loyal to their faith and piety. The word can also be translated with the words like “perseverance” or “endurance.” 2. The second word that is used is makrothymia. It literally means “taking long to get hot.” This word reflects the spirit of someone who perseveres patiently in the midst of continuous misfortunes and troubles. In addition, this is a person who remains patient when they receive offenses and injuries from others. The verb form (makrothymeo) is often used to express the way that God responds to those who have rejected Him. It even references the fact that God defers punishing sinners in the hopes of their eventual repentance. 3. More rarely, a New Testament writer will use the word anexikakos. It literally means “holding up under evil.” The idea is “someone who patiently endures wrongdoing towards them.”
God Is Patient What should be clear to us by now is that all the Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 are character traits found in God’s own nature. Because the Spirit of the Lord dwells within believers, these traits of God show up in them as well. God has revealed to us what patience looks like in the way He acts and thinks, and we can imitate Him because we share His nature in Christ. In the Old Testament, God’s patience is reflected in His fairness of judgment towards the sins of His people. We see many examples of this in the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness found in the book of Numbers. In one such passage, we see Moses interceding before God on behalf of the people of Israel and we get an inside view into the patience of God. The background story is that, as the people of Israel begin to approach the Promised Land, Moses sends out twelve spies to take a look and bring back a report on what they find. They come back raving about the wonderful provisions that are available in the land. However, they also report that there were many war-like nations in the region, and even giants. Ten of the spies conclude that the inhabitants are too powerful, and they should not try to possess the land, while the other two spies, Joshua and Caleb, assert that the God of Israel is powerful enough to give them victory. After all, He just used amazing miracles to deliver them from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. Unfortunately, the people of Israel fall in line with the majority report which counsels them to abandon their plan of entering into the Promised Land, and so bring down God’s displeasure upon their heads. In response, God tells Moses that He is going to wipe out these hard-headed, faithless people, and start over with a whole new group of chosen ones. Moses pleads for God to have mercy on the people of Israel, even though he agrees that they have continuously complained and groaned about their circumstances throughout their journey. He acknowledges that God has
cared for them continually and that they are ungrateful and foolish to continue to doubt God. Nonetheless, he pleads with God to relent from His anger, and to rethink his decision to destroy them.
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Moses calls upon God’s nature as a merciful and patient God. Listen to how he reminds God to look at Israel from the position of His own nature: “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion… In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.” (Numbers 14:18-9, NIV) God’s patience is shown through being “slow” to become angry, and full of “enduring love” leading to a willingness to forgive sin. This doesn’t mean that the guilty go free from punishment, but it means that if they repent, He will remain in relationship with them.
God’s Patience Means Salvation What we believe about the nature of God affects the way that we relate to Him. If we think of God as a Being who is ready to strike us down any time that we make a mistake, then our relationship with Him will be characterized more by fear than love. If, on the other hand, our conclusion is that God truly loves human beings, and has our best interests at heart, then we find it far easier to believe that God is doing all in His power to help us in our life circumstances. When we see evil in our world, we don’t conclude that God does not care, but rather that God is waiting to get as many sinners to come “into the fold” as possible before bringing judgment. Peter explains to his readers that God has the “long view” of history, and is in the business of bringing salvation to all those who are lost: “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.” (2 Peter 3:8-10) God’s time frame is much longer than ours, so when we think that God is delaying an answer to His promises, we are not looking at the issue from His transcendent perspective. God might answer our prayer or fulfill His promise 500 years from now, and still be within the framework of “one day” from His point of view. The apparent slowness with which God operates is based on the spiritual results (salvation of souls) that He is hoping to achieve. Judgment will not be delayed forever, but Peter emphasizes that repentance is available so that no one has to perish. Paul likewise tells Timothy, “Jesus Christ came into the world to give salvation to sinners.” He then identifies himself as the worst sinner of the lot, and makes the point that his conversion is evidence of the “perfect patience” of Christ Jesus in saving sinners. (1 Timothy
GROUP NOT E Question: Do you think of God as patient? Why or why not?
