Episode 5: Patience: Enduring in Christ
Our passages today are from: 1 Timothy 1:12-17, Colossians 1:10-12 and Colossians 3:12-13
As we continue with our fruit of the Spirit series, today we're dwelling on Patience, or forbearance and long-suffering - all these words are used in the Bible to describe this essential quality of anyone who's following Jesus. Join us as we talk through both God's patience with us, and how that impacts our patience with others, both in 1 Timothy and Colossians.
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How do we see the two facets of patience (forbearance and endurance) in the life and death of Jesus?
How do you see God's patience towards you in your life?
Where can you see God at work in your life, helping you to grow both in forbearance and endurance?
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This episode is sponsored by Moody Publishers.
A Christian publisher, they aim to resource the church’s work of discipling all people, with titles spanning from Bible commentary and reference to spiritual and relational growth.
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The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Felicity: You're listening to the Two Sisters and a Cup of Tea podcast, the Bible Study podcast for everyday life. We're here for a 20 minute burst of Bible chat over a cup of tea and an English style biscuit as we open up the Bible and drive it to our hearts. This season we're diving deep into the fruit of the spirit together. Whether you've been listening for a while or have just found us, we are so pleased you're here. We're really enjoying partnering with Moody Publishers this season and Fly Through the Bible by Colin Smith is a brief introduction to the Bible that helps you to grasp who God is, who you are, who Jesus is, and what he offers you. It's a short, simple journey through the Bible story full of Colin's pastoral heart for his readers. I think it'd be a wonderful book to read with or to give to an unbeliever or a new believer. And there are helpful discussion questions at the end of each chapter to help stir up conversation on what you've read. Grab a copy wherever you get your books.
Sarah: Welcome to Two Sisters in a Cup of Tea. My name is Sarah, I live in the UK. I'm with my sister Felicity who lives in the States and today we're getting into the fruit of patience together. We're gonna be both in one Timothy chapter one and also we're gonna spend a little bit of time in Colossians as well. Felicity, we've been enjoying some cranberry and orange cookies in our family over the last few weeks. Any fruity bites or fruity tea going on over there?
Felicity: Well, you know you've been basically petitioning me to embrace the fruit tea and today I have embraced the fruit tea. This I feel like is a high class fruit tea. I've been very pleasantly surprised. It's called Southern Sunrise, one of our Australian gifts, Tea2Tea. That's the brand, Tea2. Yeah. And it's actually very good. I mean I will be having it again, so I feel grateful. I was looking for a fruity kind of biscuit bite and I couldn't find one so I've just got a handful of chocolate raisins. I thought that was pretty much fruit in a encased fruit. I mean it's not, I'm not even suggesting it's a biscuit. It does tick the fruit box. Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah: Does it still count? My kids try and persuade me that they're free.
Felicity: Okay Sarah, so we are really enjoying diving deep into the fruit of the Spirit. And at the very beginning of the season, we had a gem of a conversation with Natalie Brand about the union, our union with Christ. And it's really been shaping the way, our understanding of that has really been shaping the way that we've been approaching this. I just wonder whether it might be helpful if we just had a little bit of a recap. How does that conversation, this concept of union with Christ, how is it helping us to dig into the fruit of the Spirit?
Sarah: Really helpful, it? And I think, as I think back on that conversation, I'm just reminded of little phrases she had, like, Christ is our life. Well, it's actually, not her phrase, it's in the Bible. Christ is our life, so it's not just that he's helping us a little bit along the way with this, like, he is everything. We are wholly united to him. And we're becoming like the one we are united to. So the more that we look to Jesus, the more that we see that any fruit is the result of Him being at work in us, the more we're gonna desire that fruit and want to grow. So I think that's been really, really helpful for me. And I think also what's been really helpful for me is just remembering the kind of both that we're being led by the Spirit, that is the Spirit doing the work in us, but also we're called to walk. Also we're called to walk by the Spirit. so that, you know, her phrase, cooperative sanctification, the idea it's both being led and we're called to walk by the Spirit. And I think that's just been really, it's been a really helpful framework, hasn't it? As we've then not only discussed these things, but actually the more that we're discussing them, the more we're then just seeing this out working in real life. I think it's just been, it's been really good to just have that as a kind of in the background, remembering that, crucial to remember that. And I'm looking forward to seeing it continue to work its way into our conversations.
