Section II: What is Patience & How is it Wrought
pleasing of the Lord consists, first, in fruitfulness in good works—the active obedience of the Christian life—"being fruitful in every good work," as the same verse states. But also, and especially, in "being strengthened with all might, unto all patience and long-suffering," as the second and chiefest, and most glorious part which the Christian must perform to complete the former. For this reason, it requires a more excellent and glorious power to effect it than the active obedience did, as verse 11 shows: "Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering."
Thus far for the explanation of these words, in preparation for that which I shall more deliberately address in what follows.
SECTION II: What is Patience and How is it Wrought I have three general topics to address:
I. What patience is.
II. How patience is produced.
III. What it means for patience to have a perfect work.
I. What the Grace of Patience Is
Taken in its full extent—that is, in its comprehensive sense—patience is a steadfast perseverance, whether in doing the will of God without growing weary, or in bearing the will of God with submission, quietness, and cheerfulness, continuing to the end of one's life. In this broader view, it pertains both to doing and to suffering. The good ground, in the parable of the sower, is said to bring forth its fruit—with all its fruit—through patience.
First, it pertains to doing the will of God: Romans 2:7, "To those who by patient continuance in well-doing"—the Greek phrase is, "the patience of a good work"—"seek for glory and honor," and so forth.
The reason patience is necessary for every good work is because there is a difficulty attached to every duty. To exercise any grace, we must have patience to perform the duty consistently, and to persevere in the practice of that grace. There is difficulty not only from our own sinful nature, to which the commands of God are burdensome, but also from the circumstances of the times, places, and persons among whom we live—even if they do not openly persecute us. For example, to refuse to join in the same excesses and corruptions of society; to speak or act in ways that displease the company around us. To live chastely in a place like Sodom was a trial for Lot. To condemn the world through a godly lifestyle—such as by being more strict than others on the Lord's Day, or by maintaining family worship and the like—is to go against the current. To be distinct, Matthew 5:47, and similar examples.
Hebrews 12:12 says, "Lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees." From this I observe that in performing good deeds of any sort, we are not only spiritually lame and halting, which makes us awkward in our duties, but we are also prone, because of this weakness, to stray from the path—especially when it is rugged. The
members we walk with are feeble; the hands we act with hang down.
Therefore, the performance of good duties is difficult. To go uphill in the path of obedience—even in private and personal matters— without growing weary, to keep a straight course without selecting or avoiding what lies before us, and not to neglect the work God sets before us (Ecclesiastes 9:10), especially not to faint when approaching the summit of our efforts—this involves great weariness. What chiefly strengthens and encourages us in all this is patience, as stated in Hebrews 12:1, "Let us run with patience the race set before us." We need patience for every step, both in doing and in suffering.
And in the verse just before that exhortation—verse 11—the Apostle attributes calm and steady progress in holiness to patience, which is formed through suffering: "Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyful, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Therefore, a calm, determined, and strong performance of all duties of righteousness comes from patience and is greatly the result of that patience we acquire through afflictions. A life of suffering greatly contributes to a life of action; for as patience is needed in doing the will of God, so also suffering His will prepares the heart for it.
However, this patience in well-doing is not, in the strictest sense, the patience that is spoken of in my text.
Patience is, more precisely, the enduring of the will of God in any form. This is where patience is most clearly and fully displayed. And this is the renowned patience which we frequently encounter in Scripture, and which the text here calls for—patience in the face of sudden and unexpected trials and temptations, which men fall into,
as mentioned in verse 2. This is not the patience required for the ordinary and continual path of personal obedience in the duties of the Christian life.
Objection.—But you will say, My sufferings are not for the gospel, as were those of the believers here addressed. Rather, they are merely providential events that have befallen me through ordinary providence, and such as equally come upon the ungodly. They do not arise from outward persecution for Christ's sake or for the sake of my profession, but from the sovereign hand of God.
Answer.—I shall give a reply to this objection once for all.
1. The very words of this text offer some comfort in this matter. It speaks of "trials" in general—trials arising from sudden plunges into affliction—of whatever kind they may be. The Apostle does not strictly limit his meaning to temptations arising from persecution, though those are chiefly in view. His words may rightly be extended to other occurrences under God's providence. The Greek word ὑπομονή, translated "patience," signifies a remaining under pressure, enduring beneath a burden without breaking—whatever the burden may be. It primarily applies to sufferings for the gospel, yet it is not confined to those alone.
