"Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." — Colossians 3:13 KJV.
We should bear patiently with the
infirmities and defects of others in the first place, because the
doctrine of faith requires it. The doctrine of faith... will not admit of
exceptions and distinctions, We do not, and cannot, have acceptable
faith in God, unless we have faith in him to the full extent of what he
claims to be, and of what he is. ...faith restores God to events, and
makes him present in all things that take place; and also, ...faith identifies every thing with God’s
superintendence, and accordingly makes every thing, with the exception
of sin, an expression of his will. The doctrine of faith, therefore,
requires us to believe, that God, in his permissive will at least if not
in his direct agency, sustains a connection, and sustains it for good
and wise purposes, even with human infirmities.
We should bear with patience the infirmities of others, in the SECOND place, because, in their results to ourselves, they evidently tend to our own purification. And this remark tends to illustrate what has already been said, viz., that God for wise purposes has a connection even with human infirmities. It is very clearly a part of God’s spiritual economy to purify his people by means of the various crosses which he lays upon them. We are not at liberty to make crosses for ourselves, but are cheerfully and quietly to meet and endure them, when they come upon us in the divine providence. Now, the infirmities of men, the many and trying infirmities of all around us, are a cross, which the divine providence lays at our feet at every step of our progress in the path of life. To be obliged to meet and to bear these infirmities is an affliction, oftentimes a heavy affliction. But it has a purifying power. It strikes a blow at self love. It makes us better.
— from The Life of Faith, Part 2, Chapter 6.
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