Love is Patient Yet Speaks Truth in Love

Love is Patient

The first attribute of love is patience. When I am impatient, I do not always verbalize it. But, on the inside, my impatience may be starting to boil. If I am not obedient to take it captive (2 Corinthians 10:5), it boils over, and there I am, ugly all over me and whoever is around!

Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, produced in us through the indwelling Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). If I am exhibiting impatience, I am stepping out into the flesh, no longer controlled by the Spirit but the flesh. I am using my body as an instrument of unrighteousness ( Romans 6: 12-14) ( Galatians 5:19-21).

1 Corinthians 13:1

Patience is Not Permissive it Shows Faith in God

When you and I show patience with someone, whether it be a sister in Christ who is in sin, a friend who may not understand the truths of God’s Word, or a child who is caught in the sin of lying, our patience with them is not being passive nor permissive. Showing patience does not think sin is okay.

Our most significant example of patient love is God. His love is compassionate, gracious, patient, and abounding in loving-kindness. ( Psalm 103:8) When we love others because God first loved us (1 John 4:19), our response should always be patient. (1 Corinthians 13:4). When we are patient, you and I are resting in the assurance (Hebrews 11:1) God is working everything for good (Romans 8:28). That is faith in action!

Patient Love Speaks Truth

I said earlier, showing patience does not think sin is okay. Nor does it remain silent. God commands you and me always to speak the Truth.

But the Truth we speak must be spoken in love. (Ephesians 4:15) Truth spoken in love does not mutter, complain to oneself when others do not agree or understand. Yea, this one got me!

You and I must always check our motives before speaking. If what we are saying is Truth, our attitudes can be far from loving! We can be that noisy gong and clanging cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13:1) When I hear loud, unpleasant noises, my immediate response is to cover my ears.

Love Hurts

Love is never noisy. That is not to say love does not hurt. Hebrews 4:12 teaches, “the word of God is living and active sharper than a two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of the soul and the spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

God’s word has cut open and laid my heart bare! It hurts. A time of discipline is not joyful (Hebrews 12:11). But after repentance ( 1John 1:9), it produced the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11). This is what God’s patient love does!

The Word of God, His two-edged sword,

• cuts into our fleshy heart,
• reveals the wickedness of our hearts,
• judges the intentions of our hearts,
• disciplines us,
• forgives us,
• restores us!

Love does hurt, and the motive behind the Truth we speak should always bring the sinning believer or sinning unbeliever to the foot of the cross.

Patient Love Speaks for the Glory of God

Sin is ugly! I hate sin, especially the sin that still dwells in me. Sin is rebellion against God! It makes a mockery of His Holiness! Patient love speaks for the Glory of God. All that we say or do is to glorify God. (1 Corinthians 10: 31). But, we can still be in sin when we try to speak for the glory of God.

Believers are at different stages of sanctification. Some are more mature than others eating meat and have long left the milk of the word. Others are still feeding on the milk of God’s word and moving on to the meat. If we try to force-feed the meat of God’s Word to a growing infant, they will choke. Remember who you were and where God has brought you! I pray all of the time for God to remind me of who I was before He saved me. ( Titus 3: 3-7) You and I also need the reminder. We do not know it all! We do not have nor will we ever have a complete understanding of the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 13:12) Neither do we know what God is doing in the hearts of those around us. (John 3:8)

We are all on the same playing field if I can put it that way! Patient Love speaks for the glory of God but is patient toward the weaker, less mature brother or sister. We are called to teach, not beat ( Titus 2:1-15).

Patient Anger Grieves Over Sin

There is righteous anger. Those things which make God angry should make us angry. But we are instructed not to sin in our anger. David in the Old Testament and Paul in the New Testament spoke about anger, saying, “Be angry but sin not” (Psalm 4:4 and Ephesians 4:26). Jesus was angry in (Matthew 23:37, Mark 11:15-18, John 2:14-16) He turned over the tables of those making the house of God into a house of merchandise.

However, we cannot overlook that right before He turned over the tables in the temple, He wept over the blindness, the sinfulness, of the people in Jerusalem. He was angry but grieved over the sin that made it necessary to turn over the tables. (Luke 19:4-46) Before we turn over and expose the sin, are we grieving over the evil that makes it essential to even speak of it?

A Heart of Patience that Tames the Tongue of Impatience

I do not always know the intent of my heart. The bible tells me my heart is desperately wicked. ( Jeremiah 17:9) I cannot understand it, but God does. Before we ever speak the Truth, we must do a heart check. We need to approach the throne of grace, asking God to lay bare our hearts before Him. When He patiently shows us the state of our own heart, and He will, we will be better equipped to tame the tongue of our impatience.

PLEASE STAY CONNECTED:)

Thank you for stopping by the blog today!

I would love for you to join my blog community for weekly and monthly newsletters, freebies, and exclusive discounts. And join me on instagram as we build a community of women cultivating the mind of Christ through in-depth Bible Study.