2. Moreover, in his argument, the Apostle plainly includes other kinds of sufferings beyond persecution, as shown by the examples he cites to encourage this grace of patience. Among others, and above them all, he brings forward Job—named specifically—as well as the prophets generally. Christ Himself said of the prophets that they were persecuted (Matthew 5:12).
Thus, in James 5:11, "You have heard of the patience of Job." His reference to the prophets in verse 10 is general: "Take the
prophets"—without naming any—"as an example of suffering and of patience." But Job is cited singularly and by name.
Surely, he would not choose for his strongest example someone whose case does not fall within the scope of the very exhortation he is giving. Let us therefore turn to the case and history of Job.
Job's afflictions came solely by providence from God. The Sabeans and Chaldeans plundered his possessions and slew his servants. "The fire of God," or fire from God, as his messengers described it in Job
1:16, "has fallen from heaven." It is true that it was Satan, out of malice, who stirred them to do these things; but they did so not in a spirit of persecution, but as ordinary enemies, like the raiding of one region by another. God and Satan had determined the matter together. Indeed, it was God who first gave Satan the occasion and permission to bring these things to pass. Therefore, Job's trials were not for the gospel's sake, nor were they suffered in a context of persecution. Furthermore, Job knew nothing of this transaction between God and Satan while he was enduring his afflictions. During the entire course of his patience, he perceived all to be from the hand of God, though it came in extraordinary form.
If you now desire a definition of patience as it pertains specifically to the suffering of God's will, we must provide it according to the height at which Scripture sets it, for the Word of God itself is the rule and measure—not the imperfect workings found within our own hearts.
Yet what follows will confirm every word of this definition, as it is drawn chiefly from the examples of saints in both the Old and New
Testaments. These demonstrate that this grace is attainable, albeit with those imperfections that accompany all graces in this present life.
Patience is a steadfast, thankful, joyful endurance—persevering to the end of one's life through all trials, however grievous, however great, however long, however devoid of visible hope for relief. It mortifies and subdues the disorder of opposing passions—such as fear, sorrow, worry, and anxiety—which naturally rise in times of affliction. It involves submission to the will of God, for His glory and according to His good pleasure, blessing and sanctifying His name in all things. It waits upon God, sustaining itself by faith in the blessings that are found in God and received from Him through communion with Him and the experience of His love in this life. It also lives in expectation of that glory which is the promised reward once this life is ended.
I might here confirm every word and phrase of this definition, whether by the examples of godly men or by the precepts given in Scripture. But I will refrain from assembling all such proofs at this point, since in the subsequent details that follow, this entire definition will be supported throughout.
SECOND GENERAL HEAD
How Patience Is Wrought Brethren, while I explain how patience is produced, I am also showing you the way and means by which it may be obtained; for it is by the same means that it is produced, nourished, and maintained.
And I shall not depart from the text to do this.
There are two principles set forth here that produce patience. The first is faith: James 1:3, "Knowing this, that the testing of your faith produces patience." And because, in Galatians 5:6, it is written, "faith works by love"—that is, faith accomplishes whatever it accomplishes
through love—therefore we must understand that love also produces patience. And this we see in James 1:12 as well: "Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." Why does the Apostle mention "those who love Him" while speaking of those who endure temptation, unless it is because love enables one to endure temptation? Thus, it is faith in the first place, and then faith working through love in the second place, that produces patience or endurance.
The affirmation of these two principles will confirm the latter parts of the description of patience I previously gave—particularly that aspect whereby the soul finds relief through faith in what may be found in God, and received from God.
I. How does faith produce patience?
Answer.—First, in general: faith is the substance of things hoped for, and indeed of all things revealed in the Word. That is, it makes them real and present to the soul. Faith gives substance to them, as Hebrews 11 shows. Accordingly, faith brings to the soul all the motives and considerations that the Word of God contains. All of these, faith presents as realities, capable of sustaining the soul in trials. Faith is the instrument by which everything is conveyed to the soul—it is the channel that fills the vessel. And by thus bringing home to the soul all the considerations contained in the Word—those which may incline a man toward patience—it works patience. This is the general view.
