Patience

1. Have you ever tried to kill off a weed or another unwanted item growing in a garden or lawn?

2. Most have, and people have used some aggressive means to kill off hardy weeds.

3. There are those who dig out weeds and undesirable plants.

4. If digging does not work, a person may turn to chemicals.

5. There are even those who will attack an offending weed with fire.

6. In some cases no matter what is done, a weed can continue to grow.

7. There is a word in the New Testament that described what was just mentioned.

8. This word is translated “patience” in 2 Pet. 1:6.

9. Sometimes this term described plants that survived under the harshest circumstances.

10. In spite of all types of adversity, plants continued to live (they were “patient”).

THE WORD PETER USED HAS A WIDE RANGE OF MEANINGS. THERE IS REALLY NO SINGLE ENGLISH-EQUIVALENT FOR IT TO CONVEY ALL THE POSSIBLE MEANINGS, BUT THIS WORD WAS USED IN THE WAY I HAVE DESCRIBED.

a) Basically patience has the sense of “bear” (endure) things.

b) A plant may bear up under repeated assaults by a gardener.

c) Someway, somehow a weed survives.

d) Peter says God’s people need to have this same type of endurance.

e) In one way or another, Christians are to survive.

f) We know a person may survive something, but come out severely damaged.

g) In life are those who survive automobile accidents but their physical bodies never recover.

2) The word “patience” means more than survive; it has the sense of survive and thrive.

3) This is God’s will for His people. God wants His people to be like fruit that never withers.

4) Fruit may be exposed to too much rain; too little rain; too much sun, too little sun, or wrong temperatures.

5) Right now due to a sudden change in weather a lot of growers are concerned.

6) There are some plants and crops that are being hit pretty hard with our cold snap.

7) When fruit does not get what it expects, it can die or the quality can be greatly diminished.

8) God wants His people to be like fruit that stays in good shape no matter what their circumstances are.

a) Patience is the quality that keeps a man on his feet and still able to face a strong wind.

b) It the quality of patience that gives people peace during the harshest times such as war.

c) Today we want to see where and how the Bible uses this word translated patience.

d) We begin with the first place in the New Testament where this term occurs, Lk. 8:15.

9) Lk. 8 is one of the places where Jesus’ parable about the seeds is recorded.

10) A man sowed seed and this fell on various types of soil.

11) The last type of soil is classified as the “good ground.” Jesus spoke of people with good and honest hearts.

12) Luke slips something in that is only in his record of the sower parable – 8:15 – READ.

a) At the very end of this verse we find the word “patience.”

b) This is the same term Peter used in 2 Pet. 1:6.

c) This word, as previously noted, means a “spirit that bears all things.”

d) It describes a person who will not quit. Jesus said this is part of having a “good heart.”

e) There are people who start the process and live the Christian life for a while. Then they quit.

f) Here Jesus tells us that such a life is not New Testament Christianity.

g) True Christians are not quitters. People from good soil do not stop living the Christian life.

h) Most of us have seen the image of a t.v. personality on location when a severe storm was coming.

13) Rain may have been beating down and it was hard for the reporter to see and make his report.

14) Perhaps hurricane force winds were beginning to sweep through but a reporter kept reporting.

15) Within in the last year I remember a reporter saying something like, “People are holding me down.”

16) A newscaster literally had two people on his feet so he could make his broadcast.

17) Patience is a quality that means God’s people will never give up no matter what.

18) People can say what they will, do what they will, and think what they will, but Christians do not quit.

a) When Jesus was speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem in Lk. 21:19 He said “patience” was necessary.

b) He said if this quality were used, the people’s “souls” would be saved.

c) In this verse and context, “soul” is figurative (it has the sense of “life”).

d) Sometimes physical life is saved if people persevere.

e) We often see this in times of natural disasters.

f) A person may be buried in a landslide or lost in the woods.

g) Some simply give up. Others persevere, believing rescue efforts are underway.

h) If we can understand persevering to save physical life, we can apply the point to our spiritual lives.

19) After the gospels we find this word in Rom. 2:7 (a passage we will skip) and Rom. 5.

a) Paul used it in Rom. 5:3 to say “tribulation” works (helps bring about) “patience.”

b) A lot of people want the Christian qualities in 2 Pet. 1 because they are great qualities.

c) If these traits were easy to come by, all would probably take them.

d) These traits are not easy; they require work—a lot of work.

e) Paul said the quality Peter described comes through “tribulation.”

f) We have to go through some testing and fire to get the type of endurance Peter described.

g) Heat can strengthen various objects in the world.

h) In a similar way, problems can strengthen a Christian to a point where God’s people are tough.

i) God wants people who are like diamonds (unflinchingly committed in their Christian lives).

