Bible, Bros & Brew
Bible, Bros, & Brew is all about helping you navigate your relationship with God in practical, real-life ways. Hosts David and Phil dig into scripture—'chopping up the word'—and bring it to life with insights you can actually use every day. And while they’re at it, they share their favorite 'brews'—don’t worry, it’s not booze! Just a solid lineup of classic coffees and teas to keep the conversations flowing.
Bible, Bros & Brew
The Importance of Cultivating Longsuffering & Gentleness | Walking in the Spirit | Bible Bros & Brew
In Galatians 5:22, Paul puts forth a list of qualities and character attributes that are now famously known as the "fruit of the spirit". Perhaps two of the most overlooked items on this list are the fruits of longsuffering and gentleness. So what exactly are they, and how can we develop them in our own lives? In this latest installment of our series titled "Walking in the Spirit", David and Phil offer scriptural insight that will help clarify what exactly the fruits of longsuffering and gentleness are, as well as how to practically implement these important character traits into our everyday walk.
gotbrew@biblebros.net
On this episode of Bible Bros and Brew. We're going to continue our series on the theme of walking in the Spirit and we've been finally able to get to the list of what Paul called the fruit of the Spirit, and we're going to tackle the next three fruits on that list, which are long-suffering, gentleness and goodness. So get ready, get your brews ready, your coffee, your tea, whatever. Grab your Bible and we're going to dig into the Word together tonight. Welcome everyone to Bible Bros and Brew. My name is Philip, and with me, of course, is the illustrious David McIntyre, and down on the wheels of steel is John.
Speaker 3:J-O-N John.
Speaker 1:The coolest Gen Z-er that I've ever met. Praise God, we are in the midst of a massive series. We've been covering a topic called walking in the spirit for probably what at least over a month, I'm sure and we started off with the galatians 5, uh, scripture about the works of the flesh. We kind of went through all those works of the flesh that paul listed. You know there's like I don't know about 20 of them or whatever it was. So we got through that and then we finally got to what paul called the fruit of the spirit, which is basically the antithesis, if you want to call it that, of the works of the flesh. And so we've made our way through the first three of those fruits, which are love, joy and peace. So definitely go back, check out the previous episodes where we talked about those things in detail. And then now we're continuing with that list with the fruits of long suffering, gentleness and, hopefully, goodness you know how sometimes we might only get two of the three we plan to do, but, praise God, we'll do our best tonight. So it's going to be a good time. We're going to just dig into the word, and that's what we want to encourage you guys to do always is get your Bibles Anytime you play our videos or listen to us on the podcast, from whatever app you might be listening to us on, grab your Bible, grab your concordance. If you've got some Bible software that you get into or some website that you use for Bible study, definitely don't just take our word for it.
Speaker 1:We mentioned a lot of scriptures on here. Sometimes we don't go to them and put them on screen, but we just will throw random scriptures out as they come to us. So we definitely recommend that you look those things up. Take some time in your personal study time to really dig into what those scriptures say and what the words mean, if you look them up in the Bible dictionaries or concordances and things like that. So we mainly want to encourage everyone to develop their own personal study of the word and their own personal relationship with God through his word. Because, man, if there's one thing that can help you come to know who God is, better and better, it is digging into his word. And I know David, you know we could go on and on about that, but before I get too deep into the woods, I'll go ahead and talk about, or ask rather about, who's drinking what tonight in their cup. Let's see. Let me start with John what's in your cup tonight, sir Whoa.
Speaker 2:I'm so glad you asked, man, I don't I? Just, first of all, I just want to say when you, just when you pray a little bit more and talk to God a little bit more, you just feel a little bit better and your coffee tastes a little bit better. Tonight I'm running with a bourbon pecan with just a little bit of honey. Nice, it's doing it for me, man. I've been trying to stay on just black coffee recently. It just feels good. It cleanses the body, cleanses the soul a little bit, if you let. It Depends on where you get it from. It's been treated really well. What about you, mr Dave?
Speaker 1:Before we go there really quick. Was that a Baymax mug or was that?
Speaker 2:just CES. Sorry, I got a little too excited. Yes, dude, this thing is probably one of my favorite mugs. Can you see that it's got? I don't know if well, I don't know if I could, I was going to say can you see that it's got, like the pain scale on the inside. I don't want to destroy this computer, but dude well worth the however much it costs. I can't remember. I've had it for so long.
Speaker 1:That's awesome man.
Speaker 2:All the better, man Coffee, good mug All the better man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, coffee, good mug. I mean, what else can you ask for man? You know Right, that's actually my daughter's favorite movie is Big Hero 6. They love that movie. Yeah, that's her number one.
Speaker 2:So good stuff, man, maybe next week. I did recently buy another Baymax mug. We'll talk about that next week.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, but David, how about you, sir? What are you sipping on?
Speaker 3:tonight. Tonight I slipped back into an oldie but a goodie. This is Jim's Organic Double Chocolate. Ooh, that sounds amazing dude. But tonight I did as I have been known to do I toyed with my coffees and mix things that maybe shouldn't be Tonight. I dropped a couple of little shots of vanilla in this Just, and I'm ready for conversation.
Speaker 1:There you go. Nothing can keep it off Quite like a nicely doctored up coffee, for sure man. All right.