Felicity: Yeah I think that's it, it's the anchor isn't it? Like Christ is literally the anchor. Like that is, he's described as that in the Bible but he is the anchor as we're diving deep into these different aspects of the fruit of the Spirit. And this week we are all about patience so why don't I read these verses from 1st Timothy chapter 1. I'm going to read verses 12 through to 17.
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that in Christ Jesus.Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Sarah: Wonderful. That phrase, immense patience. It's good, it's deep. Felicity, talk us through a kind of definition of patience.
Felicity: Yes, well, there's two aspects to patience, aren't there? We've been really helped by Jonathan Landry-Cruz again in his book, The Character of Christ, and he really clearly delineates we have forbearance, so that is loving tolerance towards others in the signs of weakness, kind of bearing with in that sense. But then also the other side of it is long suffering, so this idea that you're able to endure trials and suffering with joy and those two aspects of patience they are both embodied in Jesus and here in 1 Timothy we just get such a clear picture of that don't we because Christ's patience is the reason that mercy is shown to sinners like this is the the means of of redemption if Christ was not patient then this would not be happening like salvation would not be a thing
Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. And I love the way that Paul is so intentional in using his kind of personal story here to kind of underline the depth of this patience, the immense patients that's been shown to him. So he was once a blasphemer and a persecutor. You know, he describes himself as the worst of sinners.
But that kind of idea that actually as Christ showed his patience to him, that would be an example that no one's too far gone, no one is beyond the patience of God in terms of salvation, in terms of receiving that mercy that's at the heart of the reason he's being patient to show that mercy. And we see that all the way through scripture, don't we? There's provision all the way through Scripture because the Lord patiently is longing for his people to turn to him and Paul is just such a wonderful example here of the way the Lord's patience is shown, yeah, in this way.
Felicity: Yeah, I think that isn't as we see this, as you say, Paul gives this very personal description. This is a testimony to the character of Christ. This is God's posture towards us. He is patient. And the patience is not just that he is patient, that he redeems with his immense patience in that sense, but the patience that takes him, that takes Jesus all the way to Calvary, that he would suffer in order that we might be saved and that is a clear aspect of patience in action that he would you know in the garden that he would say to the Lord your to his father not my will but yours and that is an act of patience that he is embarking on that journey to keeping going on that journey to the cross.
Sarah: All the way through his life though. I mean the patience to come down to earth, to inhabit, to endure through just living in a broken world when all you've experienced is the glories of heaven. That endurance, that level, the depth of endurance that he showed and to do that perfectly, it's beautiful isn't it? It is really, really beautiful. I've been reading in Pilgrim's Progress recently and I've got to the interpreter's house, I don't know if anyone knows the story, but he's given this picture of two men, one is patient and one is not and they're sitting opposite from one another on a table and the picture of patience is just stunning. It's beautiful and Christian, the main character, is so struck by this man's willingness to to forgo the pleasures of this world and to embrace patience because of the glories of heaven to come and just struck with how Jesus kind of inhabits that and also then encourages us to that end as well. But this, the way we see it worked out here with Paul and therefore on behalf of everyone else who will come to Jesus is just beautiful isn't it?
Felicity: I think that's right it is isn't it and I think we just need to sit with it. It's a discipline actually and there's a discipline with all of these fruit of the Spirit as we because the temptation is to jump on to how we can then outwork this and we are going to do that but to sit with this long enough to to behold Christ in his patience and it makes sense then that verse 17 that is the right response that we would be full of praise now to the King eternal immortal invisible the only God the honour and glory and there's a sense in patience, think when I think of patience it's quite a quiet characteristic. Like it can go unnoticed, like someone can be patiently waiting. Like I have to really look for it in my kids to acknowledge it because I'm usually telling them please be more patient. But like when they are being patient I have to like really look for it. So I think there's a real benefit in just kind of following Paul's gaze really at this point and just saying wow.
