Jehovah's Long-Suffering Works For Salvation
From mankind's original calamitous fall into sin up until now, Jehovah has shown himself to be a long-suffering God. His long-suffering before the Flood allowed time for due warning to be given and a means of salvation to be built. But his patience reached a limit, and the Flood came. Similarly today, Jehovah is showing great long-suffering, and this is lasting longer than some may have anticipated. However, that is no reason to give up. To do so would be tantamount to criticizing God for being long-suffering. Paul asked: " Do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and long-suffering, because you do not know that the kindly quality of God is trying to lead you to repentance?" - Romans 2:4.
None of us can know the full extent to which we need God's long-suffering to make sure that we have his approval for salvation. Paul counsels us to "keep working out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12) The apostle Peter wrote to fellow Christians: "Jehovah is not slow respecting his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance." - 2 Peter 3:9.
Hence, let us not be impatient with Jehovah's way of handling matters. Rather, let us flooow Peter's further counsel and consider the patience o f our Lord as salvation."
Whose salvation? Ours and, by extension, that of countless others who still need to hear the "good news of the kingdom." (2 Peter 3:15; Matthew 24:14) This will help us to appreciate the rich generosity of Jehovah's long-suffering and move us to be long-suffering in our dealings with others.