Meekness Should Be Our Walk

Let’s go to the second word here in verse 2, with all lowliness and meekness. Humility produces meekness. These five virtues are progressive. One produces the other. You cannot have meekness without humility. There’s no such combination as pride and meekness. Meekness does not go along with pride. They are mutually exclusive. Meekness is a by-product of humility. Where there is humility, there will inevitably be meekness. Where there is meekness, there will be long-suffering. Where there is long-suffering, there will be forbearing one another in love. And where those occur, there will be the keeping of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

This is a progressive thing. This is a moving to the goal. So we see then that he calls us to meekness. If we are to walk worthy as the exalted sons of the king, if we are to walk worthy as children of God, as heirs of the kingdom, as inheritors of all the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies forever, we are to do that in meekness. What is meekness? It’s interesting how the world defines it, because the world doesn’t understand it. The dictionary said meekness is a deficiency in courage or a deficiency of spirit.

And you see, humanly speaking, meekness comes out that way. Now if you look at Galatians 5, you see that meekness is a fruit of the Spirit. When true meekness is produced by the Spirit of God, it is a valuable virtue, it is a critical virtue. But the attitude of human meekness, apart from the energy of the Holy Spirit, is seen by the world as cowardice or timidity or lack of strength. But that’s not the Bible term. Let’s talk about what it means. If I am to be meek, listen. Beloved, you can’t even walk the worthy walk without humility.

And you cannot walk the worthy walk without meekness, so you better learn what meekness is. So we’re going to take the time this morning to see. Meekness, protests from the form pros, pros is the word meekness. It refers basically to something that is mild and gentle. It means to be gentle-hearted. Mild, the opposite of a person who is vengeful, who seeks revenge, or who seeks retaliation, or who seeks vindictiveness, or who harbors bitterness or resentment, or reacts against others. In fact, it is the opposite of vengeance. It is often defined that way, the opposite of vengeance, or the opposite of violence.

We might say it is a quiet, willing submission to God, a quiet, willing submission to others without the rebellion and the revenge and the retaliation and the self-assertion that characterizes a natural man. Now, let me get into the definition a little further. It is a mild, gentle, non-retaliating, non-vendictive, non-vengeful, non-violent spirit. It is used in secular language in several ways. In some of the ancient Greek sources it is used to speak of a soothing medicine like a tranquilizer. It is used to speak to speak of something that calms and soothes the spirit.

It is used also of a gentle breeze, the light, cool breeze that would waft across the warm hillside and cool the people there. It is used also to speak of a broken cult who is now tame and docile and whose power and energy can be channeled for purposes of benefit. So it is a word that speaks of gentleness, of a soothing, of a calming kind of a thing. The secular Greeks use it for people who they said were friendly or tender-hearted or pleasant or mild or gentle as opposed to hard, rough, coarse violence.

It’s a sense of quietness. It is characteristic most of all of Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 10.1 Paul spoke of the meekness of Christ. In Matthew 11.29 Jesus said, I am meek and lowly and heart. He came riding on the cult, the foal of an ass. Not a great white steed with a fanfare, but meekly, quietly riding on the cult, the foal of an ass, the dumbest beast of burden, the most common animal emphasizing his meekness. Christ was meek. It is a godly characteristic. In fact in Zephaniah chapter 2 verse 3 the Holy Spirit says, seek meekness.

Seek meekness. Now the term is used at least 12 times in the New Testament, protes. Meekness as a virtue is extolled in the New Testament. We could call your attention to Galatians 5.23 the fruit of the spirit, meekness. In 1st Timothy we find a wonderful insight, but thou, O man of God. If you’re to be a real man of God, and here again it’s almost like the worthy walk. If you’re to really live the life it says, follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and meekness. But I think it’s so important to add this.

Meekness doesn’t mean you’re a coward, because the very next sentence says, fight the good fight of faith. Listen, a meek person is anything but a coward. A meek person will fight at the drop of a hat over the right cause. A meek person even gets mad, he gets angry, he gets hot, he gets indignant over the right cause. Meekness is a mild, quiet, gentle, pleasant spirit. It is a soothing, non-vengeful, non-retaliating, non-vindictive, non-bitter, non-reacting, non-defensive, non-self-assertive spirit, except when it ought to get angry, and then meekness really gets hot. And I’ll show you when that is in a few moments.

The word is also used in James chapter 3 and verse 13, who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you. Who’s really wise, you say, the man with the PhD? No. Or the man who studied all the books? No. A wise man, a man with real knowledge, let him show it out of a good life his words with meekness. It’s the meekness, he’s the wise one, the one who is meek. The wisdom that is from above, verse 17 says, is first pure, then peaceable. Meek, easy to be entreated. So meekness is a virtue extolled over and over and over in the New Testament.

It is not the absence of anger, not at all, because he says in one time meekness and turns right around the next phrase and says, fight the good fight of faith. It fights, meekness fights. But watch this, meekness we could say is power under control, power under control. When you have humility, now watch, humility is self-emptying. True humility divests myself of myself. I’m not interested in my own causes, I’m not interested in my own successes, I’m not interested in my own fame, I’m not interested in my own gain, I’m not interested in my own reputation.

