Patience with Others

Patience with Others

“Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” –James 5:9

This last weekend at a softball tournament, the game just before ours got a bit heated. There were no punches thrown and the language really didn’t even get nasty, but people got pretty ticked off at each other. We really hadn’t seen it all year, but since this was the elimination game of a tournament and things got urgent, everyone started taking things into their own hands and were very impatient with each other. It is amazing how a little adrenaline really sets people against each other.

This Scripture interests me, because often times Christians get overly zealous when we start talking about the urgency of the faith. Sometimes we start getting pushy with each other. Other times we get extremely defensive of ourselves. I think that the urgency of the faith in and of itself can be a healthy thing. We need to understand the importance of what we do as followers of Jesus. However, we must be patient with one another through it all. We must be peacemakers, especially within the body of Christ. Before we can be peacemakers, we must first be peaceable people.

To live out this Scripture, we cannot merely wait until we are in the situation in order to make decisions as to how we will treat others. We must prepare our hearts and change our bad attitudes before we ever face the situation. Often that means guarding ourselves from gossiping about people who we have regular conflicts with as well. There is such a thing as wise counsel, but generally we overstep those bounds rather quickly.

Who is it that you have a tendency to ‘grumble’ about? Is it your parents? Your spouse or boss? A neighbor? Be patient and know that God wants to bring peace into the situation. He can change your character if you let him.