Ephesians 4:1–3 — Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
We live in a day that is characterized by anything but patience! When we have decided to buy something, we want it in our hands immediately, and the idea of waiting a couple of weeks for it is unbearable. When we are sick, we fret and fuss and are impatient to be well again. We panic and become anxious when troubles come our way, eager to see the end of them. When we come across people whose views of Scripture do not coincide with our own, we cannot wait to debate them and put them "right" with the sheer force of our arguments. We do not tolerate suffering of any sort very well, often trying to take short-cuts to make it stop.
We saw earlier in this series that the Holy Spirit produces behavior of a very different nature in the children of God through the fruit of patience - a full surrender to God's Plans and purposes in our lives, and a patience that bears and forbears with the weaknesses and deficiencies of our brothers and sisters.
In our passage, Paul implores the Ephesians to show this fruit in their fellowship as a church by being patient and showing tolerance for one another in love. This, he says, is characteristic of a life that is worthy of the calling with which believers are called - a calling to be holy, to be like our Lord Jesus. This has to be true, since patience is also a hallmark of the life of Jesus, Who in His time on earth showed this quality above and beyond anything we have known.
Now, if the Lord has produced patience in you, then according to Paul, it is not an optional thing for you to demonstrate it. You cannot decide to be patient sometimes but not others - you must be like Jesus and be patient at all times and in all circumstances. You must be tolerant of your brothers and sisters - that is part of what it means to walk worthily of the calling of Jesus. He will give you grace to be able to do this.
It is not unlikely that at some point in your Christian walk you have met someone in a local fellowship who was very patient, and showed great tenderness towards you. They did not crush you or deal harshly with you when others might have done so. What a blessing that was! What an encouragement to you to experience the love of Christ expressed in that way. What a stimulus to seek the Lord so that you may have more of that fruit in your own life. Now imagine a fellowship where all the saints are bearing this fruit - wouldn't you want to be present whenever they met together? Isn't that a reason both to show patience to your brothers and sisters, as well as to be present in the fellowship to receive their forbearance in return?
