Patience

“Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.”
(James 5:7-8)

How do we handle when something comes up that seems unfair?

This passage seems to talk about being patient like a farmer waiting for crops, but if you read the entire passage the writer has just got done blasting against the godless rich people of his city and time, and then this sentence starts with “therefore” so he is linking the two thoughts together.

James is telling the readers to be patient and wait for the coming of the Lord, because when he does everyone will be judged. We can read that and say “It’s been a long time and the Lord hasn’t come, so when will justice be meted out?” Well, for those whom James was writing about, they have all died and gone to their judgment before the throne, and if the Lord chooses to tarry, so it will be for all of us. We need to seek comfort in the fact that we may not see all wrongs be righted in our lifetime, but know that in the eternal scheme things will all be made well and right. Coupled with that thought we also need to realize that not only will the “other people” we are thinking about be judged, but so will we!!

We can’t control other people, we can’t control the events and circumstances of life, but we can control ourselves and our reaction and response. That is the only thing we should be concerned with. It simply isn’t profitable to worry or focus on what other people should do, but our thoughts would be so much more productive if everyone, including ourselves, spent our time looking to what we can fix in own minds and lives.

We must also learn to be patient not only with ourselves but with others.

J. B. Lightfoot wrote * “… makrothumia [“patience”] is the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong.” The word does not occur in classical Greek and only rarely in later Greek. It describes a distinctively Christian virtue, which was not a virtue at all to the Greeks.

• For a Greek, it was a virtue not to tolerate any insult or injury without taking vengeance.
• For Christians, the virtue was to be able to take revenge, but to refuse to do so

It’s much the same with us – it doesn’t seem right or honorable to endure insult or injury from others, but that isn’t what God asks us to do.

When you read the fruits of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 13:4, the first one mentioned is patience! Lack of patience can actually be a sign of not trusting enough in God to work in your circumstances.

If we truly trust God in all parts of our life, then we know that “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

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* William Barclay, New Testament Words [Westminster Press], pp. 196, 197