These considerations in the Word are countless, and I cannot enumerate them all; I will speak only of those most specific to faith.
First of all, faith has a humbling, emptying effect. It strips the soul of all its own worth, righteousness, and self-perceived excellence, and gives it a deep sight of the sinfulness of sin—especially of spiritual sins—and of all that is contrary to holiness and to faith. It fully convinces the soul of its utter guiltiness before God and of its just desert to be destroyed completely. Therefore, any and every affliction it suffers is less than it deserves. Seeing this, faith lays the soul low— as a poor, empty, naked, and wretched creature in every spiritual respect—in the sight of God, and in its own eyes. And this deeply contributes to producing patience.
You will observe, in that golden chain of graces where each subsequent link depends upon the previous—Matthew 5:3–5—that poverty of spirit is placed first: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," that is, those emptied of themselves, who see themselves as possessing nothing, deserving nothing, and able to do nothing spiritually. This true poverty of spirit comes through faith; for blessedness is declared only upon those who believe, and upon the fruits of faith in them, according to Romans 4:7–9.
Second, follows: "Blessed are those who mourn"—that is, those who mourn over their sins. And then third: "Blessed are the meek," those who, having seen their poverty and sinfulness, lie prostrate at God's feet, so humbled and affected that they are willing for God to do with them whatever He pleases. Such is their condition when they have been emptied of self—when they have seen their sins, understood their just desert of destruction, and have been humbled and brought to mourning because of them. These previous dispositions lead to meekness and submission toward God. They leave a man with nothing to say in protest against whatever God may do, but instead to justify God in all and condemn himself. All of these attitudes
render the soul willing and patient to receive whatever comes from the hand of God.
It is a most excellent and fitting word spoken by the Church in that humbled frame of heart described in Lamentations 3:39: "Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?" The Church declares it to be a brutish, irrational contradiction
—entirely unbefitting a man—that there could be anything more absurd. What? A man complain for the punishment of his sins? A man murmur—yes, the word used is to murmur—against God? A sinful man against the holy God, his righteous Judge? Surely not!
And it is certain that "thinking much" of one's own suffering is the root of all impatience; on the contrary, a heart that is submissive to God is the root of all patience.
But why does the Church also include this additional phrase, to press the point even more: "a living man"? "Why should a living man complain?" Are you still alive? Are you still a living man in this world? Then you have little cause to complain, whatever your misery may be. If you are alive, then you are not destroyed. Consider that hell and everlasting destruction is your deserved portion, and that your present suffering is infinitely less than what you deserve.
Therefore, you have no cause for complaint.
Earlier, the Church expresses this very recognition and perception in verse 22: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." She does not say it is because our possessions are not consumed, or that our houses are not burned—for in truth that was the Church's actual condition when she spoke these words. Jerusalem was in ruins, women had been violated, goods were plundered, bodies famished— as you read throughout the book of Lamentations. Yet there remained a remnant who were not consumed. And this, she says, is
due to the Lord's mercies—His tender mercies, from the depths of His compassion, as the Hebrew indicates. This fact—that their condition was something less than total destruction—is the basis for that earlier question in verse 39. It is also the reason for her profound submission expressed throughout verses 22 to 39.
You find the same reasoning used elsewhere, as a ground for patience, after the return from captivity: Ezra 9:13, "You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespasses." Shall a living man then complain for the punishment of his sin, when it is so infinitely less than he deserves?
This consideration produces patience, and rightly so. If a man deserves to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, and he is only branded on the hand, shall he complain? Let that man fall on his knees before the judge or the king, and give thanks that he has not received what he truly deserves—the gallows.
This same consideration also brings a man to accept the punishment of his iniquity, as we read in Leviticus 26:41: "If they accept the punishment of their iniquity"—that is, if they kiss the rod. What causes a man to accept the punishment of his iniquity? It is this: "Oh, the punishment of my iniquity is infinitely less than I deserve; for damnation is my rightful portion." This is the first thing that works patience: the consideration of our own worthiness to be destroyed.
And this is produced by the humbling, emptying work of faith.
Secondly, faith brings home to the soul the dominion of God—His sovereign right and power over a man's life and person—to do with them whatever He pleases; and this alone may well silence and still the heart. Consider Job 9:12: "Behold, He takes away"—destroys a city or a nation, for example, as it is said in Job 12:23, "He increases
the nations, and destroys them; He enlarges the nations, and then brings them low again"—"and who can hinder Him?" And again, in Job 9:12: "Who will say to Him, 'What are You doing?'" As it continues, "If God does not withdraw His anger, even the helpers of the proud are brought low under Him." Or, as the margin reads, "the helpers of strength"—they bow before Him. He took away your goods, and who could stop Him? The fire consumed the city, though its inhabitants were numerous and resourceful enough to have extinguished it; yet the strong stood powerless, only watching, weeping, shaking their heads, and crying out, "Alas!" Why? Because none could prevent Him. They all bowed before Him.
Likewise, in Job 34:31, "Surely it is fitting to say to God, 'I have borne chastisement, I will not offend again.'" And in verse 33,
"Should it"—that is, the evil or the good that He chooses to bring upon you—"be according to your mind?" (The Hebrew reads,
"Should it be from with you?")—that is, based on what is in or from you. Must He first ask your counsel and know your opinion? "He will repay it," or dispense it, as He pleases, "whether you refuse or whether you choose"—whether you are pleased with it or not—"and not I." (This is Elihu speaking on God's behalf.) That is, "Should you govern these matters for Me, and not I Myself?" says God. This must silence every man, just as it did Job. For it continues, "Therefore speak what you know," as if to say, "If you have anything to object to this, then speak." But in truth, this is not something to be argued, but to be fully submitted to.
But, my brethren, faith brings home to the heart a message of a higher sovereignty still—namely, the sovereignty of God's love toward you—and declares to all of you who sincerely profess to belong to God that He has already displayed His absolute dominion in the greatest possible way: by saving your souls. That is absolute
dominion, as Romans 9 makes clear. What else is the meaning of that statement, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy"? It is a declaration of divine sovereignty. Well then, has God displayed His sovereign dominion in saving your soul—has He shown this dominion on the side of mercy? Then surely you may be content for Him to exercise dominion over all else that concerns you. You may well be willing that He should display His dominion over your earthly possessions and outward comforts. He could have exercised
His dominion by destroying both your soul and your substance, as He did with the Sodomites when He burned their city.
Thirdly, faith brings home to the heart the love of God, the soul's interest in Him, and the experience of communion and fellowship with Him. These strengthen the soul with patience even in the greatest afflictions. Consider David at Ziklag—this is a fitting example. The city was burned, his possessions plundered, and his wives taken captive. "And David was greatly distressed," for the people spoke of stoning him. Yet it is said, "But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God" (1 Samuel 30:6). His assurance of his interest in God, and the love of God coming home to his heart as his
God, gave him courage and strength in the face of all.
Likewise, in the midst of extreme famine—when there was no bread, no oil, no wine, no meat—faith wrought the same steadfastness.
Habakkuk 3:17–18 declares, "Though the fig tree shall not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields yield no food; the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls—yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Every necessity for supporting life and nature is here stated as absent. These are the very things you fear to lose—your food, your livelihood, your goods. Yet the prophet says, "I will rejoice in the Lord." A man still has all in God. Faith brings all that is in God
home to the soul—or lifts the heart up to God to draw comfort from Him in the greatest extremities.
Two things are distinct in this text. First, he says, "I will rejoice in the Lord"—even in what God is in Himself: a God blessed forever. Amen!
If God is blessed and happy forever, the soul that rejoices in Him says, "I cannot be miserable." That soul delights in this: that God remains infinitely blessed. And as long as these thoughts and this disposition continue in the heart, it has all that it needs.
The second is this: that He is my God, the God of my salvation. As Habakkuk says, "I will joy in the God of my salvation." And then, surely, while He is happy, I shall be truly happy. "The Lord is my portion, says my soul" (Lamentations 3), even in the midst of all troubles. The Lord grant us such faith.
