Better Relationships #4 - Love is Patient

In the 1800’s there lived a man named Robert Ingersoll. He grew up the son of a pastor, but walked away from the faith. Ingersoll became a lawyer and was involved in politics. However, he is most known for his books and series of lectures on the non-existence of God. Several times during his lectures he would say, “I’ll give God five minutes to strike me dead for the things I’ve said.” Then, he would use the fact that he was not struck dead as proof God did not exist. There was a pastor named Theodore Parker at that time. He was told of what Mr. Ingersoll was doing. His response was, “Did the gentleman think he could exhaust the patience of the eternal God in five minutes?”

Lately in this blog we’ve been looking at 1 Corinthians 13. This is a chapter on love, but it is in the context of how we behave with each other in the church. In verses 4-8 of this chapter there are 15 characteristics of what it means to love. Today we look at how “love is patient.”

How patient are you? I have a more task oriented personality and patience does not come easily to me. I’m constantly sitting in traffic or picking the wrong checkout lane in the grocery store and I'm wondering if the Lord is working on putting me in opportunities to learn patience.

In 1 Corinthians 13:4 when it says, “love is patient,” the Greek word is (makrothumeo). It is sometimes translated “long-suffering.” The literal meaning is “taking a long time to boil.” We may know people who have a “short fuse,” which means they get angry easily or quickly. Patience means we have a “long fuse.” It is victory over anger. This word always means to have patience with people, not things or situations. There is a Greek word that means patience toward things or circumstances, and it is translated as “perseveres” in v.7. Patience requires divine help to develop because our natural tendency is to be impatient with people.

So, if part of showing love in our relationships is patience, then how do we be patient with other people? That is a complicated topic, but the primary way is to simply remember how patient God has been with us. We have to make the conscious effort to remember God’s patience. Paul talked about this with Timothy saying, 1 Timothy 1:15-16 “…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners…”

Patience suffers long. All of these characteristics we see here in 1 Corinthians 13 are attributes of Jesus. God never commands us to do anything that isn’t seen in the life of Jesus. When you are a Christian, you have Jesus in your heart and God’s spirit working in your life, so you can do this. I can’t have love without patience, and in order to be patient, I need to remember how patient God has been with us. God can change us from the inside out. If you need love in your relationships, if you need more patience in your life, you need more of Jesus in your life.