Longsuffering—the Conciliatory Fruit

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.Against such there is no law.”

“If my brother offends me, how many times shall I forgive him?” someone once asked Jesus, before offering a hopeful guess. “Seven times?”

“No, seventy times seven!” was Jesus’ reply. In other words, we should never stop forgiving.
Now that’s love! And Jesus wasn’t just talking about lovingly and patiently forgiving our siblings, spouses, or close friends, but also overbearing bosses and coworkers, wayward subordinates, and cantankerous neighbors—anyone and everyone, in fact. This is so contrary to human nature that such loving patience could only come from God Himself.

Hasn’t God forgiven you “seventy times seven”? Doesn’t that make you want to extend that same love and mercy and forgiveness to others, so they can also come to know Him and experience His forgiveness?

“Love suffers long, and is [still] kind.” “A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition.”
Forgiveness
Many people are afraid to forgive because they feel they must remember the wrong or they will not learn from it. The opposite is true. Through forgiveness, the wrong is released from its emotional stranglehold on us so that we can learn from it. Through the power and intelligence of the heart, the release of forgiveness brings expanded intelligence to work with the situation more effectively.
—David and Bruce McArthur, The Intelligent Heart, 1997

When I forgive, I am not to carry any bullets forward on the journey. I am to empty out all my explosives, all my ammunition of anger and revenge. I am not to “bear any grudge.”
I cannot meet this demand. It is altogether beyond me. I might utter words of forgiveness, but I cannot reveal a clear, bright, blue sky without a touch of storm brewing anywhere.
But the Lord of grace can do it for me. He can change my weather. He can create a new climate. He can “renew a right spirit within me,”6 and in that new atmosphere nothing shall live which seeks to poison and destroy. Grudges shall die and revenge shall give place to goodwill, the strong genial presence which makes its home in the new heart.
—John Henry Jowett (1864–1923)

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Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Matthew 18:21-22 ESV / Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

1 Corinthians 13:4 ESV / Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant