Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15

Sermon scripture is 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Again, we’ll read verses 12-15. 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15. Please stand for the reading of our King’s command word.

“And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men.”

May be seated. This time the younger children may be dismissed to go to their Sabbath schools. The parents desire that.

Okay. We continue going through the book of 1 Thessalonians. And today our topic is to be patient with all men. The fourth command of the 14th verse of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

We talked last week about the context. This verse is kind of a segue verse as well, and we’ll talk about that in just a couple of minutes. Somewhat of a transition in these series of short commands. Patience, which is our topic, really and specifically be patient with all men, as the verse says, is an extremely important part of the Christian life.

Luke 8:15, which is part of the parable of the sower and the seed, is known to most of us, but it’s very important that we remember that it’s the good seed that has the honest and good heart, having heard the word. The good seed then keeps it and brings forth fruit with patience.

Patience is a requirement of the bearing of fruit for the kingdom of God. Patience itself is one of the fruits of the spirit as Galatians 5:22 tells us. But beyond that, it also provides a sense of seasoning in the words of Calvin for all the other distinct virtues of the Christian life. So while patience can be said to be one of the virtues of the Christian life, it really applies to all the other virtues as well. It is related to these virtues and the exercise of it attends the rest of these virtues.

Thomas Adams, one of the Puritans, said this about patience being a companion to all the virtues:

“Patience to the soul is as bread to the body. We eat bread with all our meats both for health and relish. Bread with flesh, bread with fish, bread with brass and fruits. Such as patience to every virtue. We must hope with patience and pray in patience and love with patience and whatsoever good thing we do, let it be done in patience.”

And so patience is the accompaniment of really the rest of the virtues.

I’ve got an old book called the royal path of life printed in the mid to late 1800s. And I wanted to read a small quote from it as well in terms of the importance of patience in the Christian life, and again its effects in various areas of our lives. The author said the following:

“Patience is the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherisher of love, the teacher of humility. Patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, subdues pride. She bridles the tongue, restrains the hand, tramples upon temptations, endures persecutions, and consummates martyrdom.

“Patience produces unity in the church. And of course, that’s the specific context of the verse we just read in 1 Thessalonians 5. It produces unity in the church, loyalty in the state, harmony in families and societies. She comforts the poor and moderates the rich. She makes us humble in prosperity, cheerful in adversity, unmoved by calamity and reproach.

“She teaches us to forgive those who have injured us and to be the first in asking the forgiveness of those whom we have injured. She delights the faithful and invites the unbelieving.”

Patience—one of the virtues, but really, as Calvin said, the seasoning to all other virtues, and also a tremendous restraint upon the seven deadly sins if we exercise it correctly.

Ephesians 4 describes the walk that we are to walk worthy of the vocation with which we have been called. The Christian walk is one of lowliness and meekness with longsuffering or patience. Again, in Colossians 1, we’re commanded that we might walk worthy of the Lord. And again, here that walk is characterized as being strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.

So, patience is of great importance in the life of the believer.

Now, there are two words primarily used in the New Testament for patience. The particular one that we have in this verse literally means to be long of temper. The other word is to stay under something, to stand under it, or to bear up under a particular thing that we’re discussed in the text. So the two words mean to be long of temper or to stay under something.

Hogg and Vine in their commentary on these two Greek words says the first—long-suffering, long of temper—the specific word in our text, this is the quality said Hogg and Vine of self-restraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or promptly punish. It’s the opposite of anger and is associated with mercy and it is used in the scriptures of God.

The second word that’s used—patience, bearing under—that particular type of patience, Hogg and Vine said that this quality is the one that does not surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial. It is the opposite of despondence, is associated with hope. It is not used of God in the scriptures.

Trench in his discussing these two specific words says that the difference is essentially that one—the first is the one being long of temper—is in respect to persons, the one that we’re dealing with today primarily, while the second word is in respect to things. One bears up under people, the other bears up under things.

Ward in his commentary on our text says that the two types of patience can be seen as some referring to pain and others having a time reference primarily.

Okay. Now, while these distinctions of the two words are legitimate and valid, it is also true that, for instance, in the book of James, these two words are used somewhat, although not totally, but somewhat interchangeably.