Speaker 3:For my cup.
Speaker 1:praise the Lord. I had to go to my friends at Peregrine. Obviously I love the new bag. It's pretty dope man. I like the logo and everything. But this one is their Ethiopia. It's called Guji Gigesa. I'm probably butchering that, but whoa.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's dope man. It has notes of cherry, limeade, citra hops and red wine. So, man, dude, the thing that I love about peregrine because I know people may be thinking like okay, dude, you might have a problem, you know you have, thank you. I mean, I do love peregrine, you know. But the thing about peregrine, dude, and I wish I could show it to you on the screen. I'll just let me do it for you, me do it. I'm gonna go ahead and do something we've never done on Bible Bros group. I'm gonna show you the beans up close. Let's see if I can get it right there. But why am I showing you beans on this podcast? Because they don't burn the daylights out of their beans when they roast, Like so many coffees I've tried.
Speaker 1:When I do whole bean, I get the beans and they're almost black. You know, they're really dark and almost like black and charcoal looking or oily looking and it's like did y'all roast them too much? Did y'all go a little too far?
Speaker 3:Is there coffee left. You are correct on that, phillip. I will say that a lot of these particularly like when you're walking down the aisle. This is why it's hard to buy coffee in the grocery store aisle and it is because sometimes you wonder if people have roast control, right? You know, we bought some black cherry coffee a couple of weeks ago just to mix it up and it was exactly what you said. And it was like when your beans are black like that and they're already burnt, imagine the acidic, burnt, nasty taste you're going to get when you're making that coffee.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, I think part of the problem, Philip, is that so many people have had coffee like that all of their lives. And if they had good coffee. They wouldn't appreciate it. They would feel like something was wrong with it.
Speaker 1:But man, these folks be out here burning this coffee like nobody's business, and that's the thing like to me, peregrine, they roast it to perfection, dude. So it's like it's not so far that all you taste is like, like you said, like super acidity or whatever. It's like the dimensions of the flavor come out, man.
Speaker 1:So I know I could go deep into all that, but I'm going to spare everyone that situation. But needless to say, man, they're my favorite roaster by far, as you guys are very well aware. So, but anyway. So that is what's in our cups. Now let's jump on into what's in the word.
Speaker 1:And we have been, of course, getting into Galatians five, been in there for a while now. We basically have rented space in Galatians five, so, and we've been going through, as we talked about the list of the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the spirit, we finally got to the works of life. Now we're jumping to the fruit of the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the spirit. We finally got through the works of the flesh. Now we're jumping to the fruit of the spirit, and we've tackled love, joy and peace, um, over the past couple weeks. Now we're jumping into the very next one, which is long suffering, and hopefully we'll get to gentleness and goodness as well.
Speaker 1:But just to give everybody a reference, galatians 5, 22 is where we're coming from here. And Paul says here, but the fruit of the Spirit. Now again, he's contrasting the works of flesh for this. Now, the fruit of the Spirit is this, and he says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. And there's our word for tonight longsuffering. And then he goes and says gentleness, goodness and faith. But we're going to look at that long-suffering word. I'm glad you went ahead and pulled that up, john.
Speaker 1:It's the word makrothumia, as it would be said in the Greek, and if you look at the definition down there, it says patience, long suffering and forbearance. But this is the cool thing when you look at the word origin there, it says it's derived from makros, which means long, and then thumos, which means temper or passion. So put it together, it literally means a long temper, long temper. Now we know when, when we talk about somebody who gets angry quickly, we say they have a short temper. Right, that's kind of the thing, like they're a short fuse and that kind of thing. So we're used to hearing those kind of phrases to talk about someone who's quick to get angry about stuff. But this here, the original greek word for long suffering, actually does mean they have a long temper, like it takes a lot for them to get set off and get upset about stuff. Now, this is probably, david. You can tell me if you think that I'm on target, possibly, but I feel like this is one of the most underappreciated fruits of the Spirit out of the whole list. Dude.
Speaker 3:At least the least under one of the least understood.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Yeah, because it is, it's, it's, it's a patient's thing, but we also have patients on the list of the fruit of the spirit, so that's part of it. But there's also a level of I guess you'd call it like divine restraint, if you want to put it that way. It's like things that would normally get somebody agitated or set them off. When you're operating in the fruit of long suffering, you're able to just be as steady as she goes, even when other people will look at you and go man, how come that didn't tick you off, man? I would have been so mad if that would have happened, or whatever. And that's I mean. It's a blessing when you can be that way. It's a blessing when you can operate that way, because if there's anything that can get you in a lot of trouble, it is getting angry quickly.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I have done it, I quickly, and I have done it. I've had many, many times in my life where I did things and said things that I truly regretted because I got angry too quickly. And I, you know, I've become intimately familiar with how beneficial this fruit is because of the things that I remember from my past, you know, where I screwed up and did things out of just a fit of rage or just my temper flared up and I ended up regretting something. I mean some things that, to be honest with you, to this day it's hard for me to think back on it and go, man. You know, it's hard for me to not feel regret, even for things I've long since repented of or said to people that I really regretted saying, even to this day. Sometimes I struggle with that, like knowing man, I wish I would have never said that to my such-and-so you know, my friend or relative or whatever. So, um, you know, so this fruit is extremely valuable, man.
