Have you ever heard that it is unwise to pray for patience? Since “tribulation worketh patience” (Romans 5:3), it is thought to be dangerous to pray for patience. The idea may be quaint, but it does not make for good advice. The word patience is historically connected to the word passion which is biblically defined as suffering (Acts 1:3). True to its association, the word patience means to suffer or endure some time of trial. No wonder doctors and hospitals refer to a person suffering from health issues as a patient. The Bible bears further testimony to these truths by associating patience with waiting (James 5:7) and enduring (2 Thessalonians 1:4; James 5:11). The Bible also combines patience with the word longsuffering (Colossians 1:11). These words may appear the same, but they are not. Longsuffering has to do with the quantity (or length of time) of endurance, while patience has to do with the quality of endurance.
People love comparing themselves to those whom they deem less righteous or unspiritual. By finding someone living on a spiritually lower level, any wrong doing can seem quite justified in one’s own eyes. Another way to get by with certain character flaws is by distinguishing between what men call big and little sins. As long as someone refuses to commit the big sins, he considers himself decent, upright, and sometimes spiritually superior. One of the most prevalent areas is that of telling lies. Those who err in this area equate some lies as “white lies” (lies deemed less harmful than the big ones). Yet, the Bible doesn’t make any such distinction. According to the Bible, truth and lies are at opposite ends of the spectrum.“No lie is of the truth” (1 John 2:21). Truth tainted by error or falsehood ceases to be truth. Regardless of how simple a lie may appear, no lie has as its source pure truth. If truth was the basis for a statement, then it would remain truth.