My brethren, the love of God, brought into the soul by faith, will enable a man to endure in any condition. Consider that passage in Romans 8, where the Apostle triumphs in the love of God: verse 31,
"If God is for us, who can be against us?" And again in verse 35, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or sword?" Mark his resolution in verse 37, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." That phrase, "No, in all these things," is a triumphant dismissing of all he has just enumerated—every circumstance that could seem formidable, or that might be judged adverse to our comforts in this world. And yet he speaks as though faith, grounded upon the love of God and of Christ, treats such adversaries as too low, too weak, and too poor to be worthy of even trying their strength against us. It is as if he were saying, "Are these all that come out against us and threaten us? Are these indeed all?" Then he concludes, "If these are all, we are safe
enough; we are more than conquerors in all of them." And how does this come to pass? He adds, "through Him who loved us." This means not only that Christ, in loving us, joins His strength to ours to sustain us, but it also refers to the love of God and Christ itself, as it is apprehended by faith. It is this love, as the object of faith, that strengthens the soul. "Through Him who loved us" is meant objectively—Christ's love, taken in by the soul, and shed abroad in the heart—supports and strengthens us in all things, enabling us to overcome all. As faith possesses all that is in God for our rejoicing, and thereby helps the soul to patience, so especially it lays hold of His love in every kind of distress.
Fourthly, faith assures us of a good outcome in the life to come—and even in this present life, in those things that relate to the world to come. Luke 21:18–19. In that chapter, Christ had spoken of the greatest distresses that could befall men, as is clear from the preceding verses. He also foretold what would happen to the people of God, personally and particularly, in addition to the general judgment that would fall upon the nation of the Jews. Speaking to His disciples, He says in verse 12, "But before all these things, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, and putting some of you to death." This is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels. And again in verse 16, "You shall be betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends; and some of you they shall cause to be put to death. And you shall be hated by all men for My name's sake."
Yet, for their comfort, He declares in verse 18, "But not a hair of your head shall perish." What an astonishing statement, after just having said they would be put to death! How can He say, "Not a hair of your head shall perish"? Because the outcome will be so glorious that it will make amends for every loss. The soul will testify, "I have lost
nothing—not even a hair." Moreover, for those of you who are not put to death, you shall receive a hundredfold in this life in spiritual blessings. And faith, keeping these promises in view, strengthens and consoles the soul.
Note the very next verse, verse 19, which applies this truth directly to our present topic: "In your patience possess your souls." That is, you may well keep your souls in patience, because I have told you that the outcome will be so blessed and so glorious.
Fifthly, faith sets heaven before us as the reward for patient endurance. James 1:12 declares, "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." This is the Apostle's conclusion to his teaching on patient endurance. "When he is tried" means when his trials have been completed and endured faithfully, and when his faith, throughout the course of his affliction, has worked patience. It is perseverance—faith's enduring patience— that receives the crown. Other graces may strive, but faith and patience are crowned.
Moreover, the degree of reward will be in proportion to the measure of a man's trials and the degree of patience with which he endured them. And faith, in beholding that glory, gives strength to patience.
Romans 5 confirms this. Faith causes us first to "rejoice in the hope of the glory of God" (verse 2), and then it enables us to "glory in tribulations also" (verse 3), because our hope in that glory strengthens us. That hope is increased by tribulations, which produce patience (verse 4). And patience, in turn, produces experience—that is, repeated and fresh experiences of our own graces and of God's dealings with us in the midst of trials. These experiences further strengthen and refine our hope—a hope so firm
that it does not make us ashamed (verse 5). This is not only because our hope will not be disappointed at death, but also because our hope in our hearts, even now, will not fail us. For in addition to those former experiences, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us." This shedding abroad of God's love is no less than the earnest and foretaste of that coming glory.
And this, too, is given as the reward of our patience and our tribulations—which are but the loss of earthly things, in exchange for which we receive the hope and beginning of everlasting glory.
Suppose you had possessed all the brass and pewter in your house, and they were melted in a fire—but then, by the same fire, transformed into gold. Suppose the stones paving your yard, or the bricks and mortar of your walls, were changed into precious stones; your glass windows, which were shattered, turned into diamonds— would you then have reason to complain of your loss? Rather, you would rejoice. Now read Isaiah 54:11–12: "O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted: behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones." And if by these losses you have gained any increase of grace, then much of this promise in Isaiah has already been spiritually fulfilled in you. And these restorations occur in this life. But in addition to these, you have "a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1), which is ready and waiting for you.
