Christian Patience

Meditations on Second Corinthians

May 2, 2023

Christian Patience

We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love.

2 Corinthians 6:6

Read: 2 Corinthians 6:3-13

Earlier this year, in the Season of Lent, I wrote a meditation on James 5: 7-12. I thought of that meditation when I read today’s passage. Paul exemplifies that meditation and I repeat it here.

Patience was centrally important to the early Christians. They talked about patience and wrote about it.  Christian writers called patience the “highest virtue,” “the greatest of all virtues,” the virtue that was “peculiarly Christian.” They concluded that they, trusting in God, should be patient—not controlling events, not anxious or in a hurry, and never using force to achieve their ends.

Our Christian ancestors believed patience brought to Christians the life of the Beatitudes and the life of love that Paul celebrates in 1 Corinthians 13. How? Because patience is rooted in God’s character; God is patient and is working inexorably across the centuries to accomplish his mission, and in the fullness of time, He has disclosed himself in Jesus Christ.

The heart of patience is revealed in the incarnation of Jesus Christ; Jesus’s life and teaching demonstrate what patience means and beckon those who follow him to a patient lifestyle that participates in God’s mission. Patience is not in human control; people who live a patient lifestyle trust God and do not try to manipulate outcomes; they live incautiously, riskily. Patience is not in a hurry; patient Christians live at the pace given by God, accepting incompleteness and waiting.

My Takeaway: Patience is hopeful; it entrusts the future confidently to God.

(The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, Alan Kreider, Baker Academic, March 29, 2016)

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.