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Pastor Jay's Blog

Can an Unbeliever Be Patient?

 

People used to think the single cell was pretty basic, like an old car you could work on if you had some know-how. Turns out we simply weren’t looking close enough. Instead of comparing it to an Oldsmobile, the cell is more like a galaxy of function and information. The same is true with some of the most famous and beloved Bible verses. We love them because of the powerful truth they clearly communicate. However, the truth of those same passages isn’t only powerful, it is also profound and immensely interconnected with vast undercurrents of other glorious truths. When we start asking questions and probing deeply, we find there is a world of truth turning and churning in the background. Such is the case with fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22.

Galatians 5:22–23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
It is almost inevitable that when someone starts spending time with Galatians 5:22 the lives of unbelievers will come up. It goes like this: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace… but I have unbelieving family and neighbors who are patient and kind.” And there is the issue. If unbelievers do not have the Spirit of God, then how can we say our love is the fruit of the Spirit and theirs is not? And if theirs is not, then what is the source of the unbeliever’s various good things like patience, kindness, and self-control?
What isn’t going to work is to take one attribute and redefine it in such a way that it is basically two different things. For instance, the distinction between joy and happiness is often cited. But that distinction breaks down and can’t really be defended biblically. The same thing may be attempted with love and peace, but it becomes increasingly hard to do with patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Do unbelievers have patience? It is such a practical and daily necessity that no one would disagree that the unbeliever has patience. So are there different types of patience: the type an unbeliever would have and a different type a believer has? I don’t believe so, and I certainly have never heard an argument for it. Patience, and most all of the other attributes, cannot easily be dissected and redefined, which means this is not a sound course of understanding.
So what is happening in the unbeliever? I see two different ways of explaining this. First, we can see the good features of unbelievers as a work of common grace. In 1 Timothy 4:10, God is called “the Savior of all men”. God is saving everyone in the sense that they are not plunging immediately into ruin. By God’s grace and the convicting work of the Spirit, unbelievers realize that they have to operate in God’s world. They may hate that the Lord is king, but they live in His creation nonetheless. Therefore, they have to abide by God’s rules to live. They have no other choice but to have patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control in order to keep functioning. They are like convicts on parole who are operating with good behavior, though they are dreaming of the day they can get back to swindling grandmas out of their social security check. Their obedience is just a shell of real righteousness. And while they are operating with good behavior, they often share love, and experience a degree of joy and peace. That is what happens when they abide by God’s laws, even on a surface level. Some unbelievers are not restrained by God’s grace and their lives unravel into a spectacular train wreck of pain, destruction, and every evil thing. But many are restrained, and we can thank God for this. It is what keeps society civil and allows the gospel to spread less hindered. God’s mercy is seen in this, but His judgment will eventually fall. God will one day hold them to account for the mercy they enjoyed, and the benefits they experienced, all while refusing to bow their knee to Christ.
The second way we can explain what is happening in unbelievers is by the description of this list. The list is called the fruit of the Spirit. Notice it is “fruit” singular, not “fruits” plural. There is a singular work that the Spirit is doing in the Christian. It is the work of redemption. It is the work that seals them and begins conforming them to the image of Christ. This is the distinction between the believer and the unbeliever. In the Christian, each step of growth in all 9 attributes is for the glory of Christ, grounded by faith in the promises of God’s Word, and empowered by Spirit-indwelt filling. God is supremely glorified in this. While unbelievers may experience a degree of all of the attributes, Christians are experiencing them for one grand Spirit-driven purpose; that the cross of Christ will be exalted, and the grace of God displayed as the transforming power it really is.
So let us exalt in the cross again today. While the Spirit is keeping a kind of moral order in a broken world, the Spirit’s truest work and glorious fruit is His work of making new creatures in Christ. They alone will declare the praises of Him who is worthy.

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