God Is Patient That We Might Repent

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
        slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.  (Psa 86:15)
 
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Pet 3:9)

If God was quick to punish, the church would not have gained Paul, it would not have received one so great and noble.  For this reason, then, He deferred dealing with him while he was committing blasphemy in order to receive him when he was repenting.  God’s patience made the persecutor a preacher.  God’s patience made the tax collector an evangelist.  God’s patience had mercy on all of us, changed all, altered all.  If you see that someone who was once a drunkard has now [become] someone who fasts, if you see that someone who was once a blasphemer has now [become] a theologian,* if you see that the man who once stained his mouth with shameful songs is now purifying his soul with divine hymns, look with amazement on God’s patience, and praise repentance, and, taking it up from this change, say, “This change is from the right hand of the Most High.”†  While God is good to all, to sinners he shows his own patience to a special degree.  And if you want to hear a strange tale—strange with regard to what is customary, but true as regards piety—listen.

God appears [to be] altogether burdensome to the just, but mild to sinners and swift to kindness.  He raises up the sinner who has fallen and says to him, “Does the man who falls not rise?” or “Does not the man who turns away turn back?”‡  And, “Why did the foolish daughter of Judah shamelessly turn away?”§  And again, “Turn to me, and I will turn to you.”‖  And in another place he confirms with an oath the salvation that comes from repentance because of his great benevolence.  “‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘I do not desire the death of the sinner as much as that he turn and live.’”¶  To the righteous man he says, “If someone acts in all righteousness and all truth, and then turns and sins, I will not remember his righteousness, but he will die in his sin.”Δ  He thus uses diverse and various means in his planning, not changing himself, but advantageously distributing the dispensations of his goodness.

Severian of Gabala, On Repentance and Contrition, II.1-2

*  θεολόγος, God-speaker
†  Psalm 77:10
‡  Jeremiah 8:4-5
§  Jeremiah 8:5
‖   Zechariah 1:3
¶  Ezekiel 33:11
Δ  Ezekiel 18:24

Endure with Patience—God Continues to Draw Sinners to Himself

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  (Col 1:11-12)

And after all these things, He still receives His murderers, if they will be converted and come to Him; and with a saving patience, He who is gracious to preserve, closes His Church to none.  Those adversaries, those blasphemers, those who were always enemies to His name, if they repent of their sin, if they acknowledge the crime committed, He receives, not only to the pardon of their sin, but to the reward of the heavenly kingdom.  What can be said more patient, what more merciful?  Even he is made alive by Christ’s blood who has shed Christ’s blood.  Such and so great is the patience of Christ.  And had it not been such and so great, the Church would never have possessed Paul as an apostle.*

But if we also, beloved brethren, are in Christ; if we put Him on, if He is the way of our salvation, who follow Christ in the footsteps of salvation, let us walk by the example of Christ, as the Apostle John instructs us, saying, “The one who says he abides in Christ, ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”†  Peter also, upon whom by the Lord’s condescension the Church was founded,‡ lays it down in his epistle, and says, “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you can example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”§

Cyprian, On the Advantage of Patience 8-9

*  1 Timothy 1:3
†  1 John 2:6
‡  I.e., Peter's confession
§  1 Peter 2:21-23

Christ's Perfect Patience Extends Even to the Chief of Sinners

But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.  (1 Tim 1:16)

See how he further humbles and depreciates himself, by naming a fresh and less creditable reason.  For that he obtained mercy on account of his ignorance, does not so much imply that he who obtained mercy was a sinner, or under deep condemnation; but to say that he obtained mercy in order that no sinner hereafter might despair of finding mercy, but that each might feel sure of obtaining the like favor, this is an excess of humiliation, such that even in calling himself the chief of sinners, "a blasphemer and a persecutor, and one not worthy to be called an apostle," he had said nothing like it.  This will appear by an example.

Suppose a populous city, all whose inhabitants were wicked, some more so, and some less, but all deserving of condemnation; and let one among that multitude be more deserving of punishment than all the rest, and guilty of every kind of wickedness.  If it were declared that the king was willing to pardon all, it would not be so readily believed, as if they were to see this most wicked wretch actually pardoned.  There could then be no longer any doubt.  This is what Paul says, that God, willing to give men full assurance that He pardons all their transgressions, chose, as the object of His mercy, him who was more a sinner than any.  For when I obtained mercy, he argues, there could be no doubt of others: as familiarly speaking we might say, "If God pardons such a one, he will never punish anybody."  And thus he shows that he himself, though unworthy of pardon, for the sake of others’ salvation, first obtained that pardon.  Therefore, he says, since I am saved, let no one doubt of salvation.  And observe the humility of this blessed man.  He says not, "that in me he might display" His "patience," but "perfect patience;" as if he had said, "Greater patience He could not show in any case than in mine, nor find a sinner that so required all His pardon, all His patience; not a part only, like those who are only partially sinners, but 'all' His patience."

John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Timothy