LOVE IS PATIENT
Matthew 18:26-34
I Corinthians 13:4
Author Elie Wiesel is a survivor of the Holocaust. Born in Romania, he grew up the target of Christian anti-antisemitism. During World War II, he spent two years in three different concentration camps -- Auschwitz, Bruna and Buchewald. He was only sixteen when he entered the camps.
After the war, Elie became a journalist for Jewish newspapers, but he refused to write about his experiences in the camps. That is, until 1954, when he was sent to interview Francois Mauriac in Paris.
Mauriac, a Nobel Prize winner and noted scholar of French politics, was a devout Christian. Rather than his political views, all he did was talk about Jesus. The longer he talked, the more he rubbed salt into Elie's open emotional wounds. Finally, Wiesel could take it no more, and his temper boiled over.
"Sir," he said to Mauriac, "you speak of Christ. Christians love to speak of him. The passion of Christ, the agony of Christ, the death of Christ ... Well, I want you to know that ten years ago, not very far from here, I knew Jewish children, every one of whom suffered a thousand times more, six million times more, than Christ on the cross. And we don't speak about them. Can you understand that, sir? We don't speak about them." (from Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century, by David Aikman, 341-42)
With that, Wiesel stormed out of Mauriac's apartment.
Love is patient, before all else, love is patient. In his book, A Love Worth Giving, Max Lucado writes, "Patience is the red carpet upon which God's grace approaches us." Indeed, 2 Peter 3:9 says that God is patient with us, and what a wonderful thing that is!
Think about it. How many times have we used the Lord's name in vain or lied or broken some other commandment? How many times have we rebelled against God's guidance and taken our own path? What about the times we've bargained with God to get us out of trouble and made promises we never keep? All of us have given God good cause to turn God's back on us or rain down God's wrath upon us, but God doesn't. Instead, God is compassionate, merciful and understanding. God is slow to anger, ready to forgive, and always there with an understanding ear and an open heart.
As many times as the word "patient" appears in the Bible, it occurs only twice in the Gospels, and both times in the same parable -- the parable of the unforgiving or unmerciful servant from Matthew 18. In the parable, "patient" is not used in the context of waiting for something. Rather, it's used in the context of relationships: the relationship between the king and his servant and the relationship between the servant and his fellow servant.
When he is called before the king, the servant doesn't beg for mercy or forgiveness of his debt. He asks for more time to repay the debt; he asks for the king's patience. In response, the King gives him more than what he asks for -- he forgives the debt entirely. The lesson of this parable is that when we have experienced God's grace and patience, we have a surplus of love and patience that we're in turn to share with others.
Love is patient. Before all else love is patient.
Mauriac followed Wiesel out of his apartment and persuaded him to come back. Sitting on a sofa together, Mauriac wept tears of compassion over what Wiesel and so many others had suffered during the War. Then he asked the young man to tell him everything about the trains, the camps, the forced labor, the starvation and death. He listened intently to Elie's story and then asked him why he had not written of these things. Wiesel explained that he had taken a vow of silence. Mauriac encouraged him to break that vow.
Elie Wiesel broke the promise he had made himself and began his journey of healing that day. Both men's lives were changed, and Wiesel's writing in turn has touched and changed the lives of many other people.
How different it would have been if Mauriac had lost his temper with Wiesel and never went after him! Instead, he was patient with him as God had been patient with him -- compassionate, understanding, merciful and listening.
The behavior of patience, which God cultivates in our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit, may not be so much about enduring or waiting for something, but rather how we react to those in our lives who anger us, who hurt us or who irritate us. It's a way of loving others as Christ loves us that requires us to hold our temper, listen and gain understanding before we speak or react and then respond in compassionate ways. When we are running low on patience, God is ready to supply us with what we need, but don't be surprised if God gives it to us through life lessons and real-life applications.
Love is patient. Before all else, love is patient.
I Corinthians 13:4
Author Elie Wiesel is a survivor of the Holocaust. Born in Romania, he grew up the target of Christian anti-antisemitism. During World War II, he spent two years in three different concentration camps -- Auschwitz, Bruna and Buchewald. He was only sixteen when he entered the camps.
After the war, Elie became a journalist for Jewish newspapers, but he refused to write about his experiences in the camps. That is, until 1954, when he was sent to interview Francois Mauriac in Paris.
Mauriac, a Nobel Prize winner and noted scholar of French politics, was a devout Christian. Rather than his political views, all he did was talk about Jesus. The longer he talked, the more he rubbed salt into Elie's open emotional wounds. Finally, Wiesel could take it no more, and his temper boiled over.
"Sir," he said to Mauriac, "you speak of Christ. Christians love to speak of him. The passion of Christ, the agony of Christ, the death of Christ ... Well, I want you to know that ten years ago, not very far from here, I knew Jewish children, every one of whom suffered a thousand times more, six million times more, than Christ on the cross. And we don't speak about them. Can you understand that, sir? We don't speak about them." (from Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century, by David Aikman, 341-42)
With that, Wiesel stormed out of Mauriac's apartment.
Love is patient, before all else, love is patient. In his book, A Love Worth Giving, Max Lucado writes, "Patience is the red carpet upon which God's grace approaches us." Indeed, 2 Peter 3:9 says that God is patient with us, and what a wonderful thing that is!
Think about it. How many times have we used the Lord's name in vain or lied or broken some other commandment? How many times have we rebelled against God's guidance and taken our own path? What about the times we've bargained with God to get us out of trouble and made promises we never keep? All of us have given God good cause to turn God's back on us or rain down God's wrath upon us, but God doesn't. Instead, God is compassionate, merciful and understanding. God is slow to anger, ready to forgive, and always there with an understanding ear and an open heart.
As many times as the word "patient" appears in the Bible, it occurs only twice in the Gospels, and both times in the same parable -- the parable of the unforgiving or unmerciful servant from Matthew 18. In the parable, "patient" is not used in the context of waiting for something. Rather, it's used in the context of relationships: the relationship between the king and his servant and the relationship between the servant and his fellow servant.
When he is called before the king, the servant doesn't beg for mercy or forgiveness of his debt. He asks for more time to repay the debt; he asks for the king's patience. In response, the King gives him more than what he asks for -- he forgives the debt entirely. The lesson of this parable is that when we have experienced God's grace and patience, we have a surplus of love and patience that we're in turn to share with others.
Love is patient. Before all else love is patient.
Mauriac followed Wiesel out of his apartment and persuaded him to come back. Sitting on a sofa together, Mauriac wept tears of compassion over what Wiesel and so many others had suffered during the War. Then he asked the young man to tell him everything about the trains, the camps, the forced labor, the starvation and death. He listened intently to Elie's story and then asked him why he had not written of these things. Wiesel explained that he had taken a vow of silence. Mauriac encouraged him to break that vow.
Elie Wiesel broke the promise he had made himself and began his journey of healing that day. Both men's lives were changed, and Wiesel's writing in turn has touched and changed the lives of many other people.
How different it would have been if Mauriac had lost his temper with Wiesel and never went after him! Instead, he was patient with him as God had been patient with him -- compassionate, understanding, merciful and listening.
The behavior of patience, which God cultivates in our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit, may not be so much about enduring or waiting for something, but rather how we react to those in our lives who anger us, who hurt us or who irritate us. It's a way of loving others as Christ loves us that requires us to hold our temper, listen and gain understanding before we speak or react and then respond in compassionate ways. When we are running low on patience, God is ready to supply us with what we need, but don't be surprised if God gives it to us through life lessons and real-life applications.
Love is patient. Before all else, love is patient.
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