Longsuffering
Scripture Text: Galatians 5:22-23
Galatians 5:22-23
From the Reformer
Longsuffering is that quality which enables a person to bear adversity, injury, reproach, and makes them patient to wait for the improvement of those who have done him wrong. When the devil finds that he cannot overcome certain persons by force he tries to overcome them in the long run. He knows that we are weak and cannot stand anything long. Therefore he repeats his temptation time and again until he succeeds. To withstand his continued assaults we must be longsuffering and patiently wait for the devil to get tired of his game.
—Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians
Pulling It Together
He was sitting in line at the drive-through of a local hamburger restaurant, waiting three cars back. Suddenly, he backed up a few feet, almost hitting the car behind him, pulled out of the line, and roared out of the parking lot, blowing his horn and shouting inaudibly from behind his rolled-up windows.
You won’t find “shortsuffering” in the dictionary. Though you readily enough comprehend its meaning, it is not worth defining. This trait, which all possess, is without quality worth definition, perhaps because it is such an easy thing. Anyone can suffer for the short term. The Christian’s task, however, is to suffer long, to be patient, to wait through the night for the rising sun, to content oneself with the Lord’s thousand years as though it were but a day. This can be done easily enough when the long night and the longer life is spent with God.
Connections Magazine is a voice for confessional Lutheranism in North America, featuring ministries and mission efforts of the movement. It provides reliable, Biblically based content, stories of faith, and inspirational messages all in a “coffee table quality” package that delights its subscribers. Connections has a deep commitment to the evangelical nature of Lutheranism that responds with vigor to Christ’s great commission to go and make disciples. It also gives a public center to the effort to renew Lutheranism in North America in concert with Biblical authority and the teachings of the Lutheran Confessions.
Author
Rev. Mark E. Ryman serves as Pastor for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, NC. Previously, Pastor Ryman has served other congregations in North Carolina and Ohio, as well as a call to specialized ministry with Sola Publishing.
Click Here For Content Archives