The longsuffering of God is His willingness and ability to show restraint and self-control in His dealings with man’s sin, challenge, and rebellion. He could judge sin immediately, and in individual cases, He has done so. In general, however, He has endured human wickedness with incredible forbearance and patience. The fact that there is anyone here at all who can speak about it is due to God’s longsuffering!
Yahweh revealed himself to Moses in this way: “And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth…” (Exodus 34:6).
The prophet Nahum speaks of God: “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power” (Nahum 1:3).
Paul asks the self-righteous: “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4).
Elsewhere, Paul speaks of God as the one who “endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” (Romans 9:22b).
In answer to the question of why God does not judge sin immediately, Peter writes: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9).
God could justifiably punish every sin on the spot. But He has no pleasure in the death of the lawless. He wants people to repent and live. That is why He patiently endures the arrogance and hostility of people. He postpones the day of judgment so that men and women, boys and girls, can fall at the pierced feet of Christ Jesus and accept Him as Lord and Savior.
Needless to say, He wants to find His patience with us again. He wants to see us bear the hardships of life patiently and victoriously. This means that we don’t immediately lose our nerve. We don’t go up the walls straight away. We don’t directly fly off the handle. We don’t try to get revenge. Instead, we will win through persuasive patience when we are insulted or mistreated.
An incident in one of Corrie ten Boom’s books illustrates this beautifully. She and her sister Betsy were in a concentration camp where they were subjected to indescribable suffering and humiliation. And yet Betsy told Corrie that if they were released, they would have to do something to help these people. Corrie, of course, thought Betsy meant fellow prisoners. But Betsy wasn’t talking about them at all. She told the guards, her tormentors!
Corrie wrote: “And I wondered, not for the first time, what kind of creature my sister was … On what road she walked while I trudged beside her on the all-too-solid earth.” Corrie saw Betsy walking on a heavenly road while she lived only a natural life, not rising above flesh and blood. In reality, of course, both Betsy and Corrie were walking the path of longsuffering, although Corrie denied this.
The history of Christian martyrs from ancient and modern times speaks of countless, almost unbelievable examples of long-suffering. We admire not only that they were able to endure the worst tortures but also that they prayed for their guilty oppressors.
Most of us will never have the opportunity to endure physical suffering for Jesus. Our patience is only required for minor annoyances, insults, mockery, and derogatory speech. However, we should thank the Lord that we are worthy to suffer for His name’s sake, whatever it may be.
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