Is it wrong to lose my patience?

I work at a nursing home. That sentence is not complete, in my mind, if it is not followed immediately by, “so I’ve lost my patience before”. Some people begin as annoying children and then, later in life, grow up to be mature independent adults. There are others, I’ve learned, that never grow up, and those are the individuals that wear my patience thin. Naturally, since this is such a reoccurring event, I wondered: am I sinning when I lose my patience? Let’s see what the Bible says…

Many will go straight to Ephesians 4:26 and make note that it is Biblical to be angry. Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God all have been angry (John 2:16, Hebrews 3:10, Exodus 4:14 respectively). So, the next question is does anger always denote a loss of patience? Jesus was most likely angry when His friends fell asleep while He prayed before His crucifixion. Some would say that He probably became impatient, but if He had, He would not have given them three warnings. It seems to me that one cannot speak of “patience” without speaking of actions. Here’s another example. Someone owes you five dollars and you NEED it by Thursday. When Thursday rolls around, they don’t pay you for one reason or another. You may be very angry with them, you may even speak of how you’ve “lost your patience for such a rogue”, but if you give that person another day to pay the debt, you have not lost your patience. Jesus may have been VERY angry at the sinners who transformed His Father’s house into a market, but He always gives people a chance to repent, much like we’ve done with our money-stealing, roguish acquaintance.

Finally, Colossians 3:12 says, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering…” We are taught that we must “put on Christ” (Romans 13:14, Galatians 3:27) and we would be quick to say that it would be a sin to “take Him off”. If we are also commanded to “put on longsuffering” in an imperative scripture, why would it be okay to “take patience off”, or to “lose it”?

We may say “I lost my patience” but we must not act upon that thought and in turn stop “bearing one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). We are commanded to forgive “up to seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22) which seems to be an indirect verse where Jesus condemns the loss of patience. I suppose it could be said, “be angry and do not sin; be impatient and do not cease to bear”.