Word of Salvation – Vol. 30 No. 01 – January 1985
Love Is Patient
Sermon by Rev. P. Richard Flinn v.d.m. on 1Cor.13:4a
Scripture Readings: Psalm 3; 1Cor.13
Suggested Hymns: 199:1,4,5; 298; 204; 394
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
I am sure you have seen a tree with its roots cut. First there does not seem to be any change. Then as the life fluids can no longer rise up the trunk, the leaves begin to wither and die. Suddenly you realise that the tree before you is wizened, a shrivelled caricature of the glory it once was.
So with Christian love. Our generation has cut love away from its biblical roots. Love has been divorced from God’s Word until even in the church it has all too often become a shrivelled caricature of the glory it should be.
In the Bible we need to turn to 1Cor.13. Paul begins that chapter by insisting on the absolute necessity of love; then he goes on define it. Love is the oil which keeps the machinery moving; without it that great engine, the Church of God, settles to a grinding, rusted seizure. Great gifts of eloquence and preaching without love are nothing more than an empty noise. Penetrating insight in God’s Word without love is pointless. The exercise of spiritual gifts without love is vanity. Extreme works of charity and sacrifice without love are worthless.
Since this love is so essential, so valuable, what is it? Ah, says Paul, love is patient. What is this patience? If you search lexicons and translations you will find it variously translated as “gentle forbearance,” “steadfastness”, “endurance”, “waiting”, “long suffering.” All of these come close to the mark but they do not quite capture the meaning of the Greek.
You will find the word, employed here by Paul, not much used outside the Bible. It is one of those words which the Christian Church took up and filled with a distinctive meaning. The most precise references come not from the Greek language but from the Old Testament. It is in the Old Testament we find a wonderful, awe-inspiring description of God: “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth.” (Ex.34:6). It is this expression “slow to anger” that the Greek Old Testament translates as “patience” USING THE SAME WORD FOUND IN 1Cor.13:4. Literally the Greek word means: “wrath afar off”; anger and wrath taking a long time to come to the surface and pour out upon the guilty.
Now, before we press home the absolute necessity for us having this longsuffering quality, this slowness to anger, two more observations are necessary. In the first place notice that this love which is longsuffering does not actually banish wrath. I believe this needs to be said because today the concept of love, divorced from the Bible, has degenerated all too often into a sentimental dog-like affection. It has banished all thought of punishment for sin. But the Lord says that He is a loving God and slow to anger, but that He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished (Ex.34:7).
Longsuffering toward men does not remove due punishment for sin but it delays it, causing it to tarry, to wait; giving men every benefit of the doubt, every opportunity to repent. Such is the patience we are describing here.
Secondly, it is implied in the context of patience that we will face provocation from men. In particular actions which do us harm and which, apart from patience, could easily provoke us to wrath; and that very quickly. There are countless examples, but let me give you just some.
There are the provocations of inferiors to superiors: the misbehaviour of children toward parents; of lazy employees not doing their job; of church people murmuring and complaining about their elders. There are the provocations of superiors to inferiors: of unreasonable demands, of harshness, of unjust punishment, of unsympathetic treatment. There are the provocations we face from others when they damage our property, when they have late parties, when they gossip and slander about us, when they neglect us, when they refuse to forgive and be reconciled to us.
In all of these we face the provocations of men. In all of these, love is to be patient, longsuffering, slow to anger. Notice that patience is not the refusal to condemn sin by continually sweeping the matter under the carpet.. That is not patience; that is cowardly capitulation to evil. Rather long suffering gives every opportunity for change; it makes many appeals; it turns a blind eye many times; it seeks to extenuate; it takes every opportunity to remove the provocation; to deal with it in a peaceable fashion. It is slow to anger.
Why must the Christian learn to be long suffering?
1. A love for God will conform us to His character.
One fundamental tendency of a Christian is his attraction to God. “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I look for, that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life to behold the loveliness of the LORD and to meditate in His temple” (Ps.27:4). “O God thou art my God; I shall seek thee earnestly. My soul thirsts for thee my flesh longs for thee in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps.63:1). The very wonder, beauty, magnificence of the Lord moves the Christian – impels him. The grandeur of God is a fountain head that pours forth living waters attracting the regenerate soul as water attracts the parched.
The more a Christian loves God the more he will be shaped and fashioned by God. It is an inevitable law. A husband in love with his wife will become conformed and moulded by her interests and desires. A loving parent, who has never studied or listened to serious music in his life, suddenly develops an interest in it because a beloved child shows ability and aptitude. If this is true in human relations, how much more with God. The Spirit of God moves our hearts to an ever deeper appreciation and devotion to the Lord. And the more we behold Him in His moral and spiritual beauty, the more we become compelled to be like Him.
God’s longsuffering and slowness to wrath – does it not magnetically draw the regenerate soul? The sheer patience of the Lord! How he gives His children every opportunity! Does not this cause you to marvel? Does it not thrill your soul? “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth.” We marvel not at the wickedness of the world. Rather, we wonder at the riches of His kindness, forbearance and patience that should lead the world to repentance; (Rom.2:4).
It is inescapable, inevitable that this love of the Lord and particularly His patience, His slowness to wrath will have its powerful transforming effect, so that we become like Christ, the Lord. Then we too become longsuffering and slow to wrath.
