SIGNS OF LIFE – THE MARKS OF VIBRANT LIVING
Part 2 “Patience, Kindness, Goodness” (Galatians 5:22-25)
INTRODUCTION
Believers are “...aliens in this world.” (1 Peter 2:11). The Bible tells us that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Believers have become citizens of heaven, not Australia. We look the same – but we’re unlike citizens of the world. But there is one way we can tell a citizen of heaven from a citizen of the world – it’s by the fruit produced in a Believers life.
The fruit of the Spirit is the mark which shows that a person has started a new life as a citizen of heaven. These are the signs of life – the marks of vibrant living.
THE PROBLEM
1: Human patience has its limitations
People talk a lot about our fast paced culture. How folks nowadays don’t like to wait. For example, why bother writing and posting a letter or visiting a friend when you can e-mail them or send an SMS. Forget waiting a couple of days for a letter – I get irate when I have to wait 2 minutes to download a document from the internet.
The irony is that time saving devices, rather than increasing our ability to wait and have more time to enjoy… seem to decrease our ability to enjoy and wait at all. These time saving decices seem to have stolen our patience.
In all of this, it’s hard to understand the patience of God when patience isn’t really part of our lives anymore. It’s clear that human patience has its limitations.
2: Human kindness has its limitations
Perhaps like me you were shocked when the Tsunami hit S/E Asia a few months ago. Hundreds of thousands of people either drowned or were instantly made orphans, widows and homeless – all in a matter of moments.
Considering the enormity of this natural disaster it’s no wonder we saw such a huge and generous response from the public in Australia and around the world. Aid agencies were inundated with gifts and donations – such as we had never seen before – at least in our generation. The figure rapidly climbed to more than a billion dollars in aid. It seemed that Australians had admirably risen to the challenge of loving their geographic neighbours.
Then came Schapelle Corby ............ And we wanted our money back!
It’s clear that many Australians think Schapelle is innocent of trafficking drugs through Indonesia. But who knows?! I’ll tell you what is clear though – human kindness has its limitations.
Here’s the point – we might be kind to people we like or people we pity, but when it comes to being kind to our enemies, or to people who do us harm or even simply offend us – people just don’t know how to do that.
Just like our patience, human kindness has it’s limitations too.
3: Human goodness has its limitations
You’ve heard it before, “Oh I may lose my patience from time to time, but don’t we all? And you’re right, I struggle to be kind sometimes – but I’m not like other people. I’m generally a good person.”
There is actually an area of research in the Social Sciences that psychologists call The Self-Serving Bias.
This refers to the universal human tendency to underestimate “my shortcomings.” Apparently when we compare ourselves to other people we usually think we’re doing better than we actually are; People tend to take more credit for stuff than they really deserve; We tend to exaggerate our abilities and our successes. And this Self-serving Bias is one of the most widely documented findings in all of social science.
Here’s an example. A survey was conducted among hospital patients. These particular patients were in hospital as a result of an accident that they caused by driving badly. Now, the majority of these patients rated themselves as “Above Average” drivers. Yet here they were in hospital as a result of a traffic accident that they caused!! That’s self-serving bias.
Of course, as long as I compare myself to other people, I can always find somebody else who is doing worse than I am - and then I think I grade out pretty well. The tragic fact is this – no one is completely good 100% of the time. And just like human patience and human kindness, human goodness has its limitations as well.
THE SOLUTION
So church, now we have a choice. We can say, “Listen, that’s just life. I’m patient, but sometimes, like everyone, I just lose it. I’m kind, but some people don’t deserve my kindness. I’m mostly good and it seems to get me by.”
Or we can say, “I’m not prepared to live a second rate life.” Friends you only have one life – don’t ever settle for the second best life you could have had. I want to urge you to live your life at a higher level.
Here is the key point for all of us today . . . . . . . when it comes to patience, kindness and goodness, remember this, it takes the power of God to produce the character of God.
Our church vision statement says it all – We are expecting God to achieve marvellous and wonderful things in people’s lives. Living the vibrant, God connected life is not about what you can achieve in your own strength - under your own steam.
1: Divine patience is unlimited
Whereas human patience has its limitations, God’s patience is unlimited – endless, infinite, boundless, immeasurable. You don’t need to “try harder” to be more patient. You can try as hard as you like, but it won’t happen. If you want a higher patience – you need to plug into a higher power.
God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
(Ex. 34:6, Nu. 14:18, Neh 9:17, Ps. 86:15, 103;8, 145:8; Jer. 15:15, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, Nahum. 1:3)
Look at all the places these words are repeated in the Bible. And that’s just the OT! In the NT we read,
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:8-9).
Do you think we’re supposed to get the message that God is patient? And that God’s patience is so beyond our human capacity to conjure it up on our own; that the only way we are ever going to have it in our own lives is to reconnect and stay connected to God?
2: Divine kindness is unlimited
And like his patience, God’s kindness is not like human kindness. God’s kindness has no limits. God has set the supreme example of divine kindness by sending Jesus Christ.
But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy (Titus 3:4-5a).
Divine kindness comes from a heart that is remaining in Christ. Remember what Jesus said ...
If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).
3: Divine goodness is unlimited
And, God’s goodness is no different from his patience or his kindness in it’s measure – it is unlimited.
For those of you who know the Bible pretty well, when in the Bible did anybody ever encounter God—this holy transcending God—and come away saying: “You know, from a moral standpoint, I’m doing surprisingly well.” Did that ever happen in the Bible? Isaiah said:
"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty" (Isaiah 6:5)
When he realized who Jesus was, Peter said:
Get away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man (Luke 5:8).
How can we be good? Only God is good. And we must get connected to him in order to show any level of goodness.
CONCLUSION
And so, in comparison to God we have no idea about patience, kindness or goodness.
But there is this invitation.
Jesus is now receiving into His family, people who, in their own strength, don’t clear the bar when it comes to patience, kindness or goodness. And Jesus’ message to us is not “Try harder.” His message is:
“Come and be my friend, and I’ll help you change.”
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