“…the fruit of the Spirit is…longsuffering…” The dictionary defines longsuffering when used as an adjective as “bearing injuries, trials. Etc. patient for a long time”, and, used as a noun it is “long and patient endurance of trials.” The Bible uses this word on different occasions as descriptive of God. In Exodus 34:7 He proclaimed to Moses “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.” Then the Psalmist in 86:15 echo’s the same truth saying, But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.” In 2 Peter 3:9 we see that “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” with verse 15 saying “…consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.” What we are being told here is that because of His love for us His wrath and judgment which His law demands be imposed because of our sin which ‘brings forth death” James 1:15, is deferred giving us ample opportunity to repent and turn to Him; Romans 2:4 says, “Or do you despise (think against or disesteem) the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” Because of His longsuffering we are given opportunity to repent and receive His provision for redemption instead of the judgment we deserve, because Christ bore it for “as many as received Him…” John 1:12. Yes, this fruit of longsuffering is an attribute of God Himself, and therefore it should become an attribute of His children toward others even if they “rub us the wrong way” because of His Spirit within us!
God is longsuffering
By Rose Hill
Our God with us suffers long,
And forgives us when we do wrong.
So like our Savior we need to be,
And have this fruit upon our tree.
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version copyright …1982 by Thomas Nelson Co. used by permission.