Learn to Be Patient with One Another
Notes
Transcript
Intro: A little boy was sitting on the front steps of his home. His face was cradled in his hands, and he looked very upset. His father came home and asked him what was wrong. The sad son looked up and said, “Well, just between us, Dad, I’m having trouble getting along with that wife of yours.”
We all have people in our lives with whom we have trouble getting along; that is why we need to “Learn to Be Patient with One Another.”
Text; Eph. 4:1-3
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Our first lesson in Believer Building was to Love One Another and then to be United with One Another. Now Paul puts them both together in these scriptures and says they can be achieved only if we will “Learn to Be Patient with One Another”
Patience- the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset: the willingness to wait upon God and His will.
Patience is almost always a human disposition [a person's inherent qualities of mind and character]. It is tempting to consider patience simply as a virtue to be cultivated, but it is first of all a divine disposition. Indeed, the patience of God frequently serves as the source and pattern for human patience.
The word translated patient, or “longsuffering,” means “long-tempered” or “taking a long time to boil.” This Greek word always means to have patience with people, not things or situations.
The Greek word that means patience toward things or circumstances; it is usually translated perseveres.
12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
Three ways we can learn to be patient and cut others some slack.
1. Lowliness;
1. Lowliness;
Humble- “lowliness of mind,” which is the opposite of being high-minded and arrogant. In other words, we should have modest opinions of ourselves.
Humility takes the pressure off of others of being required to reach our standards and only the standards of Christ. Too often we can put undue burdens upon others that Christ never intended for people to carry! [Pharisaic/legalistic]
4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,
6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Humility before God is nothing if not proved in humility before men.
Andrew Murray
2. Gentleness;
2. Gentleness;
Humility always produces gentleness, or meekness.
Gentle- (PRAIOTĒS, prah-o-tace) means “power under control” and refers to a domesticated animal, such as a horse, that still has its strength but is under control. [Power of Christ in us controlled by his reins, Holy Spirit]
Being gentle requires we understand we are all different; we are each unique, or one of a kind. That means even though we were created for the same purpose [glorify God] we don’t do that the same way.
[1 Cor. 12] We see a diversity of spiritual gifts to glorify God.
4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.
Diversity of body parts to function as the whole
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?
18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
Gentleness is being able to celebrate the differences we have in the strength of the Lord!
3. Forbearing;
3. Forbearing;
Forbearing- bearing with one another, endure, put up with.
This is the active part of patience because the word bearing, or “forbearing,” is a verb, which means it is something we do.
There are some people that annoy us, are more of a burden than a blessing, and are just down right weird/peculiar. Forbearing means we must work on not letting those people irritate us.
Luke 21:19 (NKJV)
19 By your patience possess your souls.
11 The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, And his glory is to overlook a transgression.
1 Corinthians 13:4–5a (NKJV)
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely;
Bearing with one another in love means we put up with annoying traits in other people; we make allowances for their differences the same way they do for us
4. God’s Patience with Us;
4. God’s Patience with Us;
The main reason we need to develop patience is because God is patient with us.
God had a lot of patience with, Gideon, Jonah, Job, Peter and the apostle Paul. If I were God I would have zapped them all! But God’s patience proved profitable in their lives and in the lives of those they had influence with.
God’s patience has proved to be profitable in our lives as well.
4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Close;
Since we have recieved patience from God, it is only reasonable that we need to learn to be patient with others. In doing so it will not only glorify God but bring blessings to our lives.
Luke 6:38 (NKJV)
38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”