Speaker 1:Um, it is one of those things that I think we don't need to overlook it in this list we got to. You know, take it seriously and go, man. You know God put this here for a reason, and there's so many scriptures in the Bible that talk about what the benefits are of being slow to anger, you know. And so one more thing, david and I'll be quiet after I say this, but in proverbs 17 I think it's the end of proverbs 17 he says he that's slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that can rule his own spirit is better than he that can conquer a city. You know to me that just that sums it up right there, man, your thoughts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it also just got me thinking of James. I think it's James, chapter one, where it says to be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath, and it's the same concept here here. Uh, I'm going to share from the um the um, I was about to say concordance the commentary that I've been reading from the new american commentary on galatians, and one of the things it says about patients is patients, um, and, and, interestingly enough, long suffering and patients generally mean the same thing. Right, long suffering is the classical version, which is why you find you find in the NIV and other more modern translations, which translated to help you to better understand what was being said. So, but it says patience refers to that quality of mind that disposes us to take everything in good part and not be easily offended. Wow, it is the ability to put up with other people, even when that is not an easy job to do.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's good it immediately got me thinking, you know, but then you just said something that made me unthink it. But I think both are true. One of the things about these fruit of the spirit is that they're about your character and how you govern yourself around godly people and ungodly people.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 3:We have a tendency to get short with the people we love and care for because we think they ought to know, or because we just don't want to deal with them, or whatever we may think. But we also have that same ability to become short with those who are outside of our household of faith, who don't maybe appreciate or understand some things the same way you do, and so you have no tolerance for it. Yeah, and this long suffering, this patience, is about. You know, another area said that long tempered as opposed to being short tempered. Yeah, and that the concept of tolerance would give the idea better in modern English.
Speaker 3:So this concept to tolerate, to be willing to go long with people. Yeah, you know, I get you know. Sometimes I hear people espouse certain things about Jesus, certain things about the Bible and so forth, and my immediate instinct is to be like what?
Speaker 1:This is foolishness.
Speaker 2:You're wrong.
Speaker 3:This, this, this. Here's the scripture, here's the verses blah, blah, blah and to go through that. But our patient Lord even recognizes they're saying these things.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And he would have us to patiently and gently correct people.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 3:And to go long, and I just think that's a great way to think of it to go long.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know you think about a football football. You know, when a quarterback is throwing a bomb, that means the wide receiver has been given the task of going long. But what's so interesting about that is that when the wide receiver is going long, the quarterback has the responsibility of keeping the play alive. Everybody else who's not a part of going long has a responsibility to block the play so that the block the other players, so that the quarterback doesn't get sacked, so that the block the other players so that the quarterback doesn't get sacked.
Speaker 1:So that he has time to throw the ball down the field.
Speaker 3:Everybody's involved in going long, nobody's left out of going long, but if you go long and the play works, everybody celebrates, everybody rejoices, and it's a good thing. We ought to think about our walk with Jesus First of all. Just remember the Father goes along with us.
Speaker 1:Yes, he does Every day.
Speaker 3:All the time. My God, you know how long the Father has gone with me. The Father has gone so long with me that I'm like have we not come?
Speaker 3:to an end of this string yet Jesus, you know, in my own ignorance I've sometimes, you know, been like man. If Jesus just left me, I completely understand. I just, you know and God is like I'm not a man that I should lie If I said I'm going wrong. I'm going wrong, Come on now. Just, I think that, if you can, I read one more thing to you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure it says. If Paul's point is clear, if God has been so long suffering with us, should we not display this same grace in our relationships with one another? That's right, man. This quality should characterize the life of every believer, but it has a special relevance for those who are called to teach and preach the word of God, as Paul instructed Timothy. Preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season, in season and out of season, correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. That's 2 Timothy 4.2. So we see that. We just see we gotta be patient with people.
Speaker 3:That's good man, and that's very hard, and can I just give you one more area, philip, please? A group of people that really need your patience it's your children.
Speaker 1:For sure, for sure, matt.
Speaker 3:Your children need to know that you're going along with them. There's nothing short time about your children. You'll get great wins from them at points and you'll be like, wow, look at this First time through. Next time they're throwing the math book against the wall in tears. Don't get it, can't understand how four plus two minus three equals three and you know you've got to go along with them. Then We've got to just go along with people in their walks with the Lord and be, very patient with them and remember Paul talks about this throughout the New Testament.
Speaker 3:He says I remember I was once like that too yeah, 100% just remember where you came from and go along with people that's good, David, that's good man.
Speaker 1:and you know you made me think of a scripture in 2 Timothy, 2. John, if you don't mind going there, 2 Timothy, chapter 2. Paul was instructing Timothy about this very thing because, you know, Timothy was obviously a young pastor and he's learning the ropes. He's trying to, you know, deal with all of the different mechanics of being a leader in the church when you've got strong personalities you deal with. You've got people who are older than you that you have to deal with, that they think you're young and inexperienced, and all these different things like that. And of course he also had and I'm sure this was a common thing throughout many of the churches that Paul was setting up. I'm sure this was a common thing throughout many of the churches that Paul was setting up he had people who were in some type of doctrinal disagreement, you know. I mean it was very common because Paul talked about it several times. He's like he mentioned two dudes. I think it was in this very chapter.
