Longsuffering Promotes Peace and Unity

Love for Christ and for each other promotes peace and unity in our families and church. The lack of it destroys peace and unity. One necessary quality of love (Christ's love implanted in every true Christian) is that of longsuffering—suffering long with a husband or wife, parent or child, brother or sister in Christ.
Our natural and sinful tendency is to have a very short fuse toward those who attack us, provoke us, ridicule us, or insult us rather than pausing, praying, reflecting, and quieting ourselves before the Lord. We may even feel justified in doing so ("He deserved it. Look how he mistreated me"). But such reactions will destroy the peace and unity we are commanded to pursue in our families and in our church. Vengeful anger and insulting speech hurled against us is sin, but how we respond in retaliation is our sin. We cannot blame our husband and wife—the sinful provocation may be theirs, but the sinful reaction is ours. There is nothing more needful than longsuffering to preserve love, peace and unity.