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@ LibertyGal
2024-07-10 15:16:48Once again here are the fruits of the Spirit as defined in Galatians 5.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23) {emphasis mine}
Patient Like Jesus
First of all, when we think about patience, we should remember that God (Jesus) is patient with us.
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) {emphasis mine}
If we are becoming more and more like Jesus, we also should be patient with others just like Jesus is. Instead of being mad at people who do not yet believe and are therefore hateful towards us, we should be patient and loving “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
This is not easy to do when someone is cursing us, accusing us of being hateful, or calling us unscientific fools, but this is what Jesus experienced when He lived a human life. He was accused of being misled and misleading. He was accused of being mad and being a fool. He was threatened, beaten, and killed. Should we expect any less? Should we take greater offense than the creator, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings?
Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. (John 15:20)
We should deal with these offenses with the patience given to us by the Holy Spirit, so we can be like Jesus, so we can say like Paul,
Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)
Patience in Persecution
He warned us that persecution and hard times would be coming.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)(ESV) {emphasis mine}
For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. (Colossians 1:9-12) {emphasis mine}
If you notice, the fruits of the Spirit are frequently linked together because we will have all of them and one will help grow another. When we love a person or have joy in life, we will be better at being patient with others. I also noticed while I was studying that steadfastness (endurance) was frequently associated with patience.
When we are put in a difficult situation our patience, knowing that “… God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose,” (Romans 8:28) leads to steadfastness and endurance. Knowing God is in control allows us to patiently wait when evil seems to be winning and those doing evil seem to get away with their crimes. This patience allows us to continue doing good without expecting an immediate reward. It helps us to keep doing right against all odds.
Waiting while our Heart Cries “How Long?”
As it is written:
Wait for the Lord ; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)
Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:31)
There are cries, “How long?” throughout the Old and New Testaments. We are limited by time. We get impatient. We are unable to understand God’s timing. He is all powerful and outside of time and space. God plays the long game. When we understand this, we can have patience and not think, ask, or say, “How long? Why? That’s not fair!” We can trust that God will do what is right and that although we don’t see the whole picture, He does.
In Revelation, we see the last cry of “How Long?” from those who were persecuted and martyred during the Tribulation.
and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10)
And what was God’s response?
… they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also. (Revelation 6:11b) {emphasis mine}
God’s righteous plan must be fulfilled in every detail. We are to trust and obey Him and then be patient and “rest for a little while longer.”
Patient With …
When we have the fruit of the Spirit, patience, we gain patience with multiple people, things, and situations.
We are patient with people. “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14)
We are patient with God. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
We are patient when things we care about are slow coming about. “Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength... “ (Isaiah 40:31a)
We are patient when persecuted. “and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure.” (1 Corinthians 4:12)
When we have peace, we are more able to be patient. When we have patience we are more able to endure. One fruit leads to another which leads to another allowing us to faithfully serve God. We are given these fruits to mark us as belonging to Him and to enable us for the works for which we were created to do.
Patience vs Eagerly Waiting
There are also multiple places in the Bible that talk about us eagerly waiting. Can we be both patient and eagerly waiting? Are they opposites and in contradiction or are they two sides of the same coin?
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; (Philippians 3:20)
For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19)
so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. (Hebrews 9:28)
For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. (Galatians 5:5)
Obviously God would not tell us to “Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord .” (Psalm 27.14) and give us the gift of patience while telling us to “eagerly wait” if they were mutually exclusive.
There are multiple principles spoken of in the Bible that seem to be contradictions, but are not. We can be eagerly awaiting Jesus’s return while patiently (accepting without complaint) living faithfully despite what is going on around us. The fruit of the Spirit form of patience is a peaceful waiting because we know that our God is in control and everything will happen according to His will, in His timing, and for our good.
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)
Trust Jesus.
Read the whole series on the Fruits of the Spirit