So, there’s a connection in Christian patience to all of the things that have been listed. And so our for our purposes today, what I’m going to do is give an overview really of this requirement of the Christian life in terms of patience. And I’m going to start—and this will sort of cycle its way through the outline—with four particular reference points for patience: things, pain, men, and time. And I suppose that if I had it to do over, I would probably switch the order a little bit and start with men or start with things, move to men, then go to pain and time because I would be increasing in intensity of the types of patience and the requirement of it in various things and the difficulty of exercising patience.

The most difficult type of patience of course is under great pain or affliction or persecution. Specifically those martyrs of course who exercised patience and martyrdom. But in any event I would have changed order but for now we’ll leave it in this order and we’ll go through these four elements. And I’ll try to essentially—and each of the four subpoints of the next four points will relate back to these four specific reference points of biblical patience.

So real quickly: sometimes in the year patience is used in the scriptures. It is reference to things, to circumstances that may be inconvenient. And there are negative examples of course in the Old Testament of this. And the one that I like to use a lot, and I used in my talks on anger, is Balaam and his donkey.

Remember the donkey? Balaam wants to go to a particular place where God doesn’t want him to go to, and the donkey moves one way. He hits the donkey. The donkey moves another way. He hits him again. The donkey falls down. He beats on him. And then Balaam sees what the donkey had seen all along: the angel of the Lord ready to kill Balaam.

So God had given Balaam a providential donkey, a circumstance that didn’t allow him to go someplace where he wanted to go. And instead of being patient and waiting on the Lord, Balaam beat the donkey. But Balaam’s donkey was really a thing or a circumstance that he should have exercised patience with.

Naaman when he was cleansed didn’t like the particular procedure that he had to go through. And that particular circumstance was one that he chafed under as well. And there are circumstances in our lives that we need patience in.

I had one just yesterday. We had—I’ve mentioned these bumps in my driveway needing attention. We finally had a guy come out with a grater. And while he did the grading, we had to park our van up by our mailbox down by that driveway. You know, some of you have been out for the parties, Fourth of July celebrations we’ve had or other church picnics. You remember that driveway that goes down to that field? Well, my wife parked the car at the top of the driveway wisely not going down that field.

When I got in it the next day to bring the car back after the grading had been done, I tried to back up. The wheels started to spin a little bit. Well, now I should have been patient in that circumstance, but instead I got impatient and I thought, well, okay, I’ll just drive down to the bottom and get a running start at it. Yeah, most of you know what happened. I got stuck down there.

And so, because of my lack of patience in the small thing of maneuvering the car gently so it could have gotten past the little bump, I ended up way at the bottom of this thing. And then we had to work for 2 hours. Fortunately, in God’s providence again, Null staying with us with his—he’s got a four-wheel drive vehicle and was able to pull us out. But it took work and it took a lot of effort. It took patience.

Circumstances come into our lives and biblical, one of the biblical points of patience is to be patient when God brings circumstances into our lives that are not to our convenience or not to our liking. They’re administrations of grace from him.

So that’s one element. Another biblical reference point, as we said, is pain. These are just really summing up what I just said about the words and their Greek origins and some of the references in the scriptures.

Another source of patience or requirement of patience is when we’re suffering pain, bearing up into persecution or trials of various sorts, is another biblical reference point.

A third reference point, as we said, and a specific one of our texts today, is men. And specifically I’m thinking here not so much of men that would persecute us—that’s covered under pain—but just patience with each other in terms of being long-suffering and not losing our temper one with another.

Maffet in his translation of this particular verse, instead of saying be patient toward all men, he translates it in a little more picturesque way: “Never lose your temper with anyone.” And that certainly is what’s being talked about here. Be long of temper with all people. And so we have to be—we are to be temperate and patient when we’re dealing with individuals.

Now, I mentioned that there is this verse is somewhat of a segue or a transition statement. This particular phrase we’ve just described three particular types of people by Paul in which we’re supposed to be working with people and getting them to be become more biblical in their walk. He’s told us to warn the unruly, to comfort the feeble-minded, to encourage the little hearts, and to support the weak. Okay? And so now he says, “Be patient toward all men.”

And some commentators say, “Well, this is talking about be patient toward all is what the text actually says.” So this means be patient with these three types of people as you work with them.

Other people say this goes on to talk as a reference point to verse 15, the following one, where we read that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men.

And if Paul is writing in triplets here, he’s got three verses or three section commands telling us in terms of within the church what to do. And then he’s got three specific phrases: be patient with all men, don’t render evil for evil, and seek the good toward everybody. Then he’s got three series of commands then with dealing with people outside of the church.

Well, I think that really, whichever way we can interpret this specifically in this text, it obviously is referenced backwards and forwards in terms of its position in the text. It’s not unlike Paul to use it as a segment or a segue or a transition into discussing our requirements to all men.

But certainly, it’s true definitely of the three cases that he has just described to us. And this is really important to us to remember that as we do work with the unruly, the feeble-minded, and the weak, patience is part of that process. Patience is an essential attribute if we are going to fulfill the requirements that every Christian has to work with those within our sphere of influence to help them mature in the faith.

And this tells us that people are not going to mature quickly. We live in a day, an age of instant this and instant that. But God says you must be patient as you work with people. You must be patient because old habits die slowly. And faintness at heart is a hard thing to build up in a short period of time. And consolation in terms of the little hearts—encouragement that way—can’t be done with a 5-minute chat or a 5-minute visit.

Remember we talked in terms of those that mourn, they used 7 days that Jew was the Jewish custom. It takes time and you’ve got to be patient with people that are either unruly, feeble-minded, or weak. And so it’s an essential attribute of biblical counseling in that sense.

We also must be patient as we work with ourselves if it has reference to all men including those we work with and actually those outside of the church as well. It is also true that included in all men is ourselves and we must be patient with ourselves as well.

This book I mentioned earlier from the 1800s has a nice quote. It says that he who is impatient to become his own master is most likely to become merely his own slave. We can be impatient with our own personal growth. We may try to take things into our own hands and we get impatient with ourself and angry, but that really just is a way of giving ourselves over to the very impatience what we’re trying to cure.

And we can become our own slave by being impatient with the growth that God has brought into our lives. And so patience is very important in terms of men. And that’s one of these specific reference points in the scriptures.

You know, if you’re working with people, you’ve got to take time with them. You’ve got to expect two steps forward and one step back. That’s the way growth normally occurs. God can do it other ways, but patience is an essential element of working with people.

The fourth reference point, as we’ve said, and really it refers to all the top three, and then this is kind of wraps them up, the reference point to time. Specifically, when you’re working with people that are either unruly or little of heart or weak, they’re not really causing you pain so much normally, but rather they are costing you great amounts of time. Great amounts of time.

And so Paul says, exercise that time with them. Take the time it takes to work with people slowly to bring them along to either build them up and make them not weak in terms of their understanding of the scriptures, to give them encouragement for disastrous times that may come upon them, or to help them to get back into line in sense of the people that are unruly and breaking ranks to encourage them to form ranks again with the rest of the church.

So these kind of folks may not cause us pain but they do take an enormous amount of time. Paul warns us about that in this very verse that commands us to exercise these functions toward other members of the body.

Another time passage in Acts 26:3, the specific word is used when Paul asks somebody who he’s talking to a king, he asks him to bear with him patiently, to hear him patiently. And so patience in terms of time is an essential aspect also of biblical patience.

We—as I said patience is not something that our generation is necessarily noted for. We live in a day and age in which everything is becoming quicker and quicker and quicker and quicker and in such a day and age it is a difficult thing to exercise patience in the biblical sense.

I the phrase that always comes to my mind many years ago I saw this comedian I think his name is Steve Wright. He’s kind of a deadpan comic. You might have seen him and he—it isn’t funny if you just say the line but if you see him deliver it was pretty funny. He said that he made instant coffee in his microwave the other day and he almost went back in time.

Well, that is the sort of day and age in which we live. Instant coffee, microwaves to do things quickly and we want things to happen right now or we get impatient with them. Our age is not one of maturity but rather immaturity in terms of patience relative to time in terms of dealing with people.