20) Later in Romans (8:25) we find this word again being used.

a) Paul spoke about our hope; he said the Christian hope cannot be seen.

b) We cannot physically visit the sphere where our hope is.

c) We do not see our hope, but we “patiently” wait for it. We endure for it no matter what.

d) Christians who are good soil have a hope of heaven that is based on truth and evidence.

e) Because of that proof, our hope is one that we do not ever forsake.

f) We latch on to the Christian life with everything we have and we hold on at all costs.

g) A true Christian refuses to let anyone or anything detach him or her from their spiritual hope.

21) Part of our hope is reinforced by the Bible, Rom. 15:4.

a) Paul said there is “patience” (same word) through the Word of God.

b) God’s word gives us the strength to persevere (hang on).

c) Many look at the Bible and say it is an old book, and that it is true.

d) Many also ask how the Bible could possibly have any use in our modern time.

e) God says it is a tool that keeps us connected to our spiritual hope.

22) Romans 15:4 is good, but so is what follows.

23) In Rom. 15:5 we find that God is a “God of patience.”

a) Endurance is a divine quality. God has it and He wants us to have it.

b) God perseveres. He is patient with the world wanting it to repent.

c) He is also patient with His people when they sin.

d) Because God is willing to keep at it with us, we need to do that same thing with others.

24) In 2 Cor. 12:12 Paul told the Corinthians he had used “all patience” with them (same word).

25) A lot of people would have probably given up on the Christians in this congregation.

26) Some would not have been initially willing to even go to Corinth as it was a very wicked city.

a) Paul went there and did a good work.

b) When the Corinthians had problems, he stuck by them.

c) One of the lessons the church needs to remind Christians of is patience towards one another.

d) It is easy to be impatient (not forbearing with people), and this is certainly true of fellow Christians.

e) As Paul said to the Colossians (1:11), we want to pursue “all patience.”

f) Patience with others and patience in our own Christian lives are taught in the Bible.

27) In Heb. 10:36 a writer said Christians “needed patience” (same word).

a) In this case Christians were turning back to the Old Testament system.

b) The writer said this was a wrong choice; they would be like bad soil.

c) They needed to endure whatever circumstances were happening in their lives.

d) Sometimes this endurance also applies to us as we deal with others.

e) We can become frustrated, irritated, and even angry with those we know.

f) God’s people are to be individuals with whom we seek to maintain a good relationship.

g) Every facet of the Christian life requires staying power.

h) Later in Heb. 12 (12:1) this point is made again with the same word.

28) The Hebrew writer says Christians are in a race, and they need to “run.”

29) How are we to run? With “patience.”

30) That is, we never give up.

a) A lot of things can happen in a race.

b) Runners get tired, thirsty, some stumble, others fall behind, a body part may begin to ache.

c) Runners can give any number of excuses for dropping out of a race.

d) God says to His people, start the race and never quit. We may find some barriers along the way.

e) We may be injured at some point. The eye needs to stay on the goal and we must keep running.

f) Our “faith is designed to work patience” (Jas. 1:3).

g) What we know about the gospel is to help us continue with the Christian faith.

31) James also uses this word later in his letter (5:11), and this is a very important verse.

32) Most are likely familiar with this passage; James spoke about the “patience” of Job.

a) Job was not always “patient” in the way we use the word.

b) He was exactly like the good soil Jesus described in Lk. 8.

c) Job was a child of God who would not quit. He had problem after problem crash down on him.

d) He was like the runner in Heb. 12; he stayed on the track.

e) He got banged up and bruised, but he refused to leave the race.

33) When people are patient the Lord knows.

34) In Rev. 2:2 our special word is found again; Jesus said to people “I know thy patience.”

35) On the day of judgment many will appear before the Lord and they will hear some very sad news.

36) They will be reminded of how they started the Christian race.

a) They got off to a good start. They were doing as well as anyone else was doing.

b) At some point something came up, and these people stopped running.

c) They lost the quality of endurance.

d) They gave up because of someone, something, or were maybe distracted by something else.

e) In eternity this will be an eternal regret. People will ask, “Why, oh why didn’t we continue?”

f) “If only we had stayed on course for a little longer we would have made it.”

g) How sad for people who know the truth not to continue therein.

37) We cannot endure as a Christian without first becoming a Christian.

38) The Bible tells us how to begin the process in many places.

39) Once we have put on Christ, we must endure.

40) Today, as many think about Jesus, are we running the race He has set before us?