LOVE IS PATIENT
1 Corinthians 13:4
Apostle Paul, having established the importance of love as the basis of all that we do as Christians, goes on to describe the characteristics of love. And the first thing he mentions is PATIENCE, meaning that your love nature should be seen in how patient you are.
Patience is described as the capacity to endure difficult circumstances, tolerate delays, and accept imperfections. Patient love is characterised by your show of understanding and empathy, self-control and calmness in all situations, long-suffering and perseverance, in kindness and compassion, forgiveness and acceptance. Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22) while impatience is borne out of selfishness. When you choose to be impatient, then you are choosing selfishness rather than the way of love, which is the way of God because selfishness seeks its own pleasure at the expense of others while love finds happiness in the happiness of the others.
When we give room for impatience, it is evidence of lack of love. Love is choosing to sacrifice yourself for the good of another while impatience is focused on how the situation will benefit you, and that one quickly before it becomes the turn of other. It is not looking at how to seize the moment for the betterment of the other person. It is glorifying self instead of God.
Love is Patient because patience is central to our faith as Christians. The origin of our new life in Christ is due to God’s patience. If God was not patient with the human raise, he would have utterly destroyed us. In fact, it wouldn’t cause him anything. But we are able to partake of the redemptive package because of God’s patient love. Patience should not just be a quality that belongs to God. It’s a virtue for every Christian. We must prioritize patience in all our dealings, with our family, fellow Christians, friends and colleagues.
PRAYER: Help me develop patience to live at peace with others
