But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

• Galatians 5:22-23

Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

• Proverbs 25:15

being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,

• Colossians 1:11

But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

• 1 Timothy 1:16

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

• Hebrews 6:12

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.

• 2 Peter 3:15

This is the third installment of the quizzes on the fruits of the Spirit.

I would have loved for all the verses in this quiz to have had the word “forbearance” but in the NIV, the verses from Galatians 5 that I am using is one of the three uses of forbearance in the NIV.  Other synonyms are used.  I grew up with long-suffering.  But the modern KJV only has three long-suffering references.  Maybe my memory is fading.

So, as a result, and sticking with the NIV, the words used in this quiz are forbearance, patience, and long-suffering.

The questions are in biblical order.  Only four questions are from the Old Testament.  There are many examples of God’s patience, long-suffering, and forbearance in the Old Testament.  But the words are not used that often.  God showed those attributes that we should mirror in our lives.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	A proverb states that our wisdom yields patience, and to overlook what is to our glory?
2	Ecclesiastes speaks of the end of a thing is better than the beginning, and patience is better than what?
3	Isaiah said that the people are not satisfied with trying the patience of humans, but they must try the patience of whom?
4	Who cries out for God to remember his suffering for the Lord’s sake and not send him into exile, reminding God that He is long-suffering?
5	In what book of the Bible does the NIV have both “forbearance and patience?”
6	A just God demonstrates His forbearance.  If not, He could never do what for those who have faith in Jesus Christ?
7	Paul proposes a rhetorical question. What if God exhibited patience against the objects of His wrath, prepared for destruction, so that He could exhibit the riches of His glory to be known for the objects of His what, prepared in advance for glory?
8	In his letter to the Colossians, Paul said to clothe yourself with five things.  One is patience.  Name at least one of the other four.
9	Similar to what Paul says to Timothy in the third chapter, in the next chapter he suggests that any minister (or church leader) should be prepared in and out of season to do three things with patience and careful instruction.  Name one of the three.
10	James speaks of the men of the Old Testament who suffered with patience.  Which is the one he mentioned by name?

Forbearance synonyms depend on the context of the sentence, with main options including patience, tolerance, self-restraint, leniency, clemency, and abstinence.

• Google AI

The contexts that Google AI goes on to discuss, with even more synonyms, are:

• Patience and Restraint: Patience, tolerance, self-control, endurance, long-suffering, resignation.
• Mercy and Leniency: Leniency, clemency, compassion, mercy, indulgence, mildness.
• Refraining or Avoidance: Abstinence, refraining, avoidance, holding back.

Some of these synonyms are what is meant by forbearance being both an Attribute of God and a Fruit of the Spirit.

Patience and long-suffering have been used in this quiz.  Self-Control is the last in the Galatians five list.

Compassion, mercy and mildness are good examples of God’s forbearance.

Abstinence is not mentioned in the NIV, but in Acts 15:20 the people abstained from eating food sacrificed to idols.  Today, it may not be preached or the most popular word, but a good sex education program should emphasize that abstinence is the only foolproof method to avoid pregnancy.  In that way, God encourages us to avoid sin.

Note: Many churches lose that last thought.  Instead of teaching to avoid sin, the churches avoid mentioning sin so as not to hurt one’s self-esteem.  Hmm. Maybe that is the problem.  We should lose ourselves to follow Christ and that might be a big chunk of that self-esteem.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	A proverb states that our wisdom yields patience, and to overlook what is to our glory?	Proverbs 19:11
2	Ecclesiastes speaks of the end of a thing is better than the beginning, and patience is better than what?	Ecclesiastes 7:8
3	Isaiah said that the people are not satisfied with trying the patience of humans, but they must try the patience of whom?	Isaiah 7:3
4	Who cries out for God to remember his suffering for the Lord’s sake and not send him into exile, reminding God that He is long-suffering?	The name of the book, Chapter 15, verse 15
5	In what book of the Bible does the NIV have both “forbearance and patience?”	The name of the book, Chapter 2, verse 4
6	A just God demonstrates His forbearance.  If not, He could never do what for those who have faith in Jesus Christ?	Romans 3:25-26
7	Paul proposes a rhetorical question. What if God exhibited patience against the objects of His wrath, prepared for destruction, so that He could exhibit the riches of His glory to be known for the objects of His what, prepared in advance for glory?	Romans 9:22-23
8	In his letter to the Colossians, Paul said to clothe yourself with five things.  One is patience.  Name at least one of the other four.	Colossians 3:12
9	Similar to what Paul says to Timothy in the third chapter, in the next chapter he suggests that any minister (or church leader) should be prepared in and out of season to do three things with patience and careful instruction.  Name one of the three.	2 Timothy 4:2
10	James speaks of the men of the Old Testament who suffered with patience.  Which is the one he mentioned by name?	James 5:10

