Forebearance: My Birthday Gift

Time and tide waits for none, so my aging too. Though I prefer to stay young I cannot go against time, and now I have come of age, and join the "forty club." Sometimes, I really hate to see myself aging, and I always feel young except for my age. I have no choice, but face the reality; I am a father of three children now with a double score years young on the longest day of the year, a solar solstice, the 21st of June. 

Since my twenty first birthday I never celebrated my physical birthday, nor do I want anybody to wish me as such, though I do treasure my spiritual birthday on which I was born anew at the age of nineteen. This time when I physically turned forty, I simply reconsecrated my life to the Lord again. On that day, the Lord gave me a special message: Forbearance. It also was the very virtue I needed at the moment as I am considering to deal with some serving ones and some saints whom the Lord has been gracing me to shepherd. The Lord's gift of His speaking is very timely. The message is here: 

FORBEARANCE

Philippians 4:5

Let your forbearance be known to all men. The Lord is near. 

What is Forbearance?

Forbearance is reasonableness, considerateness, and consideration in dealing with others, without being strict in claiming one’s legal rights; forbearance means that we are easily satisfied, even with less than our due. According to Christian experience, forbearance is all-inclusive, for it includes all Christian virtues.

What Comprises Forbearance?

Forbearance includes love, patience, kindness, humility, compassion, considerateness, and submissiveness, a willingness to yield; if we have such an all-inclusive virtue, we shall also have righteousness and holiness. Forbearance also includes self-control, moderation, gentleness, understanding, sympathy, wisdom, mercy, peacefulness, looking to the Lord, and even the virtue of admitting that the Lord is sovereign in all things.

The Virtues of a Forbearing Person

A forbearing person is one who always fits in, whose behavior is always suitable (cf. 2 Cor. 6:1a; 10:1; Phil. 1:19; Isa.11:2). If we are forbearing, we shall have the wisdom and the ability to supply others with what they need; we shall also have the full knowledge of what to say to them and when to say it (50:4-5; Col. 1:28). To be forbearing is to consider how others will be affected by what we do or say (2 Chron. 1:10).

Christ is Forbearance

As an all-inclusive virtue, forbearance is Christ Himself; since Christ is forbearance, for Paul to live was forbearance (Phil. 1:21a).

To Live Christ is to be Forbearing

To let our forbearance be known to all men is to let the Christ whom we live and magnify, whom we take as our pattern and pursue as our goal, be known to all men. Only the Lord Jesus lived a life full of forbearance, and only Christ can be our perfect forbearance today. To make known our forbearance is to live a life that expresses Christ as the totality of all human virtues. Immediately after speaking about forbearance, Paul says that the Lord is near.

The Lord is Near

With respect to space, the Lord is near us, ready to help; with regard to time, the Lord is at hand, coming soon (cf. Rom. 10:8-13). The Lord’s being near refers primarily to His presence with us (Matt.1:23).

Excerpt from The Crystallization-Study of Leviticus, Message 10, Outline II, 3.