We’re used to watching television shows or movies where personal conflicts are resolved within 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or maybe an hour and a half or two hours. To spend years working with somebody is not something that we’re used to doing. We don’t tend to exercise that kind of patience. In many ways, we live in a very immature age and in a very childish age. Impatience is the mark of childhood and of a lack of self-control.

And that’s the day and age in which we live.

Contrary to this, the scriptures tell us to be patient in terms of waiting for God’s timing on particular matters. Patience, as one preacher said, is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears. When we deal with particular individuals, we may feel like stripping our gears, but it’s time to idle the motor.

Okay, so those are the four reference points.

And now there’s some biblical examples in terms of patience.

First, in terms of things, Solomon of course with his wisdom is an excellent source of the necessity and the value of patience. For instance, in the book of Proverbs 16:32, we read that he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit better than he that taketh the city. Solomon understood the necessity of being patient in time as God brings circumstances into our lives that may be difficult for us to control our anger in.

Another example is Genesis 26, the story of Isaac. When Abimelech tells Isaac to leave the land, he says, “You’re too mighty and powerful for us. You go away from here now.” Isaac goes then, following in the footsteps of his father and digs a series of wells. And each of the wells, people come to him and say, “This is our land, so it’s our well. Now get out of here now that you’ve got this well dug.” And Isaac doesn’t strive with the herdsmen of Gerar who strove with him.

Isaac moves on then to another well and another well. And then finally in verse 22 of Genesis 26, “Isaac removed from there, and digged another well. And for that they strove not. And he called the name of it Rehoboth. And he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

So, the scriptures give us examples of being patient in difficult circumstances that are outside of our control. And that is one of the things that we’re called to do in terms of exercising biblical patience with men as well.

Again, to quote one of the old Puritans, he said that to lengthen my patience is the best way to shorten my troubles. And again, with my example of my foolishness and impatience yesterday at my automobile.

So we get impatient that our troubles lengthen instead of being shortened.

Again to quote from this book from the 1800s, the author said that, says this: “He says that impatience in fact by inducing restlessness and irritation not only doubles every pain and prolongs every suffering but actually often creates the trials to be endured. The hurry of spirits, the ineffectual efforts for premature relief, the agitation of undue expectation, all combined to create a real suffering in addition to what is afflicted by the cause of our impatience.”

And so Solomon’s wisdom says that when you get angry and you’re not patient, you’re in for more troubles yet. It’s like later on he says in the proverbs that a man who doesn’t rule his own spirit is like a city without walls and then you really do have problems. So God enjoins us to follow the example of Solomon and Isaac and to avoid the example of Balaam and Naaman, to be patient in the small circumstances of life that may cause us trouble.

Secondly though, in reference to pain, again and persecution and tribulation, the book of James tells us in chapter 5 to take the prophets who have spoken to you in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering, affliction and of patience in affliction. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

So the scriptures give us specifically the examples of the prophets, great men that we all teach our children about. We want our children to grow up to be like the prophets. Some of us name some of our children after them, such as we did with one of our sons. And one of the things we need to teach our children and need to remind ourselves of and each other is that those prophets were great men, but they were great men who went through great sufferings. And in those great sufferings and pain and affliction, they exercised great patience. And that’s why they were great men. And that’s why they move from weakness to strength.

Remember from Hebrews 11 that we talked about last week. You do that as you’re patient in terms of pain and affliction. Job and the prophets. The patience of Job is enjoined to us in the book of James 5 as an example to us as well.

Lost his children, lost his flocks, lost all of his wealth. He had a contentious wife who told him to curse God and die. He had miserable comforters. He had physical calamity, boils erupting on his skin. And God dealt with Job in this manner. And the response of Job was patience in affliction. He wasn’t without sin certainly in the whole incident, but he was patient. And the scriptures tell us that he was a patient man. And reminds us that the end of the matter for Job was that God was very pitiful and of tender mercy to Job.

And so God tells us when we’re in the middle of great pain or affliction to remember Job and the prophets. Remember the end of the matter is better than the beginning of the matter. And so to conform ourselves to the patience of Job and to say as he said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb and naked shall I return hither. The Lord gave. The Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” An example of patience under affliction.

Patience with men: Paul himself of course is the excellent example to us and the verse he just gives us here in 1 Thessalonians 5, and joining us to patience with men as we deal with them. He said that he himself had been dealt with patiently by God. And he said that as a result of that, he also then exercised patience toward other people.

