Makrothumia is patient endurance, shown in bearing with others, persevering in hardship, and God’s restrained waiting.

The dominant use presents patient endurance as a quality believers are to practice amid teaching, mutual relationships, suffering, and hope; a further cluster describes God’s or Christ’s patience as restrained waiting that is connected with mercy, repentance, salvation, and endurance toward those facing judgment.

1. Patient endurance in conduct and hardship · dominant

   The term occurs among qualities to be practiced or imitated: in 2 Timothy 4:2 the APB renders the charge to reprove, rebuke, and exhort “with complete patience and teaching,” while Ephesians 4:2 places it with humility and gentleness in enduring one another in love. In Hebrews 6:12, faith and this quality accompany those who inherit promises, and James 5:10 presents the prophets amid suffering as an example of it.

   2 Timothy 4:2Ephesians 4:2Hebrews 6:12James 5:10Galatians 5:22Colossians 1:11
2. God’s or Christ’s restrained waiting · common

   In 1 Peter 3:20, the nominative singular form is used of God’s patience while the ark was being prepared; the APB renders that God’s patience “was waiting.” Romans 2:4 connects God’s kindness, tolerance, and this quality with being led toward repentance, while 2 Peter 3:15 asks readers to regard the Lord’s patience as salvation.

   1 Peter 3:20Romans 2:4Romans 9:221 Timothy 1:162 Peter 3:15

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the supplied verses, the APB regularly uses “patience,” including lists of virtues and statements about God or Christ. In 1 Peter 3:20 it instead renders the clause with God’s patience “was waiting”; These English phrases indicate the clauses’ presentation rather than fixed equivalents.