OVERCOMERS With the Fruit of the SpiritSample

 Forbearance: Laying Down Your Rights to Take Up Love’s Responsibilities  

  In Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit, “forbearance,” is the NIV rendering of a word often translated as either “long suffering” or “patience” in other major versions of the Bible. Merriam-Webster defines forbearance as, “a refraining from the enforcement of something (such as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.” And doesn’t that describe the heart of God?  Instead of enforcing His collection of our debt of sin through judgment, He exercised forbearance and refrained sending Christ instead. 

It is very human and regrettably common not to forbear, but instead to claim our rights. That, however, is not the Jesus way — it is not the way of the Spirit. We have a responsibility and a Spirit-empowered mandate to forbear, just as God does. Rather than claiming His rights, He forbears and lays them down, patiently waiting, He did it at the cross and He does it still. 

Patience, long suffering, forbearance… that is what caused God to reach out in redemption rather than lash out in judgment when He would have been justified in doing so. Look at Romans 2:4 “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” Forbearance is the heart of the matter because it is a matter of the heart where the Holy Spirit reigns and bears His fruit of forbearance in us. 

As forbearance blossoms though our being, we, like Jesus, can lay down our rights, and express God’s kindness in pursuit of leading others to repentance. Just as Romans 2:1 explains, we have no excuse for claiming our rights and passing judgment on someone else when God laid down His rights to bring us to Himself. And as forbearance ripens in us through the Spirit, we can extend it to the world as God extends it to us. O, how I love Jesus…