God’s Love For Us, Part 1: Patient
David W Palmer
(1 Corinthians 13:4–7 TLB) “Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, {5} never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. {6} It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. {7} If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him.”
Seeing that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), all of the above passage applies to the way he feels about us, and acts towards us. Yes, he wants us to reciprocate this love to him, and to show it to others; but he only expects this because he is pouring this love out on us and into us (Rom. 5:5). So, based on the above passage, what is God’s love, his attitudes, and his actions towards us?
“Love is Patient,” so God Is Patient
(Romans 2:4 NLT) “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?”
God is patient with us in our failings and shortcomings. His objective is to keep us alive and away from the final judgment long enough for us to turn completely from sin. The NKJV translation says that God is “longsuffering.”
(Romans 2:4 NKJV) “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
Yes, God hates sin; sin is completely destructive! God has absolutely no tolerance for the presence of sin in his eternal kingdom. What’s more, because of its short and long term consequences, he urges us to have nothing to do with it either. He wants us to use what he has made available to us—a new birth, his word, his grace, his Holy Spirit, and his own love in our hearts—to completely remove all traces of sin. Yet thankfully, he loves us so much that he is willing to withhold his final judgment of our sin to give us time to deal with it. He is so good that he would rather suffer long with the pain it causes him to see his creation—and especially his children—committing sin, than to intervene in judgment while there is still hope that they might repent. This is God’s forbearance and longsuffering.
Our loving heavenly Father also knows that we have to break old fleshly habits, renew our minds, train our senses, and grow in godliness (Rom. 12:2, Heb. 5:14, 2 Pet. 1:5-7). These all take time. So the patience, forbearance, and longsuffering of God’s love keep him focused on our improvement. Meanwhile, he graciously and meekly delays his judgment and dispensing of justice until later. He hopes that as many as possible will take advantage of his amazing offer of forgiveness, reconciliation, and the grace to be holy—while he is still holding the door open for them.
(Romans 9:22 NLT) “In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.”
Sadly, some misrepresent this as God not acting at all to step in, or as God’s lack of love … or even his lack of existence. In truth, his immense patience should reveal to us the terror and absolute horror of turning down his loving offer of reconciliation:
(2 Peter 3:9–11 NLT) “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. {10} But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. {11} Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live.”
Today, I encourage you to meditate upon God’s loving patience towards us and his creation. I especially exhort you to think long and hard about the reason for it: He wants us to use the time he graciously allows before his return—either to earth, or to receive us when we leave our bodies—to focus on renewing our minds, growing in godliness, establishing new habits, and training our senses to discern and choose right from wrong. I believe he especially wants us to abide in his secret place, and to come boldly to his throne of grace to “find grace to help in our time of need” until we maximize our opportunity to grow into the “stature of the fullness of Christ.”(See: Psalm 91, Heb. 4:16, Eph. 4:13, 2 Pet. 1:5–7). What can you do today to take your next step of growth in godliness?
(Hebrews 5:14 NKJV) But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