Speaker 3:He's like, yeah, these two guys, Hymenaeus and Philetus.
Speaker 1:they're always causing trouble, you know. They're telling people that the resurrection has already happened and screwing people up. So he was. I mean, Timothy was dealing with some real stuff where he had to employ patience and long suffering. But at the end of the chapter, John, if you don't mind scrolling down there At the end of the chapter, he says in verse 21,. I think it is, I'm sorry, it's verse 24. There you go. It said, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, and that word strive there means to be contentious. He must not be wrestling and contentious with people, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, meaning ready to teach and able to teach, patient, there's our word in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. Meaning they're just a constant controversy among each other.
Speaker 1:He said in meekness, you instruct those people. Now he didn't say in abrasiveness, in rudeness, in domineering. He didn't say none of that. He said in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves or are in constant conflict with each other If God perventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. So he's saying, if you can approach them the right way, like David was talking about, with that patience, when you're dealing with people who maybe they don't think that everything about the word of God is true, maybe they disagree with this, that and the other for different reasons, and you may find yourself in a situation where you've got to reason with people or, you know, try to bring them along to see more of the biblical perspective versus the perspective they have, that where they just don't even think that you know it's true. Whatever the case is, anything like that, where you're dealing with folks like that, is better to go in with gentleness than it is to go in, you know, just trying to hit them head on and not be compromising in terms of the humility that you should offer the information with. I think that's important, man, because if you come at them with just this know-it-all kind of an attitude and this condescending attitude because, hey, you don't know anything, you know you're not as well studied as I am. Blah, blah, blah. Then you're already putting up, you're already causing them rather to put up a wall. You know they're going to end up being more concerned about saving face than they are to to maybe being open to to the truth, you know. So, um, I think it's important to, if you're dealing with somebody, especially these, you know, doctrinal disagreements or apologetics, type of things where you're trying to share your faith and people are contradicting it or whatever. Um, be gentle, you know, be be humble about it. Try not to to go whole hog and just, I know it all and you don't know as much as I do. That's not the way to approach it, man. And so he said if you do that, actually, john, if you could pull it back up on the screen.
Speaker 1:If you do that, it says God perventure, verse 25,. He might give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. They may come to a place where they start to see what the word is saying, you know. And then verse 26,. And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. So, man, I mean, we're talking about being able to be used by God to pull somebody out of the grip of the enemy. You know, because it says there they're taken captive by him, the devil, at his will. So a lot of times they don't even, they don't even realize the state they're in spiritually and it's like, dude, you don't know it, but you're under a lord that isn't kind. You know what I'm saying? That's true. You're being controlled by, or influenced by, an entity that does not care for you one bit. So all those things are important, man, just to approach it with humility.
Speaker 3:But anyway, man just to to approach it with humility. But anyway, philip, I was thinking there's another area where, just as an example for the believer that, uh, it takes some long temperance, some long suffering and that's when you're discipling people yes as you did with me, david yeah, the process of discipling people isn't necessarily easy.
Speaker 3:It takes time and it requires you to go along and just walk it through and walk it out to its end points. So you have to still do that. Five back up um, and if you bring back up the um explanations behind the word long suffering or patience there you'll scroll down to the the cultural and historical background. There's something in here, philip, that I think is interesting. It says in the Greco-Roman world, patience was not always considered a virtue, as strength and immediate action were often valued. However, in Jewish and early Christian thought, patience was seen as a reflection of divine character. In fact, it's associated with God's character.
Speaker 3:The concept of macrothumia was countercultural, promoting a lifestyle of endurance and forgiveness rather than revenge or immediate justice. This virtue was particularly important for early Christians who faced persecution and needed to maintain their faith and witness under pressure. Wow, that's good you could see. This goes deep and wide. Whether it's in friendly situations, whether it's in hostile situations, regardless of the situation, god desires us to be long in our temper, to be patient and to allow him to do his work. And I think that's the other thing about this is that when we're long-tempered, when we allow God to do his work. God does his work yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:We've got to give we. It's almost like giving him runway for him to take off on your runway. So, just again, I think that's just a. It's a powerful. It's a powerful characteristic. And going back to what Phillip said, we don't necessarily value patience all the time because we're so busy being petty, we're so busy trying to get back at somebody. We allow our hurt to dictate how we behave.
Speaker 3:We allow our feelings to guide how we behave and how we react and how we respond, and God doesn't want any of that. He wants. You're going wrong.
Speaker 1:That's good man, that's good. And you know, david, in terms of long suffering, when you think about that, just the literal meaning of that long temper, somebody might ask the question well, do you know what do I do when I feel that anger trying to come up in me? You know how do I handle that, like because we've all been there, you know there's, we've all had times where we were so tempted to fly off the handle in the spur of the moment. I can only speak for myself. I've been there, you know, and and it's like, okay, what is what can I do? What? What is what can I? Maybe like a tool I can use or something I can refer to in my mind to help me not go there.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that has helped me and, david, I'll ask for your thoughts on it too, definitely but is in that moment, when the pressure is high, as far as you want to say something, you know you shouldn't say it's right there on the tip of your tongue. You're like, if I say this, it might be World War III, but I just want to get it out. You know, what can you do to hold that back? I think for me thinking long term in that moment and it's kind of wild, you only have milliseconds to do this, but you have to think about what might happen ahead it'll save you a lot of headache, like, if you start, if you just take the little second of thought that you can to go, wait a minute before I say this is this the wisest thing to say right now. You know, and, of course, like all of us who are born again and you've been walking with the Lord for a while, you know, with the Holy Spirit's telling you not to say something or not to do something.