He told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:24, “The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those who oppose themselves.”

So even those here who oppose themselves to be dealt with patiently and meekly, being submissive to God’s will.

2 Timothy 4:2, he tells Timothy again, “Preach the word, be constant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering or patience, in other words, in doctrine.

And so again, Paul is the model to us and commands us and commands ministers of the gospel as well as all Christians to be patient with each other when we’re dealing with men and trying to bring them along.

2 Timothy 3:10, “Thou has fully known my doctrine, my manner of life, my purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, and patience.”

Paul’s patience was evident to those that he dealt with. And he then had legitimate reason to command us now by way of application of the text to us today to be patient with one another.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:2 that we’re to bear with one another lovingly. And so with men, we have the biblical examples of the apostles. The Apostle Paul himself is an example of patience.

And then in terms of time, the scriptures give us examples here too of men who were patient over the long haul. Of course, Job also has this and these other men as well. But specifically in Hebrews 6:15, we’re given the story—reminded us we reminded of the story of Abraham who after he had patiently endured obtained the promise.

Abraham was 75 years old when he was called and left his home country and went to seek a better place and was given the promise by God becoming the father of many nations. It was 25 years later that Isaac was born. 25 years of patience on the part of Abraham. And because he endured, and because he patiently endured, he did indeed obtain the promise.

So in James 5:7, another example of the husbandman: “Behold, the husbandman, the farmer, waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, yet hath long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain.”

The farmers themselves, when we see farmers out with their fields, and watch crops growing is an example to us of patience in terms of time. Crops don’t grow up overnight. Rains don’t come when they want them to come. They must be patiently waited for. And so James goes on to say, “So you also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord drawth nigh.”

Patience relative to time is given to us by way of example of farmers and of Abraham as well.

Patience is related to God himself. Of course, in all these things, after all, it is the goodness of God. Romans 2:4 tells us that is the basis for his longsuffering towards us. Romans 8:28 tells us, that God’s goodness causes all things to work together for our well-being. And to be patient in the small circumstances of life, we must remember that patience is an attribute of God and it is based upon God’s goodness itself.

And so, we are told throughout the book of Romans—the verses I’ve placed for you there—that patience is a good thing by God. It is part of the way that we’re matured in the faith.

Romans 5:3 says that we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience. The incidences, the small circumstances of life that cause us to be angry at times or to lose patience. These are the things that build patience for us.

At the end of my 2-hour ordeal yesterday, the van was out of the thing. And I had earlier given up heart. You know, I thought, well, it’s going to be down here all winter. We’ll just drive it again next spring up out of there. But God causes us to be patient. And the end of that patience is he establishes us and so builds patience in our lives.

Patience is linked very emphatically and yet in an almost cyclical way to hope. I say that because in Romans 8:25, it says that if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. It is hope, the hope of knowing that God is true to his promises and is true to his word in terms of Romans 8:28, that all things are working for our well-being. It is that hope in God which is a sure hope and not just kind of wishful thinking that is the establishment of our patience.

But Romans 5:4 told us that patience has its result experience, and experience hope. And so God cycles us through tribulations and circumstances and people which are difficult to bear with for the purpose of building our patience, building our hope so that we can exercise more patience and more hope. It builds up on itself. It’s kind of a feedback circuit if you want to look put it in modern terminology.

Romans 12 says we rejoice in hope and we are patient in tribulation. If we rejoice in hope, then we’ll be patient in tribulation. God’s goodness builds patience and hope into our lives through the very circumstances that we often chafe against.

James 1:3 says, “Know that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” It’s a hard thing to remember that God loves us and that God’s goodness is always toward us, but it is. It’s hard to remember, though, because we know we’re sinners. We know full well the kind of people we are, and it’s hard to believe that God is really working for our good, but he is. And so, we must cling on to that attribute of God as goodness that yields forth his patience toward us and also then builds patience into our lives.

James 1 goes on to say, “Let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing.” How do you get to maturity in Jesus Christ? You get there through circumstances that are difficult to take and that can invoke your anger or can under the control of the Holy Spirit manifest the fruit of patience in your life.

