Seoul Grace Community
The Fruits of the Spirit: Patience
Galatians 5:22, James 5:7-11
May 25, 2014
www.seoulgracecommunity.com
1. Introduction
a. The fruits of the spirit, as Paul lays them out in Galatians, have to deal with supernatural personal
change rather than just moral correctness. They are an outward change reflective of inward
transformation because the good news of what Jesus has done for you (and the implanting of the Holy
Spirit in your heart) has begun to change you.
b. The spiritual fruit we look at today is “Patience”—and, as James notes, there are 2 types.
i. Horizontal patience (with others)
ii. Vertical patience (with God)
c. How do we learn true patience in life?
2. Horizontal Patience
a. V. 9 “Don’t grumble”
i. Seems like a common sin and not worthy of damnation—but James says otherwise. He
mentions that the Judge will judge us. This is very serious.
ii. Why is grumbling so serious of a sin? Because our grumbles against others are the manifestation
of the complete absorption with self that we have. The criticism and impatience with others is a
reflection of our self-centeredness.
iii. Grumbling against others (i.e. impatience) is just the start—it soon grows and consumes us.
b. Impatience towards others leads to an “incessant autobiography” where we place ourselves at the
center, so wrapped up in ourselves that we forget all else.
3. Vertical Patience
a. V. 10 James immediately shifts to the idea of being patient through suffering.
i. He’s writing to people who were being persecuted and oppressed.
ii. But we can relate in that we lose patience with God when our lives are not going as we think
they ought to—when we feel He’s leading us down a path we don’t understand or approve of.
b. During this time, James urges us to “take the prophets” (v. 10) as a source of learning how to be patient
when our lives are not working out “as planned.”
i. Isaiah: 20-30 years of ministry without anyone listening to him.
ii. Jeremiah: Told to tell the Israelites to give in to Nebuchadnezzar in order to be taught a lesson.
They refuse and are taken into exile. Then he’s told to go to them and tell them to plant roots in
the culture, pray for its prosperity. This would have been treason. Jeremiah 11 shows a group of
his friends getting together and plotting to kill him.
iii. Hosea: God says that in order for him to become a good prophet, he has to understand the
relationship between God and his people so he’s told to marry Gomer with the knowledge that
she’ll never be faithful to him.
iv. James is using the prophets to show us how quickly we can grow impatient with God. These
men suffered more than we could imagine and did so willingly. Their lives didn't go the way they
planned or anticipated-they had to suffer a great deal and it looked rather meaningless to those
around them. Their lives looked ridiculous!
c. “Following the thread” in our lives as God lays our often looks ludicrous. But because these men
followed their “threads” we are still talking about them thousands of years later as part of God’s plan.
d. Patience with God in our lives often requires a foresight beyond our means yet a faith in what He is
doing.
4. True Patience
a. How do we get this level of patience? By willpower? That would be almost impossible! We can’t will or
create this level of patience with others (horizontally) or with God (vertically).
b. In order to become more patient people we need to see true patience lived out—as an example and a
power. We need to remind ourselves of a story of patience so deep that it changes us from the inside.
c. It is interesting that James mentions Job as an example of patience (because he really wasn’t)—his story
is of how God reminds Job where his true place is in the world. Job complains to God and God answers
him by reminding him how actually small and insignificant Job is in relation to all that God does (Job 40:6
and on)
i. See, to a large degree we’ve lost sight of God’s holiness and awesomeness which allows us to
fall into impatience with him (and people)
d. “Terrifying”—this who God is, a God of judgement, a God we disappoint, a God who constantly loses
patience with us.
i. How does he respond? By stamping his feet and demanding we behave better? By demanding
that we clean up our lives and then grovel back to him begging for forgiveness?
e. God responds to our impatience by giving us, as James says, compassion and mercy. How? By showing
the greatest act of true patience through Jesus dying for us on the cross (That’s the gospel—that though
we disappoint, though he has every right to be impatient with us, he gives us the cross as the proof that
he loves us so.)
f. Greek word for patience in James 5 is makrothumeia. It literally translates to “long-suffering.” How do
you become someone who is “long-suffering” for others and for God? By seeing and knowing and
believing that it was Jesus who “long-suffered” for you even to the point of driving him into hell and
back again. There was no time in hell as he was separated by the love of his father. He long-suffered on
the cross and then into death—and he did it for you! This is True Patience. This is the gospel that will
change you from the inside out.
g. Unless you see him giving everything in patient, sacrificial love you will never be truly changed enough
to show others patience (to suffer long)