Editor’s note: How can you produce good fruit in times of difficulty? Paul Peng, a Chinese house church pastor, says patience is the answer. This is the third of a four-part series focused on the patient bearing of fruit. In the first part, Peng taught that patience means to continue bearing up under prolonged hardship, and that this virtue is one which the Chinese house church must cultivate. Then he went on to show, in Part Two, that patience is one of God’s attributes, but is not at all natural for sinful humans. Today, Peng teaches that patience is “the foremost mark of love,” and that gospel patience is not merely gritting your teeth and bearing it – but cheerfully and hopefully rejoicing as you wait for the seed to mature.
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Patience is the foremost mark of love
The third biblical truth I want to share with you about patience is this: patience is the foremost mark of love.
In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says “love is patient and kind.” The first characteristic of love is patient love: being patient and waiting with endurance – not waiting with dry resignation, but with hope and kindness.
Patient, kind endurance is love’s primary marker. This is the character the gospel shapes in a person’s life. At the end of this passage on love in 1 Corinthians 13, it says: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Love begins with patience and ends with endurance. Between these bookends – bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things – how much patience is required! Enduring patience is a quality of character that is shaped within us by God’s love.
The first characteristic of love is patient love: being patient and waiting with endurance – not waiting with dry resignation, but with hope and kindness.
In Romans 5, when Paul speaks about the lives of saints on this earth, he says: “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” All of this is accomplished by the Holy Spirit pouring God’s love into our hearts.
When Peter speaks about the virtues, he specifically says: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”
Patience, or “steadfastness” as it says here, is a primary mark of godly love. It is a character trait shaped by the gospel.
As the Holy Spirit works within us through life’s various difficulties, we become more and more like Christ. The Spirit continually breaks us and leads us to cry out to him, saying, “Lord, not my will but yours be done.” As we increasingly surrender to him, we become increasingly able to understand his will, and are increasingly filled with the character of godly love. Patient endurance becomes a defining characteristic of our lives.
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Gospel-centered patience is filled with dynamism and hope
The Bible also tells us that gospel-centered patience is filled with dynamism and hope. Gospel patience is not passive endurance. Instead, it’s filled with faith.
James describes the farmer’s patience as hopeful waiting: “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
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Hopeful patience means believing in due time there will be a harvest. We believe that what we invest and endure for the Lord’s sake today will not disappoint us, because he is faithful.
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The farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. What do we wait for? The day when we will meet the Lord face to face.
Hebrews 12:1 says: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The hope that lies ahead enables us to endure willingly, and to run with hope.
Romans 15:4 says: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Colossians 1:11 says: “Being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.”
So, we wait with faith, hope, and joy.
In the future, the hope of the gospel will be fully realized. But the Lord has told us the promise of the gospel in advance, so we can have hope in our patience.
Patience is a bit like climbing a mountain. I’ve had that experience before: the path was muddy, a heavy load was on my shoulders, and night was approaching. What kept me going? The light from the windows of the houses on the mountaintop, and the smoke coming from the chimneys, suggesting food being prepared in the kitchens. This gave me the strength to lift my weary arms and aching legs and to continuing climbing upward, step by step, with hope.
Waiting with hope, being filled with gratitude and joy is a characteristic of gospel-centered patience. Hopeful patience means believing in due time there will be a harvest. We believe that what we invest and endure for the Lord’s sake today will not disappoint us, because he is faithful. Faith and hope in the gospel free us from the powerlessness and negativity that often accompany waiting. Many times, people become discouraged and inactive because they feel the overall situation is hopeless.
But when we understand hope, we can be still. When we understand this, we can fulfill our present duties and our roles with a prayerful heart.
What is our duty? To work diligently to tend the good seed, and to understand the truth more deeply.
The farmer is not idle, even during the off-season. That is when they repair their tools, weed, cultivate, irrigate, and care for the land. Just like the farmer, during the waiting period, we must not be still.
But how can we diligently engage in spiritual disciplines, in things like Bible reading, prayer, and family worship? How can we understand and apply the gospel? How can we cultivate good soil? How can we interact with the surrounding culture according to God’s grace? How can we develop gospel conversations?
The farmer is not idle, even during the off-season. That is when they repair their tools, weed, cultivate, irrigate, and care for the land. Just like the farmer, during the waiting period, we must not be still.
Mark 4:28-29 says: “The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” This describes the entire growth process of a crop.
Based on this passage, John Newton[1] described the different stages of spiritual growth: the blade stage, the ear stage, and the full grain stage. Both individuals and churches have different stages of life, each with its own challenge. In every stage, we have our respective duties to fulfill.
As we believe in God’s grace in all things, and cherish hope and gratitude in our hearts, we will experience the Lord’s gracious work. It is his work which enables us to persevere in our duties, diligently cultivating with hope.
[1] John Newton was an English slave trader who, after a dramatic conversion, went on to become an Anglican minister and noted abolitionist. Today, he is most remembered as the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace.”
Paul Peng is the pastor of Blessings Reformed Presbyterian Church, a Chinese house church.
Pray for Chinese believers to cultivate joyful, grateful, hopeful patience as they continue to endure in the difficult circumstances in which God has placed them.