God’s justice is also related to our need for patience and his as well. God’s justice reminds us that indeed while we go through persecution such as the prophets or Job go through, yet God’s justice will finally win the day. In the end, we are to be assured of God’s judgment upon the wicked and God’s blessings to the righteous.

Psalm 37:7 says, “Rest in the Lord. Wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prosperth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger. Forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off.”

If we don’t know the goodness of God and the sure justice of God in the scriptures, then we have no real source of patience in our lives. And frequently when we’re impatient, what we really are doing is expressing a lack of belief in God’s goodness or God’s justice.

But third, a third element of God’s patience and his calling us to be patient is his mercy. We mentioned before that God has called to the scriptures in Romans 15:5, the God of patience and consolation. And God’s patience, according to Romans 9:22 and 1 Peter 3:20 and 2 Peter 3:15, God’s patience and longsuffering is specifically said to be related to the wicked.

In Romans 9:22, he is long-suffering in terms of his relationship to the vessels of wrath who are fitted to destruction. God’s patience is linked to God’s mercy and that even toward those who would oppose him.

We all just a minute’s consideration should recognize that the scriptures are true. What they say about our being sinners and our own spirits indicates that we have broken God’s law and that the pays, or that the result of the payment for sin is death. The just reward of sin is death. We all should recognize the fact that we’re alive is strictly the mercy and patience of God and his longsuffering. And so he on the basis of that calls us to be long-suffering as well.

Paul in 1 Timothy 1:16 says, “For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.”

Paul obtained mercy from God, patience from God. But at the end of that was the establishment of Paul in the faith. And so God’s mercy is the basis for our being patient with men as we seek to see if they’re moving toward God or away from God. He’s patient to us. And we then, in because of his mercy, and we then in terms of men that we’re dealing with, whether they’re disorderly, whether they’re weak, whether they need courage or strength or consolation, we should exercise the same mercy and compassion to them that God has exercised toward us.

And so God’s mercy, a reminder of that is what we need when we’re dealing with people that God has called us to exercise patience toward in terms of their personal growth. God’s mercy—that attribute is an essential understanding that we must have and agree with in order to exercise biblical patience.

Now, I put in love as the fourth point of the outline and I’ve changed the outline since you’ve received it. I’m putting love up with actually the last point we discussed, his mercy and his love.

Remember, I talked about 1 Corinthians 13 before in terms of the need to be patient toward men as the exercise of love. 1 Corinthians 13 says, “Charity suffers long and is kind. It envieth not. It vaunteth not itself. It’s not puffed up. It doesn’t behave itself unseemly. It seeks not its own. It’s not easily provoked. And it thinketh no evil. Charity suffers long.”

I’ve talked before on this, but 1 Corinthians 13, the description of biblical love is essentially two characteristics. I think one is kindness or usefulness, and the other is suffering long or patience in terms of time. And in terms of how we deal with men, and if we are kind toward men and useful to them, we must also be patient toward them to exercise biblical love.

God said—I think without going into the details here, the verses that follow essentially can be categorized under those two headings of patience and kindness or usefulness. If you’re patient with people, you don’t take into account wrongs suffered. You don’t jump to improper conclusions about them. You’re patient and long-suffering with their growth in Jesus Christ. And if we do that, then we’re fulfilling the command of 1 Thessalonians 5:14 relative to men.

If we understand God’s mercy and love, image that in our lives, it’ll be imaged by patience.

But fourth, in terms of patience relative to time, again, I would substitute for your outline for point four, in terms of love, God’s sovereignty. To be patient over a long period of time is absolutely essential to recognize the sovereignty of God. If you don’t understand that, if you think that the history of man is moving in relationship to man’s activities and not God’s plans, then you’re going to have a hard time being patient with where you’re at.

Ecclesiastes 7:8 tells us that better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be anger, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. It goes on to say, don’t ask why were former days better than these days. You don’t ask this from wisdom. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us, Ecclesiastes says that the better is the end of a thing from the beginning of it. History moves in relationship to God’s decree, the establishment of God’s people, and the removal of God’s enemies.

