What does it mean that God is patient?

The Lord is not slack, not lax or undependable, of which some men may accuse Him, though He is marvellously patient. It is folly to mistake His patience for indifference. If He is long-suffering, it is because of His concern for the souls of men, that they might have opportunity to come to repentance, and so escape the judgment that must necessarily fall upon a guilty world.

We understand God's gracious slowness. There is only one thing God is always slow about, and that is judgment. He never judges until He has warned and given space for repentance. How swift He is to save! How quick to bring peace to the troubled conscience! He is only slow to judge.

The patience of God waits, and not only that, it uses every means to call back to sincerity and to Himself those who possess the truth and who have at least its outward form. The most touching appeals, the most urgent warnings, the condescension that reasons with men almost as an equal with equals — all of this is made useless by the stubbornness of men in despising grace and practising evil. Finally, when God has exhausted all His means of calling to repentance, then comes the judgment that this divine patience had held back.

God shows the world the utmost patience. He lingers, and "is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." If His love is shown to us in ways deeper and more spiritual than the ancients tasted, His forbearance toward the guilty world is also more marked. If a man had to govern the world, he could not put up with its ingratitude and wickedness for a single hour.

Today, thank God, men do repent — but why? Because, as Romans 2:4 tells us, it is "the goodness of God" that leads to repentance. But it is this very chapter that says if men do not let the goodness of God take them by the hand and lead them to repentance, they will find themselves seized by the severity of God and dragged to judgment.

Sinners, the time is soon coming when the drawbridge of mercy will be pulled up entirely. "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil" (Ecclesiastes 8:11). God holds back punishment, so men hold back repentance. God is not only gracious; He waits to be gracious. But though men will not set limits to their sin, God does set limits to His patience.

We might think the chief of sinners would be found among the grossly evil and vile… But no — here is a man of irreproachable conduct. As to the righteousness under the law he was blameless. Yet writing under inspiration he could call himself the chief of sinners… Thank God, the chief of sinners is in glory, the great trophy of God's grace. He could write, "But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life" (1 Timothy 1:16).

Further, we shall reckon that the present long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, and so we shall not chafe under the waiting time it imposes on us. We shall know that every day of waiting, and perhaps of suffering, that it costs us means the salvation of multitudes. And the "reckoning" will not stop at mentally admitting the fact — it will show itself in action. We shall put our energies into setting before people what is appointed for their salvation, until the Lord comes.