Patience, Comfort, and Hope

“Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through

patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)

 

Paul is speaking about the Old Testament here in this verse, but what he says applies

today to the entire Bible. The Bible was written for our learning. This is not the.

conclusion of everyone, especially of those who oppose having the Bible in our schools.

But this does not change the facts. The greatest of all learning is the learning we get

from the Scriptures. It instructs us in the most important matters of life. Any institute of

learning that ignores the Bible will wallow in ignorance in the most important matters of

life.

In this verse Paul speaks of three areas of learning which we gain from the Scriptures.

They are patience, comfort, and hope. These are very important areas of learning

indeed.

Patience. Few things are more needed for mankind than patience. Patience is a virtue

of great value and none of us have enough of it. But we can learn it from the Scriptures.

The more we get into the Scriptures in earnest study, the better we will learn about

patience. The world is not teaching about patience well (its advertisements emphasize

getting everything right now), but the Word will teach us patience.

Comfort. We live in a very discomforting world. It can get pretty rocky and bumpy at

times, and often we hit these rough areas of life without shock absorbers. But the

Scriptures will give us the comfort we need for the rough places of life. When making 

hospital visits, I notice that when people are experiencing great sorrow they often ask

me to read from the Scriptures—not from the newspapers or news magazines and other

life literature. Why? Because it was the Scripture that give the best comfort.

Hope. Another valuable thing we learn from Scripture is hope. The world does not give

us any hope. Rather, it gives us a lot of hopelessness. But the Bible gives a lot of hope.

It will give us hope in the midst of the worst circumstances and trails. It will give us hope

for the future. If you want hope in your life, go to the Bible. It gives the best hope.

May God grow our patience, comfort, and hope as we read His word.

- Bro. Dave