Sarah: But the quiet patience of the Lord not only in our salvation but also in our sanctification in the fact that oh gosh, it's such a slow burn, isn't it? In terms of growing in fruit, the spirit and growing godliness for ourselves. And we're so prone to wonder. And yet he patiently again and again and again draws us back and helps us to remember his patience towards us. I just, yeah, it's just, it's good seeing it. It's really good seeing it, isn't it? Let's turn to Colossians briefly, where we get a little bit more on what it looks like than to buy the spirit, seek to live out this patience.
Felicity: Yeah, so we're going to jump into Colossians 1 and Colossians, if you don't know it, is a book that is full of Jesus and Paul is praying at the start that the Colossians would continue to bear the fruit of essentially knowing Jesus and we're going to jump in at chapter 1 verse 10. So he's praying, asking God to fill them with essentially the knowledge of Jesus so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
Let's also go to chapter three and we just have a brief mention here chapter three verse 12 and the instruction quite a direct command is therefore as God's chosen people holy and dearly loved clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Sarah: Super helpful isn't it? I love that this, what he's embodying here in this letter is what we've been talking about, they're both being led by the Spirit and seeking to walk by the Spirit too. So this prayer acknowledges that it's according to his glorious might, isn't it? According to, we're strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. So it's the Spirit's work in us so that and one of the main ways we're bearing fruit and living a life worthy of the Lord is that we would have great endurance and patience. And that's just so clear, isn't it, that it is the Lord's work in us, that we need to pray for that work. And then more specifically, as we turn over to that chapter three passage, the patience is actually, it's wholly linked as we seek to clove ourselves with this fruit it's very relational isn't it? So it's not just patience with, well I had patient issues with my shopping trolley this morning, but it's not just with a shopping trolley. This is bearing with others, forgiving others as the Lord has forgiven us. So the way that we see Jesus's patience towards us, his forgiveness towards us, his mercy, should directly impact the way that we then bear with others and forgive others.
Felicity: Yeah, that is just so helpful, isn't it? Because I think you could think, I just need to be really patient and endure as I essentially wait for Jesus' return until I get to heaven. Like, kind of quite an individualistic kind of waiting. But as we put it... Yeah, yeah.
Sarah: and it could be a begrudging weight, it? It could be like, I'm going to grit my teeth and just get on with this, but I'm not going to be happy in doing that.
Felicity: Yeah, yeah, and to have it in that chapter three one where patience is very much flanked by other aspects of the fruit of the spirit. This is Jesus embodied. So what is it to be patient and to bear with one another? I just, that is such a key just aspect of a patient character, isn't it? Because the reality is that we do have to bear with our shopping trolleys. Maybe not quite as much as you. Turns out Sarah has to go to a shop where their shopping trolley's only three wheels. I think that would test anyone's patience, but, and it's not intended it to be three wheels right?
Sarah: It has four wheels, no no it has four wheels but only three work.
Felicity: So we have to bear with circumstances, but really bearing with one another. And the whole reason that that is a challenge is because we are all sinners, as described by Paul in 1 Timothy, who need Christ's immense patience in order to be redeemed. And so therefore, of course, we are going to have to bear with one another and show immense patience by the grace of God, because we know Jesus, because Jesus himself, by his spirit, is at work in us to be able to bear with one another. It makes perfect sense. It's one of those things. It's quite straightforward to say and then you think about it and you're like, it's just profound things going on in that.
