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"Be patient, bearing with one another in love" (Ephesians 4:2).

I was visiting with Aaron, my Amish neighbor that I met last week. He was working with his two young sons in their chicken house packing eggs. As they looked up at me from beneath their big straw hats I asked their names. The older is Samuel and the younger is David.  "These are great Bible names" I told them with great enthusiasm. Then I asked David "What grade are you in?" but he had a hard time understanding me.

The Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch (a type of German) in the home and many learn English only after they start school at age 6. This makes the duties of the young Amish school teachers all the more remarkable since they are in a one-room schoolhouse with various ages through grade 8. Yet they learn to read and write in 1st grade and learn to speak English. Some students have the advantage of older siblings who speak English around them at home.

With his Dad's help David informed me he was in first grade which prompted a memory of my friend David whom I met in first grade and we have been good friends ever since though he lives in MO and I in PA. I told my new young acquaintance about this and how he could keep his friends for 65 years but I'm not he could comprehended my English nor could he grasp the big number of 65!

Enduring friendships are one of the greatest gifts that God gives to us, right alongside enduring marriages. Any lasting marriage or friendship requires two characteristics mentioned in our daily text. The two Christian virtues of patience and love complement each other: "Be patient, bearing with one another in love".

These characteristics are essential in marriage and in the home. They're also needed in friendships, the workplace, and in the church body. Actually they're beneficial in everyone of our associations. I believe enduring relationships of any type absolutely depend on patience and forbearance.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the community of believers in Ephesus about church relationships, but these two characteristics speak to every relationship:

First, Paul calls believers to "be patient". The King James Version uses the descriptive word "longsuffering". This translates a Greek word "makrothumia" which one commentator explains is patience in face of injustice and unpleasant circumstances without complaint or irritation.

The Precept Austin Online commentary observes, "The short-tempered person speaks and acts impulsively and lacks self-control. When a person is longsuffering, he can put up with provoking people or circumstances without retaliating.... It is holding back, restraining yourself from becoming upset or speaking sharply or shrilly to somebody be they your mate, your child, or whoever...despite their conduct you find difficult and exasperating."

The virtues of patience and longsuffering are greatly needed today aren't they? I am so thankful for people who are patient and longsuffering toward me. Aren't you!

Secondly we are told to be "bearing with one another in love".  One of the definitions in my Greek dictionary for this word is "to hold oneself up against, i.e. put up with". There would have been no need to write this if "bearing with" was not needed, but it was essential then and continues to be true for us today, as we are clothed in our human nature, during our earthly sojourn.

Bible teacher David Guzik points out that we need these two characteristics so "that the inevitable wrongs that occur between people in God’s family will not work against God’s purpose of bringing all things together in Jesus".

And it's, at least to some degree, a mutual situation although we often don't see it that way. You may read this and think, "Yes, I know exactly what he's talking about and I sure am bearing with so and so", without realizing, from their perspective, they may also be bearing with you!

Among God's virtuous attributes are His patience and forbearance of which we are all recipients. Let us practice patience and forbearance in all our relationships, and thereby imitate Christ as we bring honor to God.

Be encouraged today! Hebrews 3:13

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