This is the ninth blog in the 2 Peter 1 series and the sixth lesson on the chain Peter lays out.
Faith was the foundation. Virtue chiseled the image of Christ into our daily life. Knowledge gave us the Bible compass. Temperance gave us the brakes. Now Peter tells us where to stack the next step.
2 Peter 1:6, “And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness.”
Temperance puts the brakes on the appetites in the moment. Patience puts the brakes on the heart over the long haul. A man can have self-control on Monday morning and lose it by Friday night if he has no patience in him. Peter says after you start ruling yourself, you have to start enduring.
Webster 1828 Definition
Patience is the suffering of afflictions, pain, toil, calamity, provocation, or other evil, with a calm, unruffled temper. It is endurance without murmuring or fretfulness. It is the quality of bearing offenses and injuries without anger or revenge.
The opposite of patience is impatience and restlessness.
The Picture of Patience: Job
Patience in action is Job. In a single day he lost his oxen, his sheep, his camels, his servants, and all ten of his children. His house collapsed on top of his kids while they were eating dinner. The messengers came one after another and the news kept getting worse. Then his own body was struck with boils from head to foot, and his wife told him to curse God and die.
Job 1:21, “And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
He fell down and he worshipped right away. He blessed the name of the Lord with the dust of his wrecked house still on his clothes. The man who lost everything in one day and held his ground through every wave the devil threw at him.
James 5:11, “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
And at the end was a man with double of what he started with and a faith that nothing could shake.
The Furnace of Grace
Tribulation does not naturally produce patience. By itself, trouble produces impatience, unbelief, and rebellion. It takes the grace of God working underneath the surface to turn the same trouble into something useful in the Christian’s life.
Bright orange flames with gold being refined. The fire would destroy a man on its own. But the grace of God is at work in the fire, and the same trouble that would have made the lost man bitter ends up making the Christian patient.
Grace is doing something underneath the surface that nobody else can see. The longer you stay in the furnace, the more grace turns your tribulation into the kind of patience that nothing in this world can move.
Job 23:10, “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”
Tribulation Is the Gym of Patience
Patience is not something a man wakes up with on a sunny morning. It is something God grows in him through trouble.
Romans 5:3-4, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope.”
Tribulation works patience, patience works experience, experience works hope. Four links and you cannot skip the first one. A Christian who has never been in tribulation has never had patience grown in him, and has never had experience built up, and his hope is shallow at best.
James 1:3-4, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
Let patience have her perfect work. Most Christians try to short-circuit the trial. They want out before God is done. James says let it finish. The man who lets patience do her full work comes out perfect and entire, wanting nothing. The man who tries to escape the trial early comes out the same man he was going in.
Patience in Waiting
Patience is bearing trouble and bearing the wait when God seems silent and the answer seems far away.
Psalm 37:7, “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”
David gives two commands:
- Rest in the Lord
- Wait patiently
Most of the time when we wait, we wait restlessly. We wait with one eye on God and one eye on the clock. Patience waits and rests at the same time. And do not worry over the wicked man who seems to be winning. God will deal with him. Your job is to wait.
Psalm 40:1, “I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.”
David waited patiently, and then God inclined to him and heard him. The patient wait came first, then the answer.
Patience in Tribulation and Prayer
Patience is yoked with prayer. A patient saint is a praying saint, and a praying saint is a patient saint.
Romans 12:12, “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.”
Three things in one verse and they hold each other up. Hope keeps the patience going. Prayer keeps the hope going. And patience keeps the man in the fight while the prayer is being answered.
James 5:7-8, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
James uses the picture of the farmer who plants the seed and then waits. Months of nothing and months of rain and months of sun and months of weeding. Months of trusting that what is going on underneath the dirt will eventually break the surface. That is the Christian waiting for the Lord. That is the Christian waiting for the prayer to be answered. Be patient like the farmer.
The Lord’s Patience With Us
You cannot teach patience without remembering how patient the Lord has been with every one of us.
2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
The reason the Lord has not come back yet is patience. He is being longsuffering, not slow. He is waiting for the last soul to come to Him.
1 Timothy 1:16, “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.”
Paul says Jesus showed all longsuffering on him as a pattern. If the Lord could be that patient with Saul of Tarsus, the man who was killing Christians, the Lord can be that patient with you, and you can be that patient with the people around you.
Living This Out
Patience is built one trial at a time, as you wait. Wait on the Lord without worrying. Count it joy when the trial hits, because something good is being worked in you underneath. Pray through the wait instead of complaining through it. Do not quit before God answers.
Be slow to speak and slow to react. Most of the things you would have said in anger you would have given anything to take back ten minutes later. Bear with people who are hard to bear with, because somebody has had to bear with you. Remember the Lord’s patience with you, and let that set the standard for the patience you show everyone else.
Keep doing the will of God while you wait. The wait is not the time to put your obedience on pause. Let the trial have its perfect work. Do not try to escape it early. Run with patience, pace yourself, and finish strong.
Hebrews 12:1, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
The Christian life is a race, not a sprint. The man who paces himself and runs with patience is the man who crosses the line. The next blog stacks on the next step. Peter says to add to your patience godliness.