And having a fixed understanding of the sovereignty of God in history, the understanding that God’s history is the manifestation of his love toward Jesus Christ and those who are elect in him, that is an essential component to being patient as Abraham was for 25 years going through lots of ups and downs.

We don’t look back and say that things were better back then because they weren’t. The Bible says that things will be better in the future. Better is the end of the thing than the beginning.

Now, if we apply that to the history of the church from the first century, we don’t always look back or at the reformation and say, “Boy, if we could just get back there.” We don’t want to get back there. We want to press forward to the end that is better than the reformation times and better than the first century of the church. And so, an understanding that time is under God’s sovereign control is essential potential in terms of being patient in reference to time.

Whether it’s with people, whether it’s with churches, whether it’s with friends, whatever it is, the reference to time is only patiently endured as we recognize God’s sovereignty.

We live in a time, of course, when not only is instantaneous results expected and instant coffee is made, we also live in a time where things have broken down and where at this from this vantage point, it’s sure hard to see how the end of what our culture is going to be is going to be better than the beginning. But God tells us it will. God says that, and I think that we’re all committed to this in this church, that we’re going to build for the future. We’re trying to exercise better forms of church government, better forms of church community, better forms of church worship. Now, it’s going to be a long time to rebuild those things. We may have to wait 25 or 50 years for some of them. But God says that patience is demanded in the context of the church. And it’s based upon, in terms of time, the sovereignty of God in history.

Patience is saying yes to God’s history.

Fourth, I want to just take a couple of minutes to distinguish biblical patience from Stoic patience. We’ll just do this real quickly. The Stoic’s concept of patience was simply resigning yourself to whatever is. Well, biblical patience is not resigning. It is rather trusting.

Calvin in his Institutes wrote that the philosophic patience, the patience of the Stoics is that we must bear because it is necessary. You can’t change nothing and so you got to just be patient with it as it goes on. Christian patience is not like this at all. We must obey because it is unlawful to resist the providence of God and his commands. We must bear patiently since impatience would be insolence, Calvin said, against God’s righteousness.

Patience, biblical patience is different from Stoic patience in terms of things. We don’t resign ourselves to things. Rather, we trust that God is using things for the establishment of his kingdom and for the working out of his decree, and that these things are part of the very means in which he’s providing maturity in us as well.

As I said, we must be patient with things differently than the Stoics. And when I’m out there struggling in the driveway, I’ve got to tell myself over and over, this is God’s good for me. This is God’s love. And as I said, it’s a hard thing to keep in mind because we know, in the words of Lex Luthor—and I think the first Superman movie—people are no darn good.

I’ve used that example. I cleaned it up a bit just now. That’s not quite what he said, but I was talking about that with I think one of you this last week. I was listening to a tape. I don’t remember who it was by now, a preacher, a good guy. And he was saying that as Calvinists, we understand that people are not basically good. They’re basically bad. They’re depraved. Man has fallen. And it’s important that we recognize that. But it’s also important that we know in our own hearts, as much as fallen as we are, as much as we know that we’re part of humanity that is in and of itself in a fallen state no darn good in terms of Lex Luthor, we know that in spite of this, God has redeemed us and he’s saved us in Jesus Christ.

When it gets down to tough times, times of persecution, trials, tribulations, the thing we must cleave to is God’s love for us. We must accept from God’s word that he loves us in spite of our sins. That’s not an easy thing to do. It’s not an easy thing to do in our heart of hearts, but it’s something that you must do and you should recognize when you come here on Sunday.

One of the purposes of worship is to assure you that you are forgiven in the person and work of Jesus Christ. When we say the confession of sin at the top of the service, it may offend some people who are not used to confessing their sins. But the purpose of that is to drive us to a humility of mind that then accepts and acknowledges God’s absolution which is spoken in various ways. We use various scripture texts or words to say that the understanding of absolution, the understanding that God has absolved us of all sins through the work of Jesus Christ is absolutely essential to know that, to be patient with yourself and to be patient with circumstances that are difficult to take, and to have Christian patience which is hopeful patience as opposed to Stoic patience which is simple resignation.

Christian patience is different than Stoic patience in that it is working patience not slothful patience. The Stoic just simply removes himself, abstracts himself from the culture, from the event, whatever it is, from the people, and he just sits. Christian patience is an act of pressing forward.

