The Unlikely Apostle Pt. 8: “Love Is Patient”

One of the nuggets from Proverbs that has always stuck with me is 15:22, which states, “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed (ESV).” I have repeatedly experienced the wisdom of this verse, both in a positive and negative sense, when I have tried to do things my way and when I’ve allowed biblically-based members of the body of Christ to speak uncomfortable truths into my life.

A Christian counselor, who we will call David, is one of the men God has used to help guide me throughout the last decade-and-a-half. I’m so thankful for the advice and insight he has offered me, and the way he continually challenges me to fully internalize and actualize the biblical truths I teach and write about.

David (who also works as a head pastor) is one of the people I spoke with when I felt God leading me to step down from being the head pastor of the church my wife and I started in 2012. After I filled him in on where I was, true to form, he gave some interesting perspective that I didn’t exactly want to hear.

He agreed with the decision to step down, then asked if he could speak plainly to me about a couple of things. David said that one of the reasons I am often impatient with others is that I tend to be quite impatient with myself. And ultimately, what that boils down to is a need to grow in love, for Scripture illuminates that the two are intertwined. He then read a portion of 1 Corinthians 13.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient… – 1 Corinthians 13:1-4

Paul really throws down the gauntlet here. We can speak in tongues, be a legitimate prophet, teach the Scriptures like no other and abound in faith; yet, if we do not have love everything else is basically wasted. And one of the main ways we can gauge how well we are doing in that department is by how patient we are.

Patience is something we joke about in modern Christian circles. We say things like, “Don’t ever pray for patience.” We do this because we don’t want the suffering that accompanies the journey to becoming a patient person. However, the early Christians viewed patience as anything but a joke. To an early Christian, patience is vital to living faithfully as a servant of Christ.

The apostle, finally, when he would speak of charity, joined to it endurance and patience. “Charity,” he says, “is large-souled; charity is kind; charity does not envy, is not puffed up, is not provoked, does not think evil things; love … believes all things, hopes all things, bears all things.” … The virtue of patience is widely manifest …

It is patience which both commends and keeps us to God. It is patience, too, which assuages anger, which bridles the tongue, governs the mind, guards peace, rules discipline, breaks the force of lust, represses the violence of pride, extinguishes the fire of hostility, checks the power of the rich, soothes the want of the poor, protects a blessed integrity in virgins, a careful purity in widows, in those who are united and married a single affection. It makes men humble in prosperity, brave in adversity, gentle towards wrongs. … It resists temptations, suffers persecutions, perfects passions and martyrdoms. It is patience which firmly fortifies the foundations of our faith. – Cyprian 250CE, Volume 5, p. 852, 854 [CD-ROM]

As I look over the blessings of patience listed by Cyprian, my heart is filled with gratitude for the patient way God has shepherded me along through the years. I’m so grateful for the many people He has brought into my life who have blessed me with godly counsel and words of wisdom. Even when it has hurt to hear the truths they’ve shared, I know I’m better because of it.

Our Lord Jesus suffered long on our behalf. He stayed faithful through unimaginable suffering for our salvation. Patience, therefore, is at the very heart of the Gospel. It is not surprising, then, that in order to become more like Christ we will need to cultivate deep wells of patience.

So please, pray that God would grow me into a more patient follower of Christ. And may you be patient and strengthen your heart, for the coming of the Lord is near.