Longsuffering and Kindness

Renewing Your Mind

Ligonier Ministries

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A mature Christian does not react to humiliation with a spirit of retaliation. Today, R.C. Sproul considers some of the most challenging fruit of the Spirit to cultivate when we find ourselves in trying circumstances.

Get R.C. Sproul’s book Growing in Holiness, plus lifetime digital access to his teaching series Developing Christian Character and the digital study guide, for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3764/developing-christian-character

Meet Today’s Teacher:

R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.

Meet the Host:

Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children.

Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Transcript

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0:00.0	One of the most difficult injuries to bear, if we are going to be patient and long suffering,
0:06.6	is to bear the pain of slander, to bear the pain of the hostility of the world that is directed against us,
0:13.5	not because we have in fact done something wrong, but there are occasions where the Christian is called to suffer for the sake of Christ.
0:26.9	If that's ever happened to you, if you have been slanded, then you know to bear that pain
0:33.0	is a tall order. Then we remember what Christ endured doing his earthly ministry, especially when
0:39.3	he was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. And then we remember that he was without sin.
0:46.8	This is the Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and we're making our way through R.C. Sprole's
0:51.9	series Developing Christian Character. Here's Dr. Sprole
0:56.1	on long-suffering and kindness. And looking back at the other fruit of the spirit, I mentioned
1:06.4	that the Holy Spirit is not a sourpus, that he is characterized by cheerfulness and joy.
1:16.5	I mentioned also that the Holy Spirit is not quarrelsome or belligerent in his demeanor towards
1:24.5	a fallen world. And now I think it is also safe to say that God, the Holy Spirit,
1:30.1	does not have a short fuse. Remember, the accent that I want to give again and again is that
1:38.1	all of Christian virtue ultimately is based upon the character of God. And that Christian virtue and the fruits of the
1:47.9	spirit are simply, nothing more, nothing less than the reproduction in us or the imitation by us
1:54.4	of the holy and righteous character of God. And so we see in the person of God the supreme example of these
2:03.5	virtues. God himself is described as long-suffering. And that's basically what the more abstract
2:16.6	concept of patience is about. It has to do with an ability
2:23.0	to endure pain over a period of time. We become impatient when we experience discomfort or pain at things delayed.
2:39.6	And we want things to hurry up because we cannot bear the pain of delay.
2:48.7	And so that's the link between patience and the idea of long suffering. Or the Greek
2:56.6	comes from the prefix of the word macro, which is large. And the root comes from the word
	...

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