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Sermon delivered at
Grace Presbyterian Church |
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Chapter 5 1 Corinthians 13:4a "Love is patient ... " We have had some good lessons in patience lately. In our lifetimes, we have never had to wait so long, and endure so many lawyers, to find out who will be the next President as we did in the election of 2000. Waiting doesn't come easily for us in our fallen human nature. We become impatient so quickly and may be tempted to make that insincere prayer, "Lord teach me patience. And could you please be quick about it?" I once found an old letter in an abandoned house in an overgrown grove not far from here. It was written by the Taylor family, one of the early pioneer families in Pinellas County, Florida. The letter spoke of a trip to Tampa from Clearwater. It was a full day's trip by horse cart around the north side of Tampa Bay. Those early pioneers would be amazed to see people commuting daily by car over our present choice of three high speed causeways between the two sides of the Bay. Yet, you can't make that trip today without seeing drivers impatiently going over the speed limit, weaving in and out of traffic, and getting angry when they can't get around a slower car. We live in a very fast world. We have come to expect our hamburgers to be served fast, and restaurant servers to be quick in taking care of us. We want our news to be up-to-date: to see it live on TV, or up-to-the-minute on the internet. When I get the newspaper in the morning, its lastnight's news and is no longer relevant. Magazines are a week or a month old when we get them. Often the stories have changed dramatically. We want traffic to move fast. If it doesn't people get restless and sometimes irritated. We expect check-out lines to move fast and never to get bogged down with slow customers, lazy checkers, price errors, or lagging cash-registers. So people complain when they have to wait around for vacation trips or special events. They don't like to wait for people to see things their way, or to get over a dispute. They want immediate feedback when they try something new.
Learning patience is hard. But its an important lesson!
The Greek word in the original text is makrothumei. Its made up of two root words:
Together these roots combine to mean the ability to keep our passions under control for a long time. So literally this verse means, "Love puts up with things for a long time" (KJV uses "longsuffering") Though we might be faced with indifference, annoyances, selfishness or even opposition, love doesn't give up. It doesn't try to hurt back. It endures the annoyances and selfishness of others. Longsuffering is the 4th element in the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)
Its the 5th item in Colossians 3 of those things we should put on as the elect of God
Patience teaches us about God because he is perfectly longsuffering.
During this present period between Adam's fall and the final day of judgment, God dramatically, but slowly, unfolds his plan of grace and wrath. He does it at the pace that best displays it for us finite creatures to observe it. Those who don't know the Lord misread the situation. They see God's patience as inaction, or even worse, as approval of their sin. If they aren't judged right then and there when they do wrong, they expect they have gotten away with something. God tells us that he often lets sin go unrestrained for very good reasons. He may not always show us what those reasons are in each case. But we know that in his longsuffering with sinners, he brings about his perfect plan.
God's patience should not be construed as inaction or approval. To the believer, God's long endurance is a great blessing. When he doesn't judge us right away, he lets us see what we would be without his work in our hearts, and his longsuffering brings us humbly before him in repentance and grateful faith.
Peter described the slow execution of God's wrath in the time of the great flood:
The same word used here for the patience of God, is the one found in our text for this study:
God gave time for the wicked to show how much they deserved his wrath, and for those marked by grace to repent and show his work upon their hearts. There is also a time, after God's patience, when his wrath is justly displayed. Jesus put up with much. But there were times when he exercised his authority as Judge. He drove the money-changers out of God's temple which they were desecrating. He will come one day to judge the living and the dead. But our Lord acted not as an impatient man, but in his proper authority as a Priest, having been set aside by the Sprit's baptism to be Lord of God's Temple, and as the Divine Judge over all that he created. He was patient until the best time to show his wrath. He didn't lose his temper when provoked so many times in conversations, and during his trial. Its sad how some have been confused by the forged book called the Gospel of Thomas. There, Jesus as a little boy is shown impatiently striking playmates dead for disturbing his play, or those who accidentally bumped into him in public places. The Jesus of these myths is not the Jesus of the Bible. That was a false Christ injected into our literature by Satan's hatred for the truth. God acts only at the right time, when his plan reaches the point where it is best to judge. And he waits until the better time has come, even putting up with sin and evil for the greater glory. God's perfect longsuffering is our ultimate model.
We have good human examples in Scripture to help us as well:
James 5:10 also points us to the heroes of Scripture ....
Paul tried to be a good example himself:
When we learn Patience, it fits us for a more peaceful life in God's world.
As with our Lord, this doesn't mean we never take decisive action against wrongs. Its not a lack of patience with a murderer that we finally execute him. Its not a lack of patience when we lovingly discipline our children. God commanded those things. But only within given authority to do so. These things are only to be done in love and in obedience to God's prescribed methods. They must not be an unauthorized reaction, or done without careful deliberation. Patience does not mean putting off exerting rightful responsibility. But to act in unjustified passion is wrong. Its not our responsibility to show wrath when someone is slow on the highway, or rudely serves us our fries or burger, Impatience in those cases obscures the attributes of Christ which ought to be growing in us and diminishes the display of God's kingship over our lives. So we should learn to be examples of patience toward our children, friends, spouses and neighbors. Patience means being willing not to get all the things we want and when we want them. We learned in our study of Living Optimistically, how we need to see the larger picture. God is at work. As children we need to submit to the undisclosed plans of God as they unfold.
This not only makes us optimistic, it helps us endure trials patiently. God is pleased with our patience, and blesses us for it.
So patience teaches us about God and trains us to live as lights in God's world. But Patience only comes to fallen hearts by the strengthening of power of God.
God's word encourages us to be patient, optimistic and persistent as we live for him.
Patience brings wonderful honor to God and blessings for all of his kingdom. When we learn to be patient ...
This then is how we improve our patience:
So often impatience flares up when something keeps us from what we planned, we don't get something fast enough, or something isn't done the way we like it. But if we ask "What is my duty in this circumstance right now?" then we disable the impatient agonizing over what circumstances we would rather be in. Again this reminds us of Paul's mature attitude while held in a Roman prison where he wrote ...
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