(Week 13/2024)
A word fitly spoken is like APPLES OF GOLD in a setting of silver [Proverbs 25v11]
The Beatitudes (blessings) Jesus taught on the mountainside in Matthew chapter 5 explain what the life of His followers should look like. Today we consider the 3rd Beatitude in verse 5: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”.This does not resonate with the natural man or woman who are forward thinking, goal orientated, driven and value success. For some it has an undertone of weakness, but Jesus would never advocate a life of weakness. Moses was not someone to trifle with, but he was called the meekest man who ever lived because meekness actually means strength under control. The Afrikaans word for Meekness is Sagmoedigheid which speaks of a ‘soft [sag] courage’ [moed]. Soft courage is what Jesus was best known for and is exactly what he expects of His followers. Nobody is naturally meek and that is why the Bible speaks of meekness or gentleness as a fruit of the Spirit [Galatians 5] as it is only by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit that a person can be genuinely meek. What does meekness look like in daily life?
1. Meekness concerns itself with the Glory of God. It does not ask for special privileges or resort to self-pity and is teachable. Psalm 25v9 reads: “The meek He will guide in what is right and teach them His way”.
2. Meekness does not get provoked by criticism. It does not allow personal offence to drive a response but resorts to a display of soft courage. 2 Timothy 2v24: “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth”.
3. Meekness deals gently with the failures of others. What earth will the meek inherit? Obviously not the present earth, but the new earth God will create after mankind has destroyed this one. “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away”. [Revelation 21v1]
God Bless
Graeme Greenwood