I have divested myself of myself. Then meekness is a byproduct. It is a byproduct of a broken will, of a brokenness before God. But it is not the destruction of the lion, it is the taming of the lion. You understand that? It is not the destruction of the lion, but the taming of the lion. All of his strength is there, all of his power is there, all of his energy is there, all of his potential is there, but it is at the control of the master. Quite a different thing to see a lion running free in the continent of Africa than to see a lion under the control of a lion tamer at the circus.

That lion, with all the same ferocity, the same energy, the same will, the same power, the same strength, but always under the control of the master. And so it is with meekness. No longer does the lion in you and the lion in me seek its own gain, no longer does it seek its own prey, no longer does it seek its own causes, no longer does it run free to accomplish its own ends, but it is submissive to the control of the master. It is not losing its power, it is harnessing its power.

The same is true of the illustration in the secular Greek of the horse. As long as the cult runs wild and free, its power is out of control and it serves no ends. When its power is brought under control, it can be used for gainful purposes. When the wind blows in a hurricane force, it has no function but to destroy. But when it blows in a quiet breeze, it catches the windmill and the windmill pumps the water that causes the crop to be watered, that feeds the masses of humanity. And so it is that when power is under control, it is useful.

And there is within the heart of the believer a lion. And that lion has every right to roar, and that lion has every right to react, and that lion has every right to pounce, but not on those things at its own discretion, but only under the direction of the one who rules its will, the master, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Don’t you think for a moment that meekness is indifference, or cowardice, or weakness, or a fearfulness? It is not. It is not impotent. It is not cowardly. Jesus was not impotent, and nor was he cowardly, but Jesus was meek.

Let me tell you something. Did you know that you have the right to get mad? That’s right. You have every right to be angry. In fact, in Ephesians 4.26, it says, Be ye And sin not. It’s all right to be angry, but not to sin, which says there’s a certain kind of anger that isn’t sin, right? There is an anger that is not sin. You say, what anger is that? It is the right kind of anger, being angry for the right reason. You can be angry for the right reason, or the wrong reason.

In one case, it’s power under control, and in another case, it’s power out of control. The Bible knows about these two options. In fact, in Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 28, we read about power out of control. Proverbs 25.28 says this, He that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. Here is a totally out of control spirit. Out of control and consequently vulnerable. Falls into every pit, every temptation, every failure, every weakness. He has no self-control. He has no rule over his own spirit.

That’s On the other hand, backing up in Proverbs to the 16th chapter, the 32nd verse, it says this, he who rules his spirit is better than he that takes a city. So Proverbs 16 is a person who rules his spirit. In other words, the spirit is there. The power is there. The lion is there. The energy is there. The potential is there, but it’s under control. On the other hand, the same power, the same energy, the same strength out of control creates nothing but chaos and sinfulness. People who get angry at everything out of control know nothing of meekness.

Meek people control their energies, control their strengths. They control the lion in them so that it only pounces when it should. It only roars when it should. Now, let me give you some further things before we get into biblical pictures. When Aristotle discussed these things, he gave us some very helpful definitions of the words in his day that help us to know what the Bible word means. In writing in ethics, his work on ethics, he talked about this. For Aristotle, this is what he believed. The virtues of life, those are the good things.

The virtues, the right attitudes of life, were defined as the middle between the excess and the absence of something. Over here is the excess of it, and the virtue is in the middle. And he went on to give many illustrations of that. For example, Aristotle said this. Courage is the virtue in the middle between cowardice, which is the deficiency of courage, and foolhardiness, which is the excess of courage. In other words, a person who is too courageous is going to get himself killed. It’s foolishness. A person who has no courage is nothing but a virtue in the middle.

Aristotle said generosity, for example, is a virtue. It is the virtue between stingy selfishness and wastefulness. Generosity is the virtue in the middle. Then Aristotle said meekness is the virtue in the middle, between indifference, unconcern, weakness, cowardice, and excessive explosive anger. Meekness is in the middle. Aristotle said, and I quote, the meek man is angry on the right occasion, with the right people, at the right moment, and for the right length of time. End quote. Power under control. It’s not a passive. You say, oh, I’m meek, so I just, I can’t certainly get into that.

I know it’s an awful thing, and those people have sinned, and here’s many evil practices, but I, my meekness refrains me from speaking. That’s not meekness, that’s just stupidity. Meekness doesn’t make you back away from sin. It doesn’t make you cease to condemn evil. Now watch. It is anger under control. Now under the control of whom? God. Meekness is when I take the lion in me and submit it to God so that it only gets angry about that which offends God, not me. Do you see it? The lion roars in defense of God, not in defense of me.

If somebody wants to step on me, that’s all right. If somebody offends me, that’s all right. If somebody does something to me, that’s all right. There is no retaliation. There is no revenge. There is no self-seeking. As John Bunyan said, he who is already lying down needs fear no fall. There’s nowhere to fall. I’m already there. I seek nothing for myself, but the lion roars in me when God is maligned. You see, that’s holy indignation, that’s righteous indignation. And I want you to understand that meekness is that quiet spirit that is non-defensive, non-retaliating, non-vengeful, non-self-seeking.

But when God is dishonored, that same spirit stands up and roars and exercises its power. It is a holy indignation under the control of God. It reacts when it ought to react at the right time, for the right reasons, and for the right length of time. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of meekness. Should be our walk. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com.

Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].