Recently I had a discussion with a man who was trying to unite with us. I had to lovingly correct some poor doctrine he had and he was not receiving it very well. I told him in love unless he repented / got his doctrine correct per God's Word there was no way he and I could be united in the faith. At that point, he blurted out that I was NOT being very longsuffering!
I made the decision to do a quick study on this word as other men have tried to use the same argument in the past when in that same situation. The word is used 18 times in the bible and I have listed some of them below:
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
Psalm 86:15
And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth
Exodus 34:6
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. 2 Timothy 4:2
By pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
2 Corinthians 6:6
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Galatians 5:22
The Greek Word for longsuffering is mä-kro-thü-mē'-ä
and it means:
patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance patience, forbearance, longsuffering, slowness in avenging wrongs
I think most people would agree with and understand that meaning so how could I disagree?
In fact, a fruit of the spirit is longsuffering.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Galatians 5:22
We as believers and followers of Christ are indeed to be longsuffering and patient with each other for the glory of God.
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Ephesians 4:2
I believe the real issue is the context and situation this word is being invoked by these men who use it our of context. While we are to be patient with each other in longsuffering, a key fact we must note is that there is not one place in ALL OF SCRIPTURE that tells us to be longsuffering with sin and false doctrines. ( with others or ourselves ) Not one verse can be found!
In fact, the opposite is true as we are told to flee sin, rebuke, call out, mark, avoid and reject those who hold to and keep sin or teach such things. ( 1 Timothy 5:20, Romans 16:17, Titus 3:9-10, 2 Thessalonians 3, Matthew 18 and other verses )
What is true godly fruit is to be patient and longsuffering with other saints as they strive to follow God and work out their salvation with fear / trembling in repentance. Do not mistake or confuse that with those who walk in, cling to sin and teach false doctrines on an on going basis.
Note: patience is part of its meaning as well as NOT getting angry really fast.
Jesus was NOT very longsuffering with Peter when he said GET BEHIND ME SATAN!
As always check your context and rightly divide the word as it is critical to walk in all truth. We all should strive to have patience and longsuffering daily no doubt, but we should NEVER over look / allow sin or false ways in the body or into our relationships with other professing saints. That is leaven ( sin ) that will eventually affect the entire body so we must avoid that at all cost!
Galatians 5:9
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump
Imagine if you saw your family being attacked and the police did nothing but said, well we want to be longsuffering with that criminal. That would be an improper use of the word longsuffering. We too must correctly apply it to keep God's truth pure and not to protect our sin and false ways.
If you ever do meet us or have the occasion to communicate with us, we will promise to strive to be longsuffering with all who walk in and keep the Lord's truth and to help them understand it. To be balanced I also promise when you walk in false ways and sin, I will loving call you out to repent and leave you if you do not so you can see the seriousness of your sin and correct it asap for God's glory.
Please make sure you are always using biblical longsuffering in the correct way. In love, truth, patience and sound doctrine but never to allow sin or bad theology that smears the Fathers Word or corrupts the body of Christ.
God be praised
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