feel like, God wants you to understand what love requires. God wants us to realize what His love toward us is, that it is not an emotion, although He is emotional; that it is not optional, although it is completely by His choice; that it is not fleeting, although we don’t always see or understand it. Solomon wrote, “love is as strong as death.” God wants us to know that love does not get fallen into or out of, it is a constant, it is eternal and it is stronger than your weakness.
So why start with patience? Because without God’s patience we would have all been doomed to being unloved. Peter wrote, “the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—“; and that God is “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” In God’s character, patience is not merely the ability to wait without complaining, it is choosing to wait, to delay even to put off what is deserved and earned at His expense so that the ones He loves might come to a place of repentance and salvation so that they might receive what HE desires for them instead. John Reisinger wrote, “Longsuffering is the ability to endure everything that is necessary to reach a desired goal.” God is willing to endure our sinfulness, our foolishness, our brokenness, our selfishness and all that comes with those things so that His desired goal for our lives might be fulfilled, the salvation of our souls and the reception of His great love. Love starts with patience because love is the ultimate setting aside of personal desires and gain for the sake of another. Ultimately Peter says that I am saved because God is patient in my life, thank God that His love is patient and now I am praying that I will have the fruit of the Spirit in the form of patience begin to come to fruition in my life, for God’s will to be done in the lives of those around me.
There is another point to be made by Paul in I Corinthians, love is not simply patient, but it is patient and kind. It seems to me that if they are being tied together then kindness is a key to patience and patience to kindness. Peter says that Jesus’ longsuffering is our salvation and then Paul writes in Romans that it is God’s kindness that leads to repentance. Here they are, tied to one another even in the process of our salvation. Ephesians tells us that God showed His kindness to us through Jesus, meaning that Jesus’ life is an image of kindness even as it was the “image of the invisible God.” Kindness is what Jesus did and everything that Jesus did was kind. Kindness is His leaving heaven’s glory to become a man. Kindness is choosing to endure difficulty, hardship, boundaries and limitations for the sake of those that He would be saving. Kindness is hearing insults, accusations and lies and choosing not to prove Himself but rather waiting, trusting that His Father would be His defense and His vindication. Kindness is bearing the sins of the world because there was no other way for the world to be forgiven. Kindness is overcoming death and the grave, two things that He was greater than and would never affect Him other than keeping the children He created in eternal bondage. Kindness is ascending back to glory and sending “Another Helper” to fill, lead, guide and love His children until He returned to them. Kindness is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God and interceding, praying, pleading, advocating for all of those that still don’t see, don’t understand or even simply don’t want the love and kindness that He has poured out. That is the kindness of God, that is the kindness of love, it truly goes beyond discomfort, beyond expectation, beyond necessity and what is fair and chooses to love, chooses longsuffering, it chooses the possibility of salvation over the frustration of being overlooked. Love is kind simply because Jesus is kind.
There is a wonderful verse that I have only recently taken notice of that encapsulates both God’s and kindness and patience for me. II Samuel 14:14 “For we will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one will not be cast out from Him.” We have all missed the mark, all sinned, all wandered, however you want to put it, we have all been wasted; poured out like water on the ground. The image is one of hopelessness, is there a way to put the water back once it hits the dirt? Sure, you can make the best of it, hope for more or even move on, the image is not about the situation, it is about the water. But before we dwell too much on that image, the write changes the course, even though our lives may seem wasted, even though we may seem, rightly so, as if we are completely lost, “God does not take away life.” He does not give us what we deserve, does not give us what we have earned, does not even give us what others say we need; God makes a plan, He chooses a way that will bring us back, that will keep us from not merely the outcome of our current state, but He creates ways that will free us from the current state. Nothing we will ever do will fix our past or change our situation, stop thinking in those terms, but God, in His infinite kindness, His unbridled patience and everlasting love will make a way to save us. It is by grace that we are saved and that grace is the outcome of God’s great kindness, His great patience that both lead the way to show us His eternal love.
Rejoice today in the kindness of God, rejoice today in God’s patience, rejoice in the truth that together those two things have worked salvation in your life. When the Bible says “let the redeemed of the LORD say so”, I believe that it is a calling to realize what God has done. It is not a time to gather in pride of being chosen but rather a time to melt in being loved, in being the recipients of kindness and the beneficiaries of longsuffering. In turn, I am going to go against the old saying and challenge you, pray for patience, ask God to put in you what He has poured out over you. Our families, our churches, our schools, our coworkers, our communities and our leaders need the longsuffering that is salvation and the kindness that leads to repentance. We have been given a full measure of God’s love now may we become full fountains that pour it out. Patience is not merely a virtue, it is the heart of God, I pray today that it would also become the heart of His people.