"Love is patient… it endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Patience is long-suffering perseverance. Patient love quietly perseveres by waiting on God and others regardless of how long or difficult the wait may be. There can be no true expression of love without patience.

"God is love" (1 John 4:16). God's love is perfectly patient. This is revealed through God's special revelation in Holy Scripture and manifest throughout the entirety of sacred history. It is this patience - God's patience - that is the pattern for our personal practice of patience.

God's Patience

In Exodus 34:6-7, God reveals his glory to Moses. One of the ways God describes his glory is by declaring that he is "slow to anger" or "perfectly patient." God's patience is a principal perfection of the divine nature and one of the chief ways God's glory is manifest to the world.

In order to truly experience the full impact of this revelation, it is important to place it within its historical context. Israel had recently been delivered from Egyptian bondage by the Lord. Liberated from their oppressors they were now on their way to the Promised Land. Before arriving at their destination, the children of Israel fell into a pattern of grumbling and complaining. This rebellious attitude climaxed in immoral and idolatrous worship while Moses was away on Mount Sinai receiving the law from God (Exodus 32:1-6).

While on the mountain God told Moses about the obstinate disobedience of Israel. God expressed his disgust with Israel and declared that he was going to destroy the people of Israel in his anger and consequently make a great nation from Moses (Exodus 32:7-10). Moses pleaded with God that this would diminish God's glory in the sight of the nations, since they would now be able to say that God had proved unfaithful in his promise to deliver Israel. Furthermore, it would break the covenant God had made with the patriarchs of Israel - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 32:11-13).

God heard Moses' intercession and refrains from destroying Israel (Exodus 32:14). On his descent from the mountain, Moses saw the disobedience of Israel and smashed the tablets of the law in anger (Exodus 32:15-19). Moses punished the rebels and then proceeded back to Mount Sinai to plead with God to forgive the sin of his people (Exodus 32:20-35). God agreed to send an angel before them into the Promised Land, but God refused to personally accompany Israel, lest he destroy them for their continued obstinacy (Exodus 33:1-5). Moses pleaded with God to allow his presence to accompany them. God eventually agreed (Exodus 33:12-17).

In light of this demonstration of God's goodness, Moses pleaded to see God's glory (Exodus 33:18). God agreed to give Moses what he requested. Hiding Moses in the cleft of a rock in order to protect him from the full impact of God's glory, God allowed Moses to experience a brief glimpse of his glory (Exodus 33:19-34:5). As God's glory passed by, Moses heard the following words - God's self-description of God's own glory:

"Yahweh, Yahweh Elohim, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." (Exodus 34:6-7)

How would you describe God in 25 words of less? Would it bear any resemblance to God's self-description above? This brief self-revelation became the foundation for Israel's celebration of God's glory. The passage is quoted and alluded to more than any other passage in the Old Testament. It is especially prevalent in the book of Psalms - the hymnbook of Israel.

God's glory is revealed in his self-description. God describes what he is like, what he does, and how he relates to others. "Yahweh" is God's covenant name given to Israel, God's covenant people. "Elohim" draws attention to God's great power as creator, sustainer, and sovereign over all things. The first descriptive term, "compassionate," reveals how deeply God feels people's pain. God is not aloof and uncaring, but intimately touched by the infirmities of his people. "Gracious" indicates God's basis for his dealings with people - a relationship rooted in unconditional acceptance.

The third descriptive term is the object of our focus. God is "slow to anger." In other words, God is patient, or better yet, longsuffering. God is willing to experience long periods of grief for the sake of his beloved. Through this term, God reveals that his anger is not the foundation for his dealings with humankind. He is slow to manifest anger because patience is the chief expression of his character to people.

In distinct contrast to God's "slowness to anger" is God's "abounding in lovingkindness and truth." Though God is slow to express anger, God is overflowing with faithful steadfast love and covenant fidelity. The puritan Matthew Henry expresses this beautifully in his classic commentary:

He is abundant in goodness and truth. This bespeaks plentiful goodness, goodness abounding above our deserts, above our conception and expression. The springs of mercy are always full, the streams of mercy always flowing; there is mercy enough in God, enough for all, enough for each, enough for ever.

The passage continues by describing how this abundance is expressed. God "keeps lovingkindness for thousands" - not simply thousands of people but thousands of generations of people. When God's anger is finally demonstrated it is expressed to three or four generations. In radical contrast, however, God's abounding lovingkindness is shown to thousands of generations. In relation to God's overflowing faithfulness and love, his wrath is only transitory. His wrath is not essential to his nature, whereas God's patience is at the heart of God's nature, for God is love and love is patient!

God's abundance is also expressed in how God "forgives iniquity, transgression and sin." The reason for this exhaustive phrase is to highlight that God forgives all manner of sin: "iniquity" - inner twistedness; "transgression" - overstepping boundaries; and, "sin" - missing the mark. God's abundant willingness to forgive sin of every stripe and color is one of the chief expressions of his abounding goodness.