Speaker 1:You know it, it's, it's there, it's like a little like something bristles up inside of you, like don't do that, don't say that, you know, and if you don't listen, and if you still, you know, stubbornly, go ahead, as I've done many times, uh, oh gosh, you end up. It ends up being something. Nine times out of ten you regret that you said it or did it, you know. So, um, I would say, put your long-term thinking hat on for just those few milliseconds and go. Will this produce the effect that I want it to produce? It'll be wise, most of the time, to just hold off and just keep your peace, man.
Speaker 3:You know, think of it this way and you know people often say this about people who beat their spouses and so forth, and they say it's amazing the restraint people have when a police officer is standing in front of them.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 3:Right? Well, you wouldn't sit around and get mad and want to go out and smack a fire out of a police officer, right, because you know the outcome of that is going to end up with you in handcuffs and ultimately in jail. Yeah, so you calculate the cost before you take action. There you go, and that's what we're being asked to do is to calculate the cost. If I say this thing to my wife, what is going to be the potential outcome of that? Right, when you know no good is going to come of it, you reconsider how important it is for you to say that thing or to do that thing. And it's the need to reconsider.
Speaker 3:Sometimes you've got to remove yourself out of that situation. You might need to leave that room and go somewhere else. You might need to get in your car and drive away. You might need to do some things and take some very specific actions in order to remove yourself from the situation, so that you create some distance between you and it, so that you can allow distance thinking to come and play its role. It doesn't mean you won't be mad, it doesn't mean you won't feel some kind of way about it, but it means that you are removing yourself from an action or actions that may, or words that may not be beneficial, and you're giving room for God to work.
Speaker 1:That's good, david, that's good man. And again, pause for the cause, dude, it's important. I mean, I don't know if this song is so old man, I'm showing my age but there was a song that run dmc did back in the day called pause. You remember this song?
Speaker 3:it was like no, I'm too young to remember that but it had a good message.
Speaker 1:it was actually a a good song. He was saying basically, before you do something stupid, pause and think about what you're doing. You know it was a cool song, but anyway, that actually has come into my head more than once, you know when I had moments of like you know about to go off or whatever it's like no pause for the cause you know, anyway, man anyway, man, hey, whatever.
Speaker 3:but you know, sometimes it's like whatever it takes and and god will use what's in there to help remind you. But I'm telling you, we live in a world and I've said this before here on this podcast where people were short-tempered, yeah, and as a result of their short temper, they had the long result, the long outcome of their bad behavior, and that's something that I prefer not to live with and give the Lord room to work, rather than to keep being impatient and allow myself to receive long acting results that will linger with me for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:That's a good way to put it, man, that's a good way to put it. Yeah, you don't want to make think about it. You do something in a moment of of anger, like literally could be seconds, and the effect of it can last for years, man, yeah, you know that. I think warren buffett said this, uh, a while back or whatever. But he said um, he said it takes decades to build a good reputation and seconds to ruin it. And I'm like that's a good, good point, man that's a good point, man, that's a good point, so Very good point.
Speaker 1:So, but on that theme, I know we were trying to tackle a couple of these fruits here, so we'll shift our attention to the next one on the list, which I believe is gentleness. Am I right there, john? Yes, after long suffering, we have gentleness Now. Gentleness is interesting because it's when we hear gentleness a lot of times you can, it can seem to be a little, you know, like it's kind of like this lilting kind of a thing, I don't know what to call it, but um, and and when we think about some of the, like the traditional songs out there, gentle Jesus, meek and mild, you know, you've heard that whole thing and it makes it seem like that he was always just tiptoeing through the tulips and never, uh, had to get strong with people or whatever, and that's actually gentleness. Actually, when you break it down, is strength under control, is what it really boils down to? It's strength under control. And we're going to look at what the lexicon says here For gentleness. The transliteration is kresotes, whatever. But the definition means kindness, goodness, gentleness, and then, of course, it says meaning goodness, uprightos, meaning useful or good, often translated as loving, kindness or steadfast love, reflecting a similar concept of covenantal I hope I said that right covenantal loyalty and kindness. When you think about gentleness, it's a choice. Yeah, there we go. I'm glad you put that down there, john.
Speaker 1:Under the usage it says in the New Testament, christantis refers to the quality of being kind, good or gentle. It is often used to describe the character of God and the expected behavior of believers. This term encompasses a moral goodness and integrity that is expressed through acts of kindness and benevolence towards others. So this, if you think about it, david, it's like it's requires a choice from you to do these things correct. This is not something that's just gonna jump on you and control your activities. It's something where you have to choose to be this way, and I'm assuming that a lot of times you're doing this or choosing this in a moment where you could go the other way too. You know so, and that's like what Jesus said you know, pray for them that despitefully use you. You know, love them, that, that that persecute you, and that kind of thing. That's you choosing the kindness at a time when you probably could go the alternate route, and I think that's that's probably a lot of what gentleness encompasses.
