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Patience
by brian litfin
It's a blistering hot day, the kind that turns your car into an oven. A blast of heat hits you when you open the door. You gingerly manipulate the ring of fire that passes for the steering wheel, cursing yourself for not checking the Freon sooner. Still, you think you'll probably be on time for your appointment in 15 minutes. But when you merge onto the freeway, you're dismayed to find traffic at a standstill, backed up for at least half a mile. The hot breeze that gave you some comfort vanishes as your car slows to a crawl. You'll never make it to your meeting. You may never escape this gridlock hell. All you can do is clench your teeth and grip the wheel until your knuckles turn white. "Just be patient," you tell yourself as you seethe on the inside. A drop of sweat rolls down your back.
Everyone knows patience is a virtue. But what is patience? Is it simply the ability to present a calm exterior amidst frustration? Many ancient philosophers didn't think so. Instead they believed patience involved a fundamental change in attitude toward the offending circumstances. For example, the Roman statesman and orator Cicero believed a person achieves self-mastery through "an intense effort of the soul" which culminates in the realization that pain is "a creature of imagination, not a reality." As an admirer of Stoicism, he criticized the Epicureans who believed pain to be the ultimate evil. Instead, adversity must be viewed as an opportunity for heroic patience. Those who bear up under hardship, such as soldiers, are worthy of admiration. To succeed one must draw on inner resources-conditioned by habit-as well as "right reason," whereby one ascertains the providential order in the universe that makes all things an occasion for good. The wise man's self-satisfaction in overcoming difficulty is ample reward for him. In classical thought, the virtue of patience arises out of human efforts to conquer whatever trial life offers. As such, it is an expression of the highest human ideals.
The second-century church father Tertullian was the first to write a treatise on patience as a Christian virtue. Scholars agree the Stoics profoundly influenced him. In ancient Latin intellectual circles, especially the legal and rhetorical milieu in which he was trained, Stoicism formed the dominant perspective and was naturally assimilated into his thinking. Yet as an apologist for the Christian faith, Tertullian subjected secular philosophy to the bright searchlight of Holy Scripture.
In his On Patience, he naturally used the constructs and categories of Stoicism to address the subject. However, he did not merely take Stoic ideals and cover them with a thin veneer of Christianity. Instead, drawing from the Bible, Tertullian significantly altered the concept by grounding it in God Himself. The virtue of patience, he argues, is most perfectly revealed in the divine nature. Yet the Father's divine patience is too lofty to understand, so Tertullian directs his readers to a more comprehensible example: the incarnation, life, and death of Jesus Christ.
The Lord's kind and gentle manner, His acts of humility, and most importantly, His acceptance of death by crucifixion, all depict the patience of God in incarnated form. Christ takes the virtue of patience to new levels, a patience so extreme it elicits rejection of such religion from the masses. Yet it is the very center of the faith, for radical patience is inherent to God's nature.
Tertullian follows the Bible's lead in linking human patience with the divine. The biblical word makrothumia-a term not used in classical Greek thought-describes a "long-suffering" kind of patience. Its occurrence in the Septuagint is widespread and rich. Unlike other words translated "patience," makrothumia is primarily attributed to God. Exodus 34.6-7 calls God merciful and compassionate. Psalm 7.11 describes the postponement of punishment as God patiently awaits repentance. His patience extends to all, not just the righteous when they happen to stray.
Thus Jeremiah implores God to stop being so patient with his enemies (Jer. 15.15), and Jonah bewails the futility of his prophecies of doom when God forestalls punishment in response to the Ninevites' contrition (Jon. 4.2).
It is possible, however, for God's patience to be pushed past its breaking point. In Nahum 1.2-3, though God is described as long-suffering, His wrath is said to be imminent. Likewise, Qoheleth 5.4-5 warns against presuming God's patience will last indefinitely while sins pile up.
Makrothumia in the Old Testament primarily refers to the postponement of divine judgment as God awaits a return to Him. If it does not occur, punishment becomes necessary.
With the coming of Jesus and the dawn of the Christian era, a new ethic of non-retaliation as a response to divine forbearance began to emerge. In light of God's ever-present makrothumia, the faithful are exhorted to extend the same patience toward others. This is quite clear, for instance, in the parable of the wicked servant (Mt. 18.23-35). Both the debtor who owed much and the one who owed little asked for "patience" from their creditors. The servant's huge loan was canceled, yet he refused to forgive the paltry sum owed to him. Jesus' point was that the greatness of God's mercy necessitates a similar (though proportionately smaller) response toward one's fellow man. "Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?" the king demands. Here the makrothumia of God is seen to go past that of the Old Testament, for payment is not merely postponed, but the debt itself eliminated. Patience of such magnitude requires human imitation in gratitude. So in Rom. 2.1-5, when some condemn the wickedness of others, they overlook the patience of God toward themselves, which should instead inspire them to charity.
Indeed, the greatest Christian virtue, charity, begins with patience (1 Cor. 13.4). The gift of salvation in Christ requires a reciprocal encouragement of the brethren, including patience with the weak (I Thess. 5:14; Col. 3:12).
Using his rhetorical skills and intellectual acumen, Tertullian takes a theme woven into the Scriptural narrative and re-assembles it into a ringing call for Christians to adopt a biblical paradigm of patience. The Stoics often talked of enduring the affronts and offenses of others as an expression of their own virtue. Their patience was inspired by a sense of bettering the self or attaining the highest possible human ideals.
Tertullian, in contrast, draws from a theocentric understanding of divine patience: it is to be pursued not as an end itself, but for the glory of God and as a means of sanctification. "When the Spirit of God descends, patience is His inseparable companion," he writes. The Christian must first recognize the mercy shown to humans by God. Jesus Christ most fully depicted divine patience in His manner of living and in His death. He bore the attacks and insults of others. He was ignominiously crucified. So too, the Christian is bound by an ethic of forgiveness and the bridling of anger-for he knows God Himself has evidenced the same virtue in staying His wrathful hand. The Christian's motivation for obedience is gratitude for prior divine clemency. It springs from an interpersonal relationship, not solitary and ennobling pursuit of human virtue. Having understood the biblical teaching, Tertullian has articulated an ideal toward which all Christians can strive. "Let us, then, love the patience that is of God, the patience of Christ," he concludes. "Let us return to Him that which He expended for us."