Longsuffering part 1
The Bible talks about longsuffering a lot. And I learned in Bible college that any time the Bible repeats itself, that thing being repeated is important. So I want to spend a few days digging into the concept of being longsuffering. Which, by the way, is one of the ways love is described. "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; chairty envieth not; chairty vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up" (1 Corinthians 13:4). It is also a fruit of the Spirit, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith" (Galatians 5:22). In other words, I'm telling you, it's a big deal. But what is is, exactly? Well, looking at the word itself would lead you to believe it is suffering for a long time, right? In our verse in Galatians it is number 3115 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "Longanimity, that is (objectively) forbearance or (subjectively) fortitude: - longsuffering, patience." That last is how it is rendered in a lot of the other translations of the Bible. Love is patient. But if we're really going to dig in, let's really dig in. According to Dictionary.com "Patience" is defined as, "the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like." So... yeah. Basically suffering for a long time without throwing a fit about it. And, let's be clear, the only way this makes sense is if we understand a memory verse like Romans 8:28 (NLT), "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." Like I always say about turning the other cheek--that means don't retaliate. It doesn't mean stand there and let people slap you over and over and over. Boundaries are so important in this life. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. We think loving people means we have to let them abuse us. That's not what love means. That's not what love is. God, our heavenly Father, is love. A true Father will not abuse His Son, or want anybody else to either. It's horribly unfortunate that there are natural "fathers" out there who abuse their children, and it's horribly unfortunate how hard it is for those abused children to get away from that. Especially when the child sees the abuse as love. Or sees staying in the abuse as love. The only thing you can do with abusive, toxic people... is walk away. Get away from them. Love them from a distance. Staying in an abusive situation is not patience. That's not longsuffering. Longsuffering is going through a hard time with someone and getting to the other side. Enduring something that's not a lot of fun because you know it is good. Working hard at a job you might not like is a labor of love, because you're providing for your family. When you have that goal--which is a good, noble goal--it's easier to grind your way through it. When you know what you're working for, the hard work is more palatable. Easier to endure without complaint, or temper, or irritation. I don't necessarily like my job... but I certainly do like the paycheck that help me take care of my family. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, longsuffering is one hundred percent Biblical. But it is not an excuse to put yourself, or keep youself, in bad, toxic, abusive situations. You should not suffer that. At all. Ever. It takes strength to walk away from abuse... but it's the only thing you can do. You can't change abusive people. You can't stop them from abusing you. You have to just walk away. So now that we've covered a big part of what longsuffering ISN'T, tomorrow we will really start to look at what it IS, and why it's so important!