"Short time or long – I pray to God that not only you but all who are
8. THE PATIENCE OF PAUL
"Short time or long – I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains" (Acts 26:29). The New Testament makes it clear that the apostle Paul accomplished as much as – if not more – than any other New Testament apostle. Yet his incredible achievement in missionary journeys that led to the expansion of Christianity throughout the vast gentile world would never have occurred without the simple quality of patience.
We do not know if Paul exhibited patience before his conversion, though his determination to pursue goals was clear in both his years of training under the eminent teacher Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) and his early persecution of the church (Acts 22:4). When we look at Paul's ministry, we certainly see patience at work. Soon after his conversion Paul journeyed into "Arabia" – presumably to study and learn the way of Christianity in detail – for some three years (Galatians 1:17). Then, time and again throughout his subsequent missionary journeys, Paul exhibited patience with even the most difficult events and circumstances.
Certainly, by the latter part of his missionary work he could confidently exclaim that whether it would take a "Short time or long," he was glad to do the work God had given him to do (Acts 26:29). Yet it is in Paul's captivities, at the end of his career, that his patience shines the most. Consider a single portion of that time.
A Patient Prisoner for Christ When Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea in Judea, before being sent to Rome, he languished in a Roman jail cell for two whole years. Then, at last, things started to look up. The Roman governor, Felix, announced that he would soon decide Paul's case and allowed Paul some limited privileges (Acts 24:22-24). Felix even went with his wife Drusilla to hear Paul's gospel message – and he continued to speak with Paul on an ongoing basis. It appeared that there might finally be light at the end of the tunnel of Paul's imprisonment.
But soon after this we are told: "When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to
the Jews, he left Paul in prison" (Acts 24:27). This must have felt like a crushing blow to Paul, yet he continued to accept the circumstances in which he found himself. As it was, Paul's time in prison had only just begun.
Paul was then taken to Rome where he spent a further two years under house arrest (Acts 28:30) awaiting his trial and ultimate acquittal, probably in AD 63. Within a few years he was arrested again and spent another year or so in a jail cell in Rome, until his execution around AD 68. So, the apostle was under arrest and imprisoned for five long years of his ministry. Yet the letters Paul wrote during that time show nothing but patience with these events. Although he had done nothing wrong, Paul never displays frustration, anger, or impatience with his situation. Instead, he used the opportunities that his imprisonment gave him and shared the gospel with all those he met during his time in prison.
As we saw in Chapter 2, in his letter to the Romans Paul affirms the simple reason for his patience with these trying events: "we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience. And patience, experience; and experience, hope. And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:3-4 KJ2K). Paul knew that patience with trying events and circumstances leads directly to the kind of character that God desires to develop in us – and Paul displayed this endurance or patience with events as much as any other biblical figure.
Paul's Patience with People But Paul's patience was not just with events beyond his control. The apostle's letters are full of examples where he exhibited great patience with the individuals and groups with whom he worked. It is true that Paul's "people patience" was strained at times – as when he and Barnabas argued over whether to allow John Mark to accompany them on their missionary journey (Acts 15:36-40), and in dealing with some of the persistent problems in the churches he established (for example, 2 Corinthians 10-13).
But for every instance of impatience in Paul's story, we find him being patient – sometimes amazingly so – many other times. In writing the book of Acts, Luke was doubtless very aware of Paul's patience with people, and the Gospel writer underscores it on several occasions. For example, Acts 16:16-18 tells us that while Paul was preaching in Philippi, a
spirit-possessed girl followed him shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." Luke says that the woman kept this up for many days until, finally, Paul became so annoyed that he commanded the spirit to come out of her! Forever the good historian, Luke records not only Paul's annoyance, but the many days of patience that led to it.
