Patience - Romans 15:4-6
How great is your patience? And does your level of patience vary, depending on where you are and what you’re doing? Mine does. And it’s probably the same for most of us. When we’re under pressure – usually a time constraint, when we have an appointment we need to keep, or a deadline we mustn’t miss – that’s when we have little patience with the people who are slowing us down or getting in our way! This describes the quality of being patient: the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
But there’s another sort of patience: the quiet, steady perseverance; the even-tempered care and diligence towards completing a task; the capacity for calmly enduring painful or trying situations.
So which one is Paul writing about? He’s certainly talking about endurance – which he twice couples with encouragement – recorded in the Scriptures so we may learn from our ancestors; and an attitude of mind we should have towards each other. Endurance is a constituent part of both types of patience: we are asked to patiently endure whatever short-term annoyance or provocation sits before us, just as even-temperedly as longer-term difficult tasks and situations. And the encouragement to do so is also included in these verses: so that we might have hope [v4] and may glorify the Father [v6].
Is hope a factor in patience then? I think so, yes. Hope in Jesus, and what he did for us on the cross; hope in the Spirit to guide and be with us; hope in the Father who created us and whose own patience is evidenced time and again in the Old Testament, when the Israelites lost faith in their Rescuer God and impatiently turned their backs on him.
Hope gives us a promise for the future – either in this world or beyond – which in turn, gives us a reassurance that eventually all will be well,
and therefore encourages us to practice patience – long-term perseverance and short-term calm – so that we are able to put others before ourselves in such a way as to reveal God’s glory through our Spirit-fuelled patience.