Longsuffering

• Longsuffering is not often a word we hear today. Different versions of the Bible translate longsuffering as endurance or patience, which evoke images of running a race or waiting in line. Neither captures the essence of longsuffering.

• The word longsuffering, as the King James Version of the Bible names this fruit of the Spirit, expresses an idea beyond endurance or patience. It means more than just suffering for a long time. It means more than just grinning and bearing whatever trial we are going through until it is over, and we can relax.

• Longsuffering is patiently enduring with grace, mercy, and love, and is a trait of God. Numbers says, “The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.”

• God is patient with his wandering people, seen time and again through the scriptures. He withholds the wrath they deserve while showing them the way back to him, enduring their rebellion, grumbling, and foolishness.

• Likewise, he calls his people to be longsuffering in this life. The Apostle Paul prays for the Colossian church in the first chapter of his letter to them, asking God to fill them with knowledge, bless their good works, strengthen them with power, and make them longsuffering.

• Paul knew they would face persecution, trials, sickness, poverty, abandonment, and death. He faced all of those things himself, suffering long as he spread the good news of Jesus throughout the Roman Empire. He knew many would fall away from the faith when those trials hit.

• Suffering long with patience, endurance, and hope is impossible apart from the Spirit. God gives us his Spirit when we put our faith in Christ, and that Spirit enables us to endure the trials we will inevitably face while holding onto the God who promises to sustain us till the end.