Speaker 1:Your thoughts David.
Speaker 3:You know, I was reading this one in the in the New American Commentary, and it said something interesting. It says kindness like patience. Like patience, kindness is a characteristic of God intended to be reproduced by the Spirit in God's people, by the Spirit in God's people. God is forbearing and kind towards sinners and his wooing of them to salvation. But kindness is not sentimentality, and I think that's an important piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 3:I sometimes think people think about kindness or gentleness and they mean the same thing. Here again, just the same explanation applies now as applied before, that in some translation in the kjv it was translated gentleness and that classical language versus kindness in the newer translations. To try to communicate a point. But it is. Kindness is not sentimentality. It doesn't mean oh, I really like so-and-so, I just feel so warm and fuzzy towards them. It actually requires something from you. It says kindness is not sentimentality and Paul admonished believers to observe both the kindness and the sternness of God, because both of them exist.
Speaker 3:Paul frequently appealed to Christians to be kind to one another and to clothe themselves with kindness, which we see in Ephesians 4.32 and Colossians 3.12. Where was this Christian grace to be seen among the Galatians who were biting, devouring and consuming one another? That's the question and that's why Paul was telling them that kindness was necessary. If you remember, back in verse 15, it tells them to basically beware unless they bite and devour and destroy one another. And so Paul's answer to that was to call for kindness to one another, which was a characteristic of God. Which was a characteristic of God that, uh, again he says that he wanted the spirit to replicate in his people. So when we think about being kind to people, it actually takes action.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:It takes you actually, you know it's not. You can give people, first of all, words. Um, kind words are a beautiful thing. They take action, though you can't just have kindness like inside, like that's just not it. Kind actions the. You know the thought here. Here's something you know. You know your wife didn't take lunch to work today, and so you make her lunch and you drop by her office and you drop her off lunch that day. Or you know she's worked all day, she's tired with the kids, so you bring a pizza home because, you want to make it easier for her.
Speaker 3:to make it easier for her. That's showing a kindness to your wife so she can take a break and take a breather and just have the night off from having to cook. Kindness is. I think that kindness should be born in our giving. Yeah, when we give, not only are we giving because the word tells us to, but it tells us to be cheerful givers.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 3:And we should also give out of the kindness of our hearts because, there's a need here and I have the ability to meet that need, so let me do that, you know. But it takes action to demonstrate and show kindness to people, and again I can't get over saying this just like patience was a characteristic of God that needed to be born in his people, so is kindness that's good, and so you may not. I don't even know. Sometimes you know, like we were saying before with long suffering, that maybe it's misunderstood or underappreciated. I wonder if people even think about kindness, but here it sits, or gentleness, here it sits as a fruit of the Spirit, and I think that that might be the most neglected of the fruit of the Spirit, because I don't think people give kindness a second thought in their life.
Speaker 1:Wow, See, that's interesting, David. When you said that about how it's a quality or a characteristic of God and he wants that same thing to be reflected in us, it made me think of Romans 2, and I had to check it while you were talking Romans 2.
Speaker 3:Romans 2.4.
Speaker 1:Yep, Dude, you're right on target, man, that's the one Romans 2, it says and it's interesting the word that it uses there and, John, if you don't mind going there in Romans chapter 2. But in that whole passage of Romans 2, he's talking about, you know, making sure that you're not saying one thing about how people ought to be living, but then you're not living that way yourself, you know he kind of went that whole thing, and then down here it says yep, there it is.
Speaker 1:It says in verse four or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance, man?
Speaker 1:And now in the King James it uses the word goodness there. And when you look up that word goodness in verse four of Romans two, it's the same exact word or comes from the same root as that word gentleness in Galatians 5, same usage in everything. So it is this idea of an actively showing kindness, actively demonstrating kindness. And when you think about it, man, all of us have known that in our lives. The kindness of God, we've seen it over and over again the times when you know you should have gotten in trouble for a certain thing but you somehow made it out of that thing. Or even a near miss with a car accident or something like that, where you could have gotten into a bad wreck, but the last moment we're able to steer away from it, or whatever those types of things, man, we've seen God's kindness in a million ways His protection, his love, his mercy, his provision, all of those things are. He demonstrates it to us constantly, and we see the objective also in Romans 2. His kindness and goodness is meant to lead us to repentance.
Speaker 3:Tell it, phil tell it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like it isn't just for God to show off. You know, it's designed for us to respond to it and to go. Man, he's been so good to me. How could I for lack of a better phrase how could I treat him like this? You know, how could I just look all that in the face and go? Ah, whatever, I'm going to still live the way I want to live. No, it's meant to lead you to repentance, man.
Speaker 3:Not only that, but it also makes you look at other people and other situations and circumstances and say God has been so good to me, God has showed me such kindness. How can I not extend that same goodness and kindness to other people?
Speaker 1:He's been so good to me. That's right.