God's patience is a principal perfection of the divine nature. It is a manifestation of his glory. It is essential to who God is-but only in relation to sinners. The expression of love known as patience is not necessary in the intratrinitarian love relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father has no need to practice longsuffering love toward the Son or Spirit. Their relationship is one of eternal delight, joy, and communion. Patience is only necessary in relation to human beings.

God has a long fuse. He does not have a "hair-trigger" temper. The few exceptions where God's anger is expressed (for example Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6:6-7 or Annas and Saphira in Acts:5:1-11) are just that - exceptions. The reason we wrestle with understanding them is because they are not the normal way God deals with people.

Patient Toward People

We have established that patience is a principal perfection of the divine nature and one of the chief ways God's glory is manifest to the world. This patience is exclusively practiced toward people and not within the love relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit. Put simply, God's patience is toward people. God's patience is expressed to people throughout the entire story the Holy Scriptures relate. An examination of the Scriptures reveals that God's patience toward people is expressed in at least three ways.

God is patient with his children's weaknesses. God does not treat us as we deserve. He knows we are but dust.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
He will not always strive with us;
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities...
For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust. (Psalm 103:8-10, 14)

God's awareness of our feeble nature and frail frame is manifest most clearly when God refuses to punish us when we are unfaithful to him.

For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
But He, being compassionate,
forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them;
And often He restrained His anger,
And did not arouse all His wrath.
Thus He remembered that they were but flesh,
A wind that passes and does not return. (Ps. 78:37-39; cf. Neh. 9:16-20)

Because God knows that we are frail creatures, his patience is at the heart of his dealings with his people. Jesus himself expressed this deep awareness of human frailty when he warned his disappointing disciples: "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:40-41).

God is patient as a father to his children. "Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him" (Psalm 103:13). This fatherly patience is central to our understanding of God's relationship to us.

Of all the names of God in the Bible, the most important is Father. All other titles and attributions must be interpreted in its light. God's might and creativity are simply qualifications of this unique fatherhood: the former means that God possesses the power to fulfill all his fatherly purposes, and the latter that all God's purposes are fatherly. So the definitive description of the self is that it is a child of God. At the heart and center of this relationship is God's patience, his lovingkindness and long-sufferingness and forbearance. (David Harned, Patience, p.118)

I have great patience with my child for one important reason - she is mine. She is my daughter and I am her father. As her father I am aware of things that she is too young and immature to be aware of herself. I know her nature better than she knows it. I know that maturity takes time. Because I love her so dearly, I am willing to wait long years for growth and maturity to develop. Until then, I gladly suffer heartache, disappointments, difficulties, and frustrations for her sake. In doing this, I am expressing patience toward her. I do not do it begrudgingly, but willingly. I am her father, and I love her. God expresses the same kind of fatherly affection to his people, only better. Indeed, God's expression is perfect!

A good father continues to love his children even if they slide off into unbelievable rebellion. Even if my daughter or sons rebel against all I find good and holy, I will continue to care for them and love them, in the midst of and in spite of their rebellion. Parents will accept a lot of things from their children that they would not tolerate from anyone else-including their own spouse! Many of the behaviors that would cause a person to divorce their spouse are tolerated from children.

God's longsuffering patience is most poignant in his tortured cry of love in Hosea 11:8-9:

How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I surrender you, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart is turned over within Me,
All My compassions are kindled.
I will not execute My fierce anger;
I will not destroy Ephraim again.
For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst,
And I will not come in wrath. (Hosea 11:8-9)

God's patience is greater than his children's sinfulness. His holiness does not cause him to lash out in punishment, but to patiently love his people even in their rebellion - to suffer much for the sake of the beloved. In the same way, God is patient with his household-the Church. "So the patience of God is not only a part of the church's proclamation, it is proclaimed simply by the existence of the redeemed community" (David Harned, Patience, p.50).

God is patient in bearing with human sinfulness. God's patience is not only expressed to believers, but to the entire world.

And do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (Rom. 2:3-4; cf. 9:22-24)

Judgment does not bring salvation; patience and kindness does. In the midst of human sin - which greatly grieves God - God faithfully exercises longsuffering patience toward the wicked.

A short summary of the entire narrative of Holy Scripture could be: "God is patient." From the beginning, each escalation of human sinfulness is met by a still greater display of divine patience. When Adam sins, God takes the initiative to seek Adam out ("Adam, where are you?") and tenderly call him to consider the consequences of his action ("What have you done? Why have you done this?"). God does not reject Adam, but preserves Adam through judgment accompanied with hope - the promise of future deliverance (Genesis 3:15). God will personally take care of the consequences of Adam's sin.

Before Cain kills Abel, God challenges Cain to consider the danger he is in (Gen. 4:6-7). After his deadly deed, God judges Cain. But along with the judgment God offers patient protection - the mark of Cain.