Lessons for Us The details we are given regarding the patience that the apostle Paul exhibited – both with circumstances and with people – show that he was certainly one of the most patient of biblical characters. Yet we are given enough details to make it clear that there were sometimes limits to Paul's patience – as there are to ours. Perhaps Paul had been impatient in his earlier life, we do not know; but the New Testament does make it clear that Paul's patience increased over time and that by the end of his ministry he had developed an incredible amount of patience. We see this in his famous words to Timothy:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day— and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Timothy 4:7-8). These are not only the words of a victorious warrior of the faith, but also the words of someone who had longed for something for the greatest part of his adult life – and had worked endlessly while he patiently waited for that great goal. Paul had learned patience with events as well as with people, and his story remains an encouragement to all of us as we strive to learn patience, too.
AFTERWORD: DO YOU NEED MORE IMPATIENCE?
"I the LORD have spoken. The time has come for me to act."
(Ezekiel 24:14) The word "impatience" is not a typo in the title of this Afterword. Patience is a good thing, of course – as we have seen throughout this book. The Bible shows that God is incredibly patient with us, and he expects us to learn to be patient with others, also (Colossians 3:12). So why would we need impatience?
As with many aspects of the Christian life, there is sometimes a place for impatience as well as patience, just as there is a place for both mercy and judgment, "a time to be silent and a time to speak" (Ecclesiastes 3:7), and so on. Proper impatience does exist and it can be the "other side of the coin" of patience – and just as necessary.
To understand this, we must first see that impatience can be an attribute of God. The book of Judges tells us that after suffering affliction for some time, the ancient Israelites: "put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel" (Judges 10:16 ESV). The Hebrew expression translated "impatient" in this verse is literally to become "short of soul," in the way we would say "short-tempered" or "running short of patience" – in other words, impatient – not with Israel, but with its suffering. This verse is clear in telling us that God can express the trait of impatience when he views human-caused suffering and he wants to end it.
God can be impatient with other things, also – especially sin. He is patient almost beyond belief when it comes to working with us to help us toward repentance, but his patience with sin can run out, as we see in the narrative of the flood where we are told: "Then the Lord said, 'My Spirit will not contend with humans forever'" (Genesis 6:3). A number of biblical writers, including the apostle Paul, also stress that God's patience has limits (for example, Romans 2:4-5).
We find other examples of righteous impatience in the New Testament. Jesus himself displayed impatience with the money-changers in the temple (Matthew 21:12–13) and on occasions such as when his disciples (who had been given the power to do so) could not heal a spirit-tormented child (Luke 9:1, 38-40). Luke tells us that Jesus' response was an
impatient one in this situation: "You unbelieving and perverse generation… how long shall I stay with you and put up with you?" (Luke 9:41). Notice that the object of Jesus' impatience was not the individuals themselves, but the lack of belief of a whole group despite the fact they had already witnessed many miracles.
Putting the various scriptures together that show godly impatience, we see a definite pattern. God, and the Son of God, are clearly said to express impatience at times, and it is usually with human-caused suffering, sin, and disbelief. How does this apply to us? We are certainly called to be patient, and we are not called to express impatience with others. But a right response to the three factors of sin, disbelief, and avoidable suffering should increase our impatience with ourselves.
Sometimes we need to become more impatient with our own sins and failings in order to make greater progress in overcoming them (Romans 7:24-25). Sometimes we need to be impatient with our own disbelief when it is holding us back from spiritual growth (Mark 9:24). And we need real impatience with ourselves when we cause any kind of avoidable suffering – even in situations where we think we are in the right (Acts 8:3). That kind of right impatience, if it is utilized, spurs us on to move closer to God and to grow more like him with his help.
We also need a kind of impatience when we view much of the suffering that fills the world in which we live – and that impatience can be rightly expressed in more fervent prayer for the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:10) and more active involvement in doing what we can to help alleviate suffering (Matthew 6:2-4). But in any situation, the right kind of impatience for us to feel as Christians should always be aimed at ourselves, whether to further propel us in the growth for which we all should be aiming or to spur us to do more to help others.
If we are working to master the quality of patience, we should keep up the good work – but we should not forget the necessity of righteous impatience where that characteristic is also appropriate!
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