' Clothe Yourselves With Long-Suffering'

Regis, who lives in southwestern France, became a baptized Witness of Jehovah in 1952. For years his wife did all she could to hinder his efforts to serve Jehovah. She tried to puncture the tires of his vehicle to prevent him from attending meetings, and on one occasion she even followed him as he preached the Bible message from door to door, making fun of him as he spoke to householders about the good news of the Kingdom. In spite of this constant opposition, Regis contiued to be long suffering. Thus, Regis is a fine example for all Christians, since Jehovah requires all his worshipers to be long-suffering in their dealings with others.

The Greek word for "long-suffering" literally means "longness of spirit." The English New World Translation ten times renders this word "long-suffering," three times "patience," and once "exercising of patience." Both the Hebrew and Greek expressions translated "long-suffering include the thought of patience, forbearance and slowness to anger.

Long-suffering was not viewed as a virtue by the Greeks of the first century. The word itself was never used by the Stoic philosophers. According to Bible scholar William Barclay, long-suffering "is the very opposite of Greek virtue," which vaunted among other things "the refusal to tolerate any insult or injury." He states: " to the Greek the big man was the man who went all out for vengeance.

To the Christian the big man is the man who, even when he can, refuses to do so." The Greeks may have considered long-suffering to be a sign of weakness, but here, as in other cases, "a foolish thing of God is wiser than men, and a weak thing of God is stronger than men." - 1 Corinthians 1:25.