Speaker 3:You're so right in Romans 2. The goodness of God leads men to repentance, and it should lead you not just to repentance, but then it should lead you to extend that same kindness and goodness to other people.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:Here's what we know. Oh, if you listen, jordan Peterson, if you and I'm sorry, I don't say that to offend anybody so if you listen to him and other psychologists, we live in a world right now where you see people break down in tears because nobody's just said hey, you're good, you're a good person, nobody's just demonstrated simple love to people, on up and hug somebody and tell them you're all right, it's going to be okay. And you see, I've watched videos where you see people breaking down over somebody just coming and being kind to them.
Speaker 1:Come on, man it's such a?
Speaker 3:it seems to be such a distant thing in our world. And if you, john, if you could, if you could pull back up that the word here, the macrothymia, no, not patience, but if you can pull back up that Greek understanding of this word. If you look down, if you look down under the again the same area of the culture and historical background, it says in the Greco-Roman world, virtues such as kindness and goodness were highly esteemed, though often in a philosophical context. The New Testament writers, however, rooted these virtues in the character of God and the transformative work of the Holy Spirit in believers. Christades was counter-cultural. There it is again, in a society that often valued power and dominance, emphasizing instead a gentle and benevolent spirit. You know, we can be powerful and we can be dominant types of people, but you know we hear this phrase all the time peace through strength.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:And I think that's a fair characteristic of this, because, yes, you can be strong, but you can also be a person of peace and you can prefer to be the peaceful person. Jordan Peterson says it like this and I know this is going to sound a little ugly for a podcast like this but he says you have to show people that you can be the monster so that you can be the peaceful, kind person. In other words, there's a need to demonstrate that you do have power, authority and strength that you can and you will use. Have power, authority and strength that you can and you will use, but it's only for the sake of being able to say but I choose, kindness I choose peace, I choose patience, I choose the fruit of the Spirit.
Speaker 3:But don't get it twisted, because at any point God might call me to use some of my stronger characteristics to get my point across to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:He'll never call us to be ugly in the sense, but God calls men to war, and there comes a point where you have to take certain action, and God will lead you to that if you allow him to. But my point being that we have to just we've got to allow this thing to shine through in our lives. That's right. We've got to let kindness have its place in our lives, and it has to be a characteristic which we intentionally develop in ourselves because we want to be more like that's good.
Speaker 1:That's good man. I couldn't agree more, man. It just. And it can be done in a thousand different ways. You know, just in simple things in life, even if you're at a restaurant somewhere, you notice that your server's having a hard time or seems to be having a bad day, hey, nothing wrong with leaving a little more on the tip than they would ever even expect. You know, something that simple can make somebody's day, man.
Speaker 1:And I remember one time we were oh gosh, I say. I remember that I don't know where we were, but it's some restaurant, and we decided just on that day, we're just going to go ham, and I think the tip was over 50 percent of the bill and the bill wasn't cheap. You know, we were just wanting to just be a blessing. Oh, that's what it was. We're this place in downtown Graham and we left this girl a triple digit tip. And we left this girl a triple digit tip, I'll just put it that way and she literally broke down crying at the table because she had picked the bill back up. We'd already put the card in and the whole thing, and she picked it up and looked at the ticket. She's like are you trying to give me this you know, she wanted to make sure that it wasn't a mistake, you know. And we're like, yeah, you know, wanted to make sure that it wasn't a mistake, you know. And we're like, yeah, you know, be blessed, god loves you. You know, I forgot. We said something like that and, dude, she broke down crying right there, man, and and it just, you know it.
Speaker 1:Something that simple, which you know. Uh, it isn't always simple to give a lot of money you know what I mean sometimes depending on you. But but at the same time, it's like you, you know, it doesn't have to be super extravagant all the time or nothing like that either. It can be just something simple, but it can speak a lot to people and because a lot of times you don't know what folks are dealing with, you have no idea what's going on in their life. That may have been the day where that person was thinking about ending their life, you know, you have no idea what people are dealing with sometimes. And so, like David's saying, you know, just put it into practice, develop that almost a reflex kind of thing where you just show kindness as a matter of habit after a while. That's when you're walking in the love of God and in the fruit of the spirit, like he's talking about in these verses.
Speaker 3:For sure, yeah, and you can do it everywhere. I mean, we had a similar situation with a waitress who and in talking to her we found out her light bill was behind and that's why she was struggling that day. So, we paid her light bill.
Speaker 1:Praise God.
Speaker 3:You know. But but that's also man. I know we're about to run out of time, but this is why these fruit are so important to develop, because you develop these fruit and you're obedient to God. This is why it's also I'm going to get in trouble, so I'm going to ascribe this, what I'm about to say, solely to me, and I'm not going to describe it to Phil. So if you guys decide that you want to hate somebody, you don't hate Phil, you just hate me.
Speaker 1:Very specific hate.
Speaker 3:It's also why it's important for Christians to prosper. Yeah, important for Christians to prosper? Yeah, because when we're doing well, and when I say prosper, that doesn't mean you've got to be making a million dollars a day and doing all that, but you're doing well for yourself, you're being wise stewards over the resources that God's given you and he'll guide you in the places where it's time to be kind, where it's time to help and extend an extra hand to somebody here, somebody there, and it's just all part of his kingdom. And you never know that when you sow a seed here, what the ripple effect of that seed is over there and what the ripple effect of that seed over there is. But what you're doing is you just keep dropping rocks in the water and allowing there to be ripples, and God's on every way. But we've got.