2. Each of us has known and experienced the longsuffering of the Lord.
There is not one of us who has not known the longsuffering of the Lord toward us. Not only do we see it in the Scriptures and in Providence generally; we know it in our lives. I ask you, Christian, before you were converted how did you walk? Did not the least of your sins merit a swift and absolute judgment? You offended a holy and truth-loving God. Not once, but many times. You walked in the ways of wickedness. Daily you provoked Him. Daily you offended Him. Yet He allowed you to live. Your life was not taken from you. He did not deal with you summarily or swiftly but in grace and mercy He granted you time for repentance.
And since your conversion…? Has not the long suffering of God, His slowness to wrath been evident every day of your life? You believe on the Saviour, you have repented of your sins, you have turned from idols to serve the living and true God; yet also, your feet stray in the paths of evil and your heart secretly delights in the counsels of death. Yet God is merciful toward you; yet He is longsuffering and compassionate. He is slow to anger. Christian do you realise that God’s slowness to wrath is over you and toward you more today than it ever was when you walked in ignorance of the light of the truth.
Since each of us has known the long suffering of God, His slowness to anger, it follows that we must be patient and slow in wrath towards others. He who is forgiven much, loves much. Yes, but you say: you do not understand the provocation I face every day. My wife irritates me to death. Or, you do not appreciate the enormity of the slander that has been thrown against me. You are right, I probably do not. But I tell you this in truth: no matter how provoked you are it is insignificant alongside the provocation you have offered the Lord. God’s holiness is such that the least of your sins offend Him more than the worst provocation you have ever faced or will ever face at the hands of men. Yet, He has been slow to anger toward you. Must you not be the same toward those who irritate and provoke you?
In the beginning of his first letter to Timothy, Paul makes this amazing statement: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.” Christ’s perfect patience, slowness to wrath, was revealed beautifully in His saving Paul. It is an example to us, not only that we might expect mercy and forgiveness for our sins, but that we as His disciples, might be ministers of Christ’s perfect patience and slowness to wrath to others.
3. We are as sheep among the wolves
It is a truism, I suppose, to say that the world is full of wicked men. With the Bible in the hand we must say “Man is basically evil.” Our experience confirms this. Jesus said to His disciples that he was sending them out as sheep among the wolves. Again our experience confirms this. You live in a neighbourhood; there will be people there who will provoke you by their thoughtlessness. At work there will be provocations from the lazy, the irresponsible, from the markedly ambitious, from the slanderous and from the foul tongue. In the church will come often the worst provocations of all, for you have higher expectations of people in the church; also in your family.
On every side we are faced with irritation and provocation. If you do not learn the grace of love, and so of patience and of slowness to wrath, your life will become one never ending frustration. Instead of living in peace you will be one ball of irritation. You cannot exist in this world with any hope of peace if you have not learnt to be slow to wrath, to overlook faults, to be tolerant.
Mind you, this does not mean that you must lay aside all rebuke and correction. But rebuke, even when it must be strongly and forthrightly given, must ever be coloured and tinged with slowness to wrath. “Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season; reprieve, rebuke, exhort with great patience, and slowness to wrath“; (2Tim.4:2). Consider Christ, patient and longsuffering toward his disciples yet at the right time reproving them for their lack of faith. On the other hand contrast Christ with James and John who angrily wanted instant retribution to fall upon an inhospitable Samaritan village.
Because we are as sheep among the wolves, for your own good it is necessary, Christian, that you learn slowness to wrath else the wrath of bitterness will consume your own life.
4. It is the best way of maintaining peace and harmony.
Peace and harmony are very important to the church. There are few things more debilitating to a church than to have it filled with anger and tension. There are few things more insufferable than to have Christians in the Church who are quick to anger or to take offence. Every failure, every neglect, every slight, real or otherwise, is duly noted and reacted to. Like a piece of metal in a gear-box quickness to anger will chew out a church from the inside.
But when there is peace and harmony, they are the best conditions present for the sanctification of the members and the advancement of God’s Kingdom. Then the Holy Spirit is not grieved.
One of the best ways to preserve peace and harmony is for the members to be patient, long suffering, slow to wrath. If a person fails to fulfil a promise, acts unkindly, neglects his duty, acts uncharitably, all of these can be destructive if they are reacted to with irritable impatience without gentle forbearance. Longsuffering is the church’s expansion joint allowing the church to continue without collapse.
Reproof and rebuke is always more effective when it is preceded by a long exercise of forbearance and slowness to wrath, and when it is administered in the same spirit. Then the one rebuked knows that you do not speak or act out of irritation, but out of love for God, and love for him, and a desire to see him restored. Then the rebuke will be deeply considered. It will be up-building; and reconciliation and restoration will take place.
We cannot talk about love without talking about slowness to anger, the patient endurance of wrongs suffered, giving the other every opportunity, every benefit of the doubt before our wrath is kindled and we call for justice. Love is not the ignoring of sin, but being patient about it. It is not the creating of new categories that redefine morality so that there is no sin anymore; it is the serious recognition of sin, but the determination not to punish it until every other opportunity has been exhausted. It is not the banishing of wrath but the withholding of wrath until justice veritably demands its due. Let us be moved to this slowness of wrath by the very character of God where it is displayed in beauty; by the patient long suffering of Christ toward us in our many sins; by the truth that we ourselves will be consumed in bitterness unless we are growing in patience toward the provocations which we suffer and by the fact that slowness to wrath is the best way to preserve the peace and harmony of any society, especially of the church and the family. May we so grow in a love that is longsuffering.
Amen