A call to repentance—God is patient, but His patience does not abide forever., page 1

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’“ (Luke 13:6-9 ESV)

This parable is an illustration of God’s patience toward the unrepentant, but also a warning that God’s patience does not abide forever. A day of judgement is coming. We must “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). God has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed, and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead. Do you presume on the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4, paraphrased) Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:10 ESV)

The Lord is not slow to fulfil His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought we to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn?! But according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Therefore, those of us who are eagerly awaiting these things and the appearance of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, must be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish and at peace. Counting the patience of the Lord as salvation. There are some things in the scriptures that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction. Take care that you are not carried away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:9-18, paraphrased)