Summary
Longsuffering: The Patience of God
Among the attributes of God, longsuffering names His patience—patience to a degree no creature has ever shown or could show. To say that God is longsuffering is to confess that, in His very being, He bears with sinners, restrains judgment, and gives space for repentance. This is not reluctance or delay on His part; it is mercy. As Peter writes, "The Lord is not slow about his promise as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance" 2 Peter 3:9.
Waiting is hard for us. We dislike it in lines and at airports, and we dislike it as Christians who long for the return of Christ. The picture Jesus gives of His coming in glory—the nations gathered, the sheep separated from the goats, the heavens passing away with fire (Matthew 25:31-33; 2 Peter 3:10)—is sobering even to believers. We may find ourselves whispering, "A little longer, Lord." And yet, when the Lord tarries, we can be tempted in the opposite direction, too: into doubt that He is really coming, or into despair that our own continuing struggle with sin somehow undoes our baptism. Scripture is clear—there is one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and in those waters we have been sealed as Christ's own.
Peter writes against both temptations. To those who scoff because Christ has not yet returned, and to those in the church who are weary of waiting, he says, "Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day" 2 Peter 3:8. This is not an invitation to calculate a date. It is a reminder that the finite creature cannot impose his timetable on the infinite Creator. God is not bound to our clocks, and His apparent delay is nothing other than His goodness and mercy at work.
The whole story of Scripture bears this out. God brought Israel out of Egypt, and they grumbled; He raised up judges, and they turned to other gods; still He saved them again. Abraham pleaded for Sodom, and the Lord agreed to spare the city for the sake of ten righteous Genesis 18:32. Jonah fled to Tarshish precisely because he knew the Lord was merciful and would forgive Nineveh if it repented. Through Ezekiel the Lord declares plainly, "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked... and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?" Ezekiel 18:23. God is not a judge waiting to catch sinners in the act; He is a Father who sent His own Son to die for that sin so that sinners might live.
The patience of the Lord, then, is to be regarded as salvation. Peter himself draws out the implication: "Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness... Beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation" 2 Peter 3:11-15. This time of waiting is not empty. It is the space God has given us to grow in grace, to know Him better through His Word, and to lean into the salvation already secured for us in Christ.
Baptism does not freeze us in place, terrified of sinning again. It secures us, drowning the old self and raising us to new life so that we can lift our heads and look outward. God is patient with us, and He is patient with those who have not yet heard. His longsuffering toward the world is also our commission: the same patience that spared us is sparing our neighbors, giving us time to share the good news that they too may hear, turn, believe, and live “Longsuffering” 9-4-22.
Video citations
- “Longsuffering” 9-4-22 — If you would please open your Bibles to second Peter, the third chapter, second Peter, the third chapter. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. It's such a big, long part of life. We wait and we wait…