Sarah: There's lot, there's deep there isn't there? I think one of the challenges for our hearts though is that like patience is an all-pervading thing, it's an all-pervading part of life isn't it? And I think it's very, I find it very easy to get very disheartened with how impatient I am and how much I see that in so many different aspects of life. And I think actually that's when I need to keep coming back to Jesus and remembering his patience towards me and the way that he has gently led me through how many years of being a Christian and remember that actually even in his patience, he's not chosen to reveal all my sin to me, all my impatience to me in one fell swoop. He's not kind of suddenly said, right, here you go. Here's where you need to work on this. Actually over years, he's helped me to gradually see more and more of where need to keep striving to grow by the power of his spirit. I think that in itself is just a beautiful thing isn't it, that I'm not what I was ten years ago, like I can't always see it but the Lord is at work in me. I am bearing the fruit of patience, I am bearing the fruit of his spirit because I'm united to him so I'm not as impatient as I was and yet and God willing in ten years time I can say Wow, yeah, I've continued to grow. So it's remembering that he is at work in us, even when it feels it can feel disheartening because this is such an all-pervading part of life.
Felicity: No, I think that's right. I really like this, we came across this definition by Jaya paka of it, patience is the Christ-like reaction to all that is maddening. I think that's such a helpful way of thinking about it. But actually then, as we are all realising more and more that the more we dwell on Christ, the more we're inclined towards the Spirit, the more we want to walk this way. And as we behold Christ in his not being aggravated by the many people he encounters in the Gospels. That Christ-like response to all that is maddening literally in the person of Jesus. It's just desirable, isn't it? And I think you're right that the patience we have as we see God in the work of sanctification is a slow work, but a certain work. He is definitely doing it because we're united to Christ and we have the Spirit at work in us.
Sarah: Yeah, but that, like what you were just saying about Christ's response to maddening people and situations in the Gospels, it's really worth going, just walking through a Gospel and just seeing the fruit of patience worked out in his life. With all these roots, we'd wholly recommend just kind of getting stuck into the Gospels and seeing the way that Jesus displays this root because it really is beautiful and it inspires us, doesn't it? It kind of, yeah, it It creates that desire, it kind of reignites that desire for me to, I want to be that beautiful in the way that I respond to that situation. Lord help me.
Felicity: Yeah, yeah, and I think let's just, just finally, just as we're kind of coming to a close here, but just putting it into the big perspective of ultimately we are patiently waiting for Christ's return or the day that we join him in the new creation. And you were speaking earlier when we were talking before we pressed record about just the muscle that's being used as we bear with one another, as we interpersonally work out our patience, that that is a really helpful thing for actually that longer term muscle of waiting well for what is to come. You want to just talk about that bit more or is that kind of the sum total?
Sarah: No, no, no, you summarized that really well. I was just commenting on situations where we've been encouraging people to just think about their situations as a training ground. And actually, this life is a training ground, isn't it? We're waiting for heaven. That is where we're headed. We're headed to the glories of heaven. And actually, the more that we see these opportunities as little moments where we can proactively grow and train ourselves in godliness, the more that we're going to be ready to to endure until that final day.
Felicity: Well Sarah, shall we pray in the light of all of this?
Sarah: Yes please, why don't you pray for us?
Felicity: Heavenly Father, we praise you so much that this is your work. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the way in which he shows us such immense patience. And we pray, Lord, that we would be those who really do clothe ourselves in patience. And please, Lord, would you help us by your grace to walk in the ways of the fruit of the Spirit. We pray that we would be those who are patient because Jesus is patient. Would that be evident to those around us and would that be evident as we wait, as we walk on in this Christian life and we pray this in your name. Amen.
Sarah: Amen. Well, what will it look like for you to marvel afresh at Christ's patience towards you and to pray for that same patience to be at work in you towards others? Why don't you take some time to pray into that? Why not chew that over with a friend, over a cup of tea or a walk, whatever it is. And we look forward to seeing you next Friday as we get into the next Fruit of the Spirit kindness. We can't wait. See you then.
Felicity: This season is sponsored by Moody Publishing.
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