Dear one,
With this morning’s light, two words echoed along the corridors of my mind: “patient” and “kind,” the very words Paul used to define the word “love.” That is, “love is patient and love is kind” (1Corinthians 13:4).
Alluding to an early church hymn, Paul first wrote of what love is (13:4); next of what love is not (13:4-6); and finally of what love does (13:7). However, it occurs to me that what love is not (e.g. envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, irritable, etc.) and what love does (e.g. bears, believes, hopes, and endures) are embedded in the two words: “patient” and “kind.”
The Greek word “patient” (μακροθυμία/ makrothumia) can rightly be translated as “long-suffering.” If so, if love is patient, then “love” is not a short-term phenomenon; rather, it is experienced in time and over a great expanse of time. Moreover, such a long-suffering love might require growth or maturation. Likewise, if love is patient, then as the English noun “patient” implies, a true patient is patient amid suffering. Patience arises under duress.
The Greek word “kind” (χρηστός/ chrestos) conveys the sense of “benevolence,” that is, of an action that is practical, useful, and generous. Thus, “kindness” is a deed done; it is demonstrable, its effects can be readily seen and are of benefit to others. Furthermore, as you might have caught, with the alteration of one letter, the Greek word for “kind” becomes “χριστός,” or Christ. Thus the New Testament writers, in making a word-play, would write: “be kind (chrestos) to one another” (Ephesians 4:32), hinting, “be Christ to one another”; or, “taste that the Lord is kind (chrestos)” (1Peter 2:3), hinting, “taste that the Lord is Christ.”
In these days of coronavirus, we have observed many examples of patience and kindness; we have seen the powerful effects of those whose actions have been generous and practical, even as they themselves have endured various forms of pain and suffering. These examples we have seen; but we also known our own struggles to be patient and kind, as we scramble to regain a meaningful rhythm and routine, while the whole of life seems out-of-sync. We feel confined and restrained.
My encouragement to you (and to myself) is to remember: within the Scriptures, first and foremost, love is not a feeling but is a generous, practical deed enacted in time often amid personal suffering; and second, that Christ Jesus is the Source and Example of God’s long-suffering kindness. Daily may we draw upon His patience and kindness.
Seeking to love,
Stan