Now let’s look at some of the synonyms above that do not reflect the forbearance of God.

Tolerance is not a word found in the NIV.  We should love our neighbor, but we should never tolerate sin.

Is it not strange that those that attack Christians, calling the Bible a book of hate speech, do not attack our love for others.  They do not see our long-suffering, patience, etc.  They attack our intolerance.  But Christians tolerate a lot.  These people attacking Christians want Christians to tolerate and even celebrate their sin.  God is clear that in the End, there will be dire consequences for such sin that has not been wash by the blood of Jesus.  Then, it is the love of a faithful Christian who lovingly tries to help the lost find their way to avoid those consequences.

Leniency is another word not found in the NIV.  We should be long-suffering.  We should be patient with those who have not yet met Jesus.  We were once lost in sin ourselves, but leniency is like tolerance when it comes to sin.  God is not lenient with us.  His holy justice would forbid it.  But God is long-suffering so that in time, those whom God has elected will finally see the error of their ways and surrender to Jesus.  That is not leniency.  That is long-suffering leading to mercy and grace.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	A proverb states that our wisdom yields patience, and to overlook what is to our glory?	Proverbs 19:11	An offense
2	Ecclesiastes speaks of the end of a thing is better than the beginning, and patience is better than what?	Ecclesiastes 7:8	Pride
3	Isaiah said that the people are not satisfied with trying the patience of humans, but they must try the patience of whom?	Isaiah 7:3	God
4	Who cries out for God to remember his suffering for the Lord’s sake and not send him into exile, reminding God that He is long-suffering?	The name of the book, Chapter 15, verse 15	Jeremiah
5	In what book of the Bible does the NIV have both “forbearance and patience?”	The name of the book, Chapter 2, verse 4	Romans
6	A just God demonstrates His forbearance.  If not, He could never do what for those who have faith in Jesus Christ?	Romans 3:25-26	A just God used forbearance with out past sins so the He could JUSTIFY us, those who have faith in Jesus.
7	Paul proposes a rhetorical question. What if God exhibited patience against the objects of His wrath, prepared for destruction, so that He could exhibit the riches of His glory to be known for the objects of His what, prepared in advance for glory?	Romans 9:22-23	Mercy
8	In his letter to the Colossians, Paul said to clothe yourself with five things.  One is patience.  Name at least one of the other four.	Colossians 3:12	compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
9	Similar to what Paul says to Timothy in the third chapter, in the next chapter he suggests that any minister (or church leader) should be prepared in and out of season to do three things with patience and careful instruction.  Name one of the three.	2 Timothy 4:2	correct, rebuke and encourage
10	James speaks of the men of the Old Testament who suffered with patience.  Which is the one he mentioned by name?	James 5:10	Job

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well…  Here is Goodness of God sung by CeCe Winans.  This song gets to me.  And the video adds to it.  If you want a lump in your throat, watch the video and imagine the PowerPoint of your life.  Does your slide show demonstrate how the goodness of God kept running after, running after you?

Here is Still Waters Christian Music with Long-Suffering Grace.

Here is Celtic Worship, singing Your Kindness.

Your love lifts me from darkness Your hope fills me with purpose I can’t help but sing Thank You Lord for Your kindness.

You see these things in God only due to His forbearance.  Are there many songs about how we should have forbearance and patience?  It is not easy.  I asked my son the other day who would be the top two on your list of people that he would be shocked to see in Heaven (mainly the two that are hardest to forgive).  Oddly, one of his two was the same as one of my two, and the other did the most damage to our individual working careers.

But the question remains, where would our life be without those two people, would we be praising God as fervently as we are?  Long-suffering is the hardest of these Fruits to exhibit and understand.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.