To have patience
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G3114 is a verb of long-tempered patience, the deliberate refusal to answer provocation, delay, or another person’s failure with immediate destructive anger. In 1 Corinthians 13 it belongs to love, so patience is not mere emotional slowness but a relational practice that protects another person from the demand to perform for our irritation.
Reader summary
Full entry for μακροθυμέω (G3114) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3114 is a verb of long-tempered patience, the deliberate refusal to answer provocation, delay, or another person’s failure with immediate destructive anger. In 1 Corinthians 13 it belongs to love, so patience is not mere emotional slowness but a relational practice that protects another person from the demand to perform for our irritation.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Be patient (2), Have patience (2), is patient (2), [and] be patient (1), after waiting patiently (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 18:26. Its strongest book concentrations include James (3), Matthew (2), 1 Corinthians (1), 1 Thessalonians (1).
G3114 is a verb of long-tempered patience, the deliberate refusal to answer provocation, delay, or another person’s failure with immediate destructive anger. In 1 Corinthians 13 it belongs to love, so patience is not mere emotional slowness but a relational practice that protects another person from the demand to perform for our irritation. Paul also places it beside admonishing the unruly, encouraging the fainthearted, and helping the weak, showing that patience does not mean avoiding necessary truth.
James uses the word for farmers and believers waiting for the Lord’s coming, connecting endurance with strengthened hearts. Hebrews and the Gospel tradition show patient perseverance in the lives of Abraham and servants who ask for time. Second Peter gives the word a distinctly theological center: the Lord’s patience is tied to His desire that people come to repentance.
G3114 therefore holds together restraint, mercy, truth, and hope. It does not require tolerating abuse, abandoning boundaries, or refusing to act against serious harm. Nor does it promise that patience will remove every conflict. Read the word with its object and moral setting, distinguishing long-suffering love from cowardice, enabling, or indifference.
G3114 describes patience in love, pastoral correction, agricultural waiting, Abraham’s perseverance, God’s merciful delay, and appeals for time. Its range shows patience as active long-suffering that remains truthful, hopeful, and attentive to the good of persons rather than simply avoiding conflict.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Paul begins love’s description with patience and kindness, making long-suffering part of love’s ordinary posture rather than an optional heroic virtue.
And we urge you, brothers, to admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with everyone.
Patience stands beside differentiated care, showing that patient ministry includes correction, encouragement, help, and discernment rather than one response to every person.
The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.
God’s patience is interpreted through His merciful purpose, so divine delay should not be mistaken for forgetfulness or indifference toward repentance.
And so Abraham, after waiting patiently, obtained the promise.
Abraham’s patience is connected to promise and eventual reception, presenting endurance as a long obedience rather than a quick emotional response.
Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains.
James uses the farmer’s season-bound patience to teach believers to endure without trying to force the Lord’s promised timing.
You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
Patience is paired with strengthened hearts, showing that long-suffering requires inner formation and future-oriented courage rather than mere delay.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Patience that endures hardship actively, not mere passive waiting but sustained forbearance under provocation.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
10 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I suffer long, have patience, am forbearing
Read verseI suffer long, have patience, am forbearing
Read verseI suffer long, have patience, am forbearing
Read verseI suffer long, have patience, am forbearing
Read verseI suffer long, have patience, am forbearing
Read verseI suffer long, have patience, am forbearing
Read verseI suffer long, have patience, am forbearing
Read verseI suffer long, have patience, am forbearing
Read verseI suffer long, have patience, am forbearing
Read verseI suffer long, have patience, am forbearing
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 10 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 10 lexical occurrence verses.
μακροθυμέω is built from this root:
Calls believers to enduring steadfastness under hardship.James 5:7–11
G3114 describes patience as strength placed under the care of love. First Corinthians does not begin its portrait of love with intensity or impressive speech; it begins with a person who is patient and kind, refusing to make another’s weakness a stage for envy or pride. Paul’s instruction to Thessalonica gives the word practical shape. The unruly may need admonition, the fainthearted encouragement, the weak help, and everyone patience.
Long-suffering therefore does not flatten people into one category or turn kindness into silence. James adds the farmer’s discipline: the harvest cannot be bullied into ripeness, and believers must strengthen their hearts while awaiting the Lord. Second Peter gives divine patience its redemptive purpose. The Lord’s apparent delay is not indifference but mercy that leaves room for repentance.
These passages also set boundaries. Patience is not permission to tolerate abuse, conceal injustice, or keep vulnerable people exposed to a dangerous person. It is not the refusal to make a decision when truth and protection require action. G3114 calls the church to a slower anger, a clearer response, and a deeper hope that God’s mercy and judgment are wiser than our impulse.
2Pet.3.9
G3114 joins the ideas of length and anger, describing a person who is slow to retaliate or give way to provocation. Its objects and contexts include people, divine mercy, seasonal waiting, and communal endurance, so patience is relational and purposeful.
The New Testament’s long-suffering patience echoes the Lord’s slowness to anger and steadfast mercy in the Old Testament. In Christ and the church, patience becomes a Spirit-shaped practice that holds together repentance, truthful correction, protection, and hope for final restoration.