Long-suffering means not to be easily provoked, to bear injuries and wrongs for a long time, to forgive and spare offenders. God is long-suffering with us; He does not deal with us after our sins nor reward us according to our iniquities. In fact, God's long-suffering is our salvation, as Peter tells us in his Second Epistle. If, therefore, God had such patience with us and did not cut us down in His wrath when we proved barren, unfruitful trees, but spared us and continued with His Word and Spirit to convert and save us, should not we be long-suffering also with our erring brethren, patiently bearing with their faults and in all love and gentleness teaching them to do better?

A certain mother had to repeat her lesson nineteen times before her little child grasped it. Hearing it, the father exclaimed: "How could you tell the child the same thing over and over again nineteen times?" "Because he had not learned it at the eighteenth time," sweetly replied the patient mother. Many a dull pupil at school has blossomed into a bright scholar because of the infinite pains his faithful, patient teacher took with him. Again, many wayward sons or daughters could have been saved from their downward career if their parents had been more long-suffering with them and had prayed more for them. "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger." (Proverbs 15:1).

Many a man could have been won as a friend, even kept with the church, if, instead of upbraiding and angry words, he had heard a kind and forgiving word in season. Let us not forget the beam in our own eye. Let us ever remember how much we need the long-suffering mercy of our God and Savior. As His redeemed children let us reveal the same patient spirit toward our fellow men. "The fruit of the Spirit is long-suffering."

[devotion text by Rev. F. W. Herzberger (1920) -
from the Family Altar - CPH (1957 edition)]
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