Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
Truth to Learn
Our salvation is a result of God’s goodness, not ours.
Behind the Words
The word translated “despise” is kataphroneō, which is made up of kata, meaning “against” or denoting evil and phroneō, meaning “to think.” Hence, kataphroneō means “to think evil of.”
“Riches” is translated from ploutos, based on a root meaning “fullness.” It refers to the fullness of possessions.
The word “kindness” is from krēstotēs, meaning “moral excellence, kindness, or goodness.”
“Forbearance” is from anochēs, which is based on the word anechō, made up of ana, meaning “up” and echō, meaning “to have or hold.” Anochēs means “forbearance, self-restraint, or patience.”
The word “longsuffering” is from macrothumia, which is composed of macros, meaning “long” and thumos, which refers to “anger, fierceness or wrath.” This word refers to God’s ability to hold back His fierce wrath for a long time.
“Repentance” is translated from a form of metanoeō, made up of meta indicating “a change of place or condition” and noeō, meaning “to think or comprehend.” Hence we see that this word refers to a change in the way we think about something.
Meaning Explained
Now, putting this all together we find that Paul is asking, “Do you think evil of the great value of God’s moral excellence, His self-restraint, and His holding back His wrath, ignoring the fact that God’s moral excellence is what leads you to repentance?” What Paul is saying is, “God is very patient and suffers the pain of our sin against Him. And because He is so good, instead of squashing us like ants, He actually takes us by the hand and leads us to an attitude of repentance!”
The picture is like that of a loving father who, when his son or daughter has done something wrong, takes the time and effort to lovingly explain the effect of their wrongful action so that they realize they have done wrong and tell their father they’re sorry, asking for forgiveness. The real beauty of this is the fact that without God’s longsuffering and patience and His loving, leading way, we would not repent. For, as Paul says, “the kindness of God leads you to repentance.”
Our sin nature is ever present and it is powerful. Without the greater power of God through His kindness and without His willingness to hold back His righteous anger against our sins, we would not repent of our sinfulness. And without this repentance we would not be saved from our sins.
Praise be to God for His kindness!
Application
If this doesn’t cause you to fall to your knees with a prayer of thankfulness to God for His kindness, then you don’t underestimate the effect of your sinfulness in the presence of a holy God. God must judge sin, but He loves you as His precious child.
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2017 Will Krause. All rights reserved