Human sin escalates quickly, rising to a fever pitch. After a long period of patiently waiting ("when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah," 1 Peter 3:20), God judged the entire world. But God's judgment was followed by the establishment of an everlasting covenant for all humanity extending patient love for all generations (Genesis 8:21-22; 9:9-17).

At the tower of Babel, humans unite in wickedness. God graciously halts the wickedness through his judgment. God does not destroy the evildoers, but scatters them into nations so that evil is restrained. The judgment is followed by the establishment of a covenant with one man, Abraham, that will lead to the creation of a great nation, Israel, that will bring blessing to the entire world - "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3). Thus begins God's patient dealings with the people of Israel for the sake of the whole world!

God's patience extends throughout the patriarchal period coming to a climax in his dealings with Jacob, the deceiver, who is the father of the twelve tribes of Israel - all twelve tribes being the product of two wives fighting for their husband's affection.

God's patience continues during the wilderness wanderings. During the chaotic and lawless period of the judges, when "every man did what was right in his own eyes," God patiently loved his people by refusing to abandon them to the consequences of their rebellion. Though they were obstinately rebellious, God still sent deliverers in the judges to save his people from their sins.

God's patience is fully revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus patiently lived a common life for thirty years before entering into public ministry. During his ministry, he patiently put up with his bumbling disciples for another 3 ½ years. As the suffering servant, Christ endured all manner of misery and pain for the sake of others. This climaxed in the passion of the cross. "In Christ's passion all the virtues seemed to coalesce in measureless patience, ever persevering, enduring and forbearing even toward those who condemned him to die" (David Harned, Patience, p.70). No evil power can possibly stop this kind of power - power displayed in weakness, the power of patient love. Patient love is enduring love. Time cannot stop it because it is willing to wait. Suffering cannot thwart it because it is willing to suffer. No power can overcome such love. Ultimately, Christ's perfect patience is the reason any of us live, grow, or minister (see 1 Timothy 1:15).

Think of all the human sin in the past and in the present. Consider just the sin in your own life in the past hour, the past day, week, month, year - your entire life. Consider the sin in your church, in all the churches in your area, your state, your nation, the world. Consider all the sin expressed throughout time by all the people who have ever lived in all the places of the world. Then consider how great God's patience is! How good he is! If he, like some of us, was provoked by every sin and responded in quick disgust and prompt judgment, how miserable this world would be? Why then do we think it is virtuous to be so quick to anger, so impatient with people's sins? Why are we so often like James and John, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven and burn them up?" (Luke 9:52-55)

God is patient in final judgment. From the beginning of the church's existence people have mocked Christians for believing in Christ's return to restore all things. The Apostle Peter taught believers to think in a special way concerning this apparent delay.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance... Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things [new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells], be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation (2 Peter 3:9, 14-15)

God's slowness demonstrates His patience. God desires to have a saving relationship with all people. God is willing to suffer long if necessary in order to attain this end. The cause of God's delay is not indifference, but grace and mercy toward sinners. His slowness is not something to be mocked, but another reason to praise! We must learn how to wait as God waits, to patiently put up with human sinfulness with full awareness that it is for the greater good. Our cry as the church should be both, "Come to the water of life" and "Come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:17, 20).

God is slow - excruciatingly slow! God is patient in fulfilling His promises and bringing all things to his appointed end. God is in no hurry. Even conservative dating indicates that 2300 years passed from the time God made his covenant with Abraham to its fulfillment in Christ. It has now been almost 2000 years since Christ's first coming. And still we wait. Why? Because God is patiently waiting for the benefit of all people.

God's Patience as Our Pattern

Note the 3 areas in which God reveals his patience toward people: God is (1) patient with believers, (2) patient with unbelievers, and (3) patient in final judgment. If God's patience is the pattern for our patience, how then should we imitate Him? As God is patient in bearing with human sinfulness, so we should be patient when we are unjustly treated. This is to follow the pattern of God and of Christ.

For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps. (1 Peter 2:19-21)

As God is patient with his children's weakness, so we should be patient with our own growth and with other people's growth, no matter where they are on the journey of faith. As God is patient in final judgment, so we should patiently wait for his return. We patiently wait, not because it is the best for us, but it is the best for all.

God's patience is our pattern. God's patience leads to our salvation (Matt. 18:26, 29; cf. 1 Tim. 1:15). God's patience is the pattern for our patience (Matt. 18:33).

If we really see the glory of God's patience, it will not lead to a license to sin. Rather, it will lead to a great desire to please One who is so good, kind, forbearing, and patient! We take comfort in God's patience, but we do not presume upon it. God expects us to be grateful for his patience and to become patient as he is patient.

It is vital that we possess a large view of God's patience. It has tremendous influence on how we live our lives. We become like that which we worship. If we believe that God is short-tempered and always ready to blow his fuse, we will treat others the same way. If we believe he is slow-to-anger and long-suffering toward sinners, then we will follow suit.

© Richard J. Vincent, 2004