Speaker 3:If we're not cultivating and nurturing these fruits of the spirit in our lives, then we miss out on the opportunity sometimes to hear them because they're unfamiliar to us and God's trying to drive us through certain behaviors in certain ways. And because it's unfamiliar to us we may not take action the way that we need to. So, I'm just telling you, it's Christianity 101, but it's also 102, 5, 7, and 10.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3:Because you should continue to grow in these things, and they should. As you mature, those characteristics should also mature in you, and I'm sitting here right now, philip, saying I haven't. While I can pinpoint, sometimes I need to go back and work on kindness.
Speaker 1:I feel you, dude, I'm right there with you, man Right there with you.
Speaker 3:I'm being quiet now.
Speaker 1:Don't worry about anything, hey, I mean, you know that's the thing, like we are in a constant state of being under construction, if you want to put it that way. You know God's working on our character all the time, and I mean I definitely can look back and see some of the stuff where I didn't show kindness, where I should have and said things I shouldn't have said, and all I can do at this point is learn from it, you know, and resolve to be better from this point forward.
Speaker 3:Man, yeah, and remember, phil, we're not. I love that. You just said we're under construction all the time right. But we're not a singular building. Yeah, we're a city on a hill.
Speaker 1:Come on now, man.
Speaker 3:God is developing all kinds of things in and around us and part of us that make us a flourishing city. Yes, and we should want construction in our lives because it helps us to be better and at the end of one construction project, we are now more equipped than we previously were to bless and do the work of the kingdom and be a blessing in other people's lives.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right. Good stuff, man. I think it's a good place for us to put our bookmark for this episode. I know we didn't get to three fruit, we got the two, but it's all good man.
Speaker 3:That seems to be our average. We knew we were getting the three-fifty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we seem to be averaging two per episode. That's all right, man, we're good. But we want to encourage everyone who's listening watching just to go back through the scriptures we talked about during this episode. Also, go back and listen to the other videos and podcasts that have been in this series about walking in the spirit, because we've been trying to provide, like, a comprehensive understanding of what Paul was talking about in that scripture in Galatians 5. So, use your study tools, get into your Bible concordances online or Bible dictionaries, all that good stuff, man, dig into this word. But before I go any further, david, any final thoughts before we wrap up? Now let's just pray for people. Yes, sir, yes sir, absolutely, would you like?
Speaker 3:to pray tonight.
Speaker 1:David.
Speaker 3:Sure, I'll knock it out, it's not going to be long. Father God, we love you and we thank you for what we've heard. Lord God, your word tells us to let us not just be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. Lord God, these characteristics that you're showing us through the fruit of the Spirit should be fruit that is growing in our spiritual garden.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:So we ask for you oh, you're the great, you're the great, oh, lord, you're the great handyman, you're the, you're the great one who can go through and you know exactly how to put a garden together, you know how to nurture, you know when to cut the vines and all that, lord. We offer ourselves, lord God, to be nurtured and to grow, lord God, and to grow into a fruitful city, fruitful vines, lord God, meet for the master's use. I thank you, lord God, that we become a kind people, we become a people that go long, who are long-suffering, lord, we not only endure, but we demonstrate and show endurance to others. Help us, lord, to walk this out each and every day, in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen, amen. Well guys, Okay, wait a second, what's the word?
Speaker 3:I couldn't think of the word while I was praying. For handyman no, yeah, no.
Speaker 1:When God's a gardener, he's not a oh the vine dresser, whatever.
Speaker 3:He's the vine dresser. But what's the word? It starts with an H, I think it is.
Speaker 1:A horticulturist, horticulturalist. Yes God the horticulturalist, yes God the older culturalist. Now I've got to go find that word.
Speaker 3:We've got one popped up on the screen here Great architect. That's one.
Speaker 2:Yes, he is the great architect too.
Speaker 3:That's correct. There is another word that has to do with the Never mind. I can't believe I can't remember that word right now. Dude, it came to me in a flash and then it just went right nevermind, I can't believe I can't remember that word right now.
Speaker 1:Oh uh, dude, it came to me in a flash and then just went right back away.
Speaker 3:But I think I know what you're talking about. We got, we got to find that word man Okay. We're finding that word tonight.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to sleep without it, but we're very glad you guys joined us. Uh, out there listening and watching, and we encourage you. Please comment, like, subscribe and, of course, if there's any questions you have or anything you'd like to see us cover on an episode, we have an email address just for you. It is gotbrewatbiblebrosnet Once again, gotbrewatbiblebrosnet. And whatever app you're listening to us on with, whether it's spotify or instagram live or whatever the case is, again, we encourage you to leave your comments, thoughts, those types of things we love to hear from people out there and, um, until next time, though. Uh, I've been philip and he's been david, and john's been behind the scenes, and we're glad you joined us and we look forward to seeing you guys again. Until then, keep brewing and keep studying the word. We'll see you next time, guys. Peace.
Speaker 3:It's right there. That word is right there. It's right here we're going to get it.
Speaker 1:Okay, there we go.
