I) Patience Defined

“1.The suffering of afflictions, pain, toil, calamity, provocation or other evil, with a calm, unruffled temper; endurance without murmuring or fretfulness. patience may spring from constitutional fortitude, from a kind of heroic pride, or from christian submission to the divine will. 2. A calm temper which bears evils without murmuring or discontent. 3. The act or quality of waiting long for justice or expected good without discontent. 4. Perseverance; constancy in labor or exertion. 5. The quality of bearing offenses and injuries without anger or revenge.” ~ Noah Webster ~

“God’s patience means God’s goodness in withholding of punishment toward those who sin over a period of time.”
~ Wayne Grudem ~

II) The Patience of God

A) The patience of God in His identification of Himself (Numbers 14:17-19; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 103:8, 145:8)

Exodus 34:6-7 “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

B) The patience of God in saving the lost (Jonah 4:1-3; Nahum 1:3; Joel 2:12-14; Romans 2:4-5)

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

C) The patience of God displayed in the gift of the Son (1 Peter 3:18-22)

1 Timothy 1:15-17 “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen”

D) The patience of God as motivation for holy living

2 Peter 3:14-18 “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

III) The Wisdom of Patience in the Proverbs

A) Patience and understanding (Proverbs 14:7)

Proverbs 14:29 “Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.”

B) Patience and conflict

Proverbs 15:18 “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.”

C) Patience and forgiveness

Proverbs 19:11 “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.”

D) Patience and self-control (Ecclesiastes 7:8-9)

Proverbs 16:32 “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.”

IV) Patience as a Christian fruit and virtue

(2 Peter 3:14-18; 2 Corinthians 6:1-10; 1 Timothy 1:15-17)

Luke 8:15 “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”

A) Patience: the Christian fruit

Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

B) Patience: the Christian clothing

Colossians 3:12-13 “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

C) Patience: the Christian way of life (Romans 12:9-12; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; 1 Thessalonians 5:14-15; James 1:19-21)

Ephesians 4:1-3 “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

D) Patience and Christian glory

Romans 2:6-7 “He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”

“May our meditation upon this Divine excellency soften our hearts, make our consciences tender, and may we learn in the school of holy experience the “patience of saints,” namely, submission to the Divine will and continuance in well doing. Let us earnestly seek grace to emulate this Divine excellency. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). In the immediate context of this verse Christ exhorts us to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us. God bears long with the wicked notwithstanding the multitude of their sins, and shall we desire to be revenged because of a single injury?” ~ A.W. Pink ~