5/9/26 Long Suffering: In Loving Your Neighbor (Long-Suffering in Relationships)

Ephesians 4:2 “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.”

When the Lord created you, formed you in the womb. He created your soul first. Mind, will & emotions. One of the functions you were created for was to dwell with, communicate to & interact with other human beings. These interactions are called relationships. There are different types of relationships typically created by the culture you are in which dictates the rules & boundaries in those relationships. Business relationships are different than friendships, friendships are different than family, family is different than acquaintances. But even within those there are different boundaries, such as in family, your relationship with your sibling is different than the relationship with your spouse.

Here in Ephesians Paul gives us the approach humble & gentle, which is a counter-cultural message already, but the call is patience. This is the Long-suffering that the series is about. This long-suffering is based on recognizing we are all flawed & people will let you down, as well as you will let people down. Furthermore, he speaks of it again in

Colossians 3:13 “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”

The first point is allow room in the relationship for people who do not measure up to an expectation. This is not including betrayal we will get to that in a bit.

Think how our lives would be affected if longsuffering were exhibited in individual relationships, family relationships, church relationships, and workplace relationships. The old nature can be very short-fused at times, and we tend to strike back against offenses with unkind words and unforgiving spirits. By obeying the Holy Spirit, the believer in Christ can say “no” to retaliation and exhibit a forgiving and longsuffering attitude. As God is longsuffering with us, we can and must be longsuffering with others (Ephesians 4:30–32).

Who in the Bible has Long-suffered in this manner?

Biblical Character         Example of Longsuffering

Job           Endured immense suffering while remaining faithful to God dealing with a wife who was less than graceful in her advice, as well as a pack of friends who less than supportive, less than encouraging.

Paul          Endured trials, persecution, and hardships for the sake of the gospel, but also dealt with the people within the respective churches that he helped plant & the pastors who allowed less than Christian practices in their churches.

Joseph     Showed perseverance and longsuffering towards his brothers who betrayed him. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, and falsely imprisoned before being elevated to second-in-command of Egypt. Betrayal in the family.

This line is the hardest line & why I cover it 1st. When you are in ministry, when you are in life you will experience betrayal. This is not people going their own way. This is about a clear violation of crossing a boundary out of spite & malice, just like Joseph had happen to him. For those not aware of the story in Genesis this betrayal started a road of hardship, imprisonment & is the 1st documented case of human trafficking in history.

Older brothers took advantage of this boy & created a long line of deception with their father because they found Joseph a bother & speaking out of place. This speaks a lot of the attitudes of that day, ancient world times showing us that what we see now is not the 1st time hearts have been hard. Joseph was taken because of his brothers to a different land, a different culture as a slave. He was subjected to imprisonment & a hard life for an extended period of time. 13 years he was behind bars until he proved useful to the king & promoted out of being sold to slavery.

Joseph proved himself was elevated only to be slandered by a malicious attack from the king’s wife. This led to an extensive period of suffering & hardship.

But God. . . 2 of the greatest words in the Bible together because that is when he steps in. You see in this long-suffering example that there is a lot of junk that came into the life of Joseph that he did not provoke himself. He is isolated, he is being mistreated, he is having people mess with him because they are not getting submission from him. God told him the truth that what they meant for evil God turned it to good.

All the hustlers in this day & age all those who are around us their true colors show in a time of crisis. You may not know it, you may not see it but it is the Lord working you. IF we give him access to our life, if we say make me more like Jesus, then he is going to prune you. He is
going to put you into a season & I do not mean spring summer fall or winter no I mean a period of time sometimes a long period of time that you must endure hardship from people around you.

But God uses it to show you much because there is much to learn. God knows the hearts of men & when they are going to change. God knows who is faithful to him & God knows the weight of long-suffering in relationships because he puts up with us.

Do not doubt God he is doing something in the wait to produce something better in you.