Those believing Hebrews were well able to endure the loss of their goods with joy, because they had, as it were, received sealed bills of exchange in their hearts, guaranteeing their full recovery in eternal treasures above. That was their exact situation: "You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in
heaven a better and enduring substance" (Hebrews 10:34). And this same blessed portion shall be yours, if you respond to your losses with faith and patience. That same chapter of Hebrews continues:
"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise" (verses
35–36).
Thus far for the working of patience by faith.
II. Our Love to God Works Patience Love to God within us works patience—faith working through love, as I showed from verse 12. Love to God causes us to cling to Him, and thus to follow Him through all seasons of suffering and trial.
That great convert, in whom faith and love abounded at the time of his conversion—1 Timothy 1:14—was moved, through love for the name of Christ, to utter in the strongest terms, "What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus"
(Acts 21:13). It was love for that name that inflamed his heart.
Indeed, his love rose to such an intense height that he could even wish to be accursed from Christ, if it might lead to the salvation of his brethren, as he says in Romans 9. One may wonder how he would have exercised patience under that curse—if it meant hell itself. But the love that enabled him to wish it would have enabled him to endure it; so he believed, or he would never have wished such a thing.
On a similar account of love for Christ's name, those two apostles rejoiced "that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41). Love makes the glorifying of God and Christ—and the will of God, which is always aimed at His glory—dearer to us than
anything else. Yes, that God should have His will for His own glory —"if it be the will of God," says the Apostle, with respect to our sufferings—calms and quiets the heart in all things. It is true, I may be chastened in affliction for my sins, and I humble myself under that. But beyond this, it is the good pleasure of God to ordain it so; and love rejoices that His will is done—not only that it is done by me, but that it is done upon me. And the word of the Lord is good in both, and blessed be His name.
In Romans 8—where, as we saw, we are "more than conquerors through Him who loved us"—it is the love of God to us that is expressly mentioned. Yet, our love to Him is also silently implied as a concurrent cause. For the very nature of those words suggests that the soul, apprehending the love of Christ—τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντος, "of Him who loved"—is thereby stirred, out of a reciprocating love, to courage in the conflict and victory in the trial. There is one small word in verse 36 that further reveals this: "For Your sake we are killed all the day long," our lives in danger continually, "we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." This phrase, "for Your sake," is taken from Psalm
44, which Paul quotes: "As it is written, 'For Your sake,'" etc. Clearly, it is the love within us toward God, and our steadfast adherence to Him in that love, which causes us willingly to suffer and endure, because it is for His sake.
Though the Apostle's discourse centers on magnifying God's love and Christ's love toward us—as the primary power, when received by faith, that produces such endurance—the Psalmist, on the other hand, presents the church's love for God as a cooperating cause: "All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten You, nor have we been false to Your covenant" (Psalm 44:17). And in verses 18–22:
"Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way, though You have crushed us in the place of jackals and
covered us with deep darkness. If we had forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For He knows the secrets of the heart. Yet for Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." If faith and love together can say, "It is for Your sake, O
God," then patience answers, "I can bear it—yes, even rejoice in it— for the sake of Him who loved me." Just as the Apostle says he could do all things through Christ who strengthened him, so love can do all things for Christ, who loved him and gave Himself for him.
To conclude this point:
If our love for our brethren—which flows from our love for God— produces such great patience toward them, as described in 1
Corinthians 13: "Love suffers long and is kind; it envies not, rejoices not in iniquity; it bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things"—all of which refer to our love for men—then how much more must love to God, the root of that love, enable us to exercise the same patience toward Him? He can do no wrong, nor cause any injury. He is holy and righteous in all His ways, and all His dealings with us are mercy and truth. It is for His sake, also, that we bear with our brethren. And He has loved us and given His Son for us.
It was a profound and godly saying from a saint under an unkind trial from man: "If it had been a man who treated me thus, I could hardly bear it" (as David said, Psalm 55:12), "but it is God—and I can take anything well at His hand."
And thus much for the second general head.