Hebrews 6:12 says that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Christian patience must never be equated with slothfulness. The scriptures go on to tell us in Romans 2:7 that it is to those who by patient continuance in welldoing, who these who seek for glory and honor, and immortality, eternal life. These are the ones who get blessing from God. Those who are patient in continuing welldoing.

Galatians 6:9, let us not be weary in welldoing.

Hebrews 10:36, for we have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

Patience is linked to action and doing the will of God.

Hebrews 12:1 says to run with patience, the grace that is set before us. Patience isn’t giving up. Patience is continuing to do what God has called you to do.

Revelation 14:12 said that this is the patience of the saints. They are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ who keep the commandments. That’s part of the perseverance of the patience of the saints. It is an understanding of God’s laws, the standard for how we live our lives. That is biblical, is the root of biblical patience.

Timothy—we read earlier—he was supposed to be patient with men but continue to rebuke them and exhort them and we continue and to be steadfast in doctrine. Patience doesn’t remove teaching. It empowers teaching in the long haul.

This is the same Paul who is telling us to be patient with men, for instance, who wrote to Titus that fractious men are to be rejected after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.

God’s patience, the patience we’re called to exercise is not slothful, but rather at work, works in terms of industry. It is true that good businesses are built with great patience. At the time this book was written, there was a man named Granville Sharp who was a very accomplished businessman and he said this: “Courage and industry must have sunk in despair, and the world must have remained unimproved and unornamented if men had merely compared the effect of a single stroke of the pickaxe with the pyramids to be raised or of a single impression of the spade with the mountains to be leveled.”

If we look at the short term or if we look at the task God has given us to do with the eyes that are short-term thinking, we won’t have the patience to continue to work. We’ll go into Stoic patience which is slothfulness. Biblical patience is working patience and recognizes that work must take a long time in many ways, but the work must be accomplished.

Third, biblical patience is humble and not prideful. The Stoic who removes himself becomes really proud in his own mind. But Colossians 3:12 definitely tells us to put on patience. But it goes on before that to say to put on humbleness of mind. Impatience really is an exultation of our own mind, wants, and desires against the mind of God. Christian patience involves a humility before God.

And then finally, Christian patience is not passionless. It is passionate. The passions are governed by God through the Holy Spirit. But nonetheless, there are passions involved. There is real pain and suffering. And God doesn’t tell us that patience can’t have an implication of real pain and suffering.

We saw several weeks ago that our Savior himself wept in terms of the death of Lazarus. But biblical patience also goes on to show from that, rather to know from that, that the bitterness of the experiences that God may bring into our lives are sweet at the end. And so this dynamic of time moving from persecution and affliction to establishment and strength is part of biblical patience.

So biblical patience is not passionless. It’s passionate. Its grief is restrained, but it’s restrained also through the knowledge that God will establish. And so joy accompanies Christian patience.

Ultimately, of course, it is the example of our Savior that is the premium example of patience. In spite of all the other ones we’ve used, all of them really are amplified in the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.

Again, and to quote from one of the older Puritans, Richard Sibbes, he wrote this: “Who cares for Caesar when he is dead? But what more efficacious than Christ when he died? He was most practical when he seemed to do nothing. In patience, he reigned and triumphed. He subjected the greatest enemies to himself: Satan and death and the wrath of God and all. In the same manner, all things are ours. The worst things that befall God’s children—death and afflictions and persecutions. There’s a kingdom of patience set up in them. The spirit of God subdues all their fears in us, and a child of God never more triumphs than in his greatest troubles.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ was patient. He patiently endured the crucifixion by man, and he obtained the great promise of which Abraham’s promise was a mere type. But obtaining that promise came as a result of his passion and his patience in enduring what for us became great blessing and what for him was the pangs of hell.

Patience is commanded. We are told as I said in Colossians 3:12 to put on patience. But patience is ultimately seen correctly when we look at the cross of Jesus Christ. That cross is a manifestation of goodness to us that all things do indeed work together for our good including the crucifixion of our Savior—an event which should fill us with great sadness as we contemplate it. In the cross of Jesus Christ has demonstrated the justice of God as well, however, and that justice should remind us when we’re going through difficult times.