The fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness … (Galatians 5:22-23)
Christians should not be characterised by pride, arrogance, bullying or self-promotion. We are to be Christlike. In Matthew 11:29 the Lord Jesus describes Himself in these words: “I am gentle and lowly in heart.” The word used for gentle in Matthew 11 is linked to that Paul uses for gentleness in Galatians 5. It is the thought of meekness. The fruit of the Spirit is seen in the behaviour of believers and it emerges from the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts as we abide in Christ. Meekness is a spiritual attitude of dependence upon God. There is an absence of struggling and a calm trust in God’s strength and blessing. We see this in Jacob when he wrestled with the Angel of the Lord. The angel dislocated Jacob’s hip to end the experience. It is then that Jacob ceases to struggle and simply seeks the blessing of God. The rest of his life, though touched with great sorrow, was not a struggle for blessing but a ministry of blessing. We learn meekness from the Saviour. He teaches us not to try to escape limitations but, in the words of Peter, to “humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).
I remember an occasion at work when I applied for a job in a department where I used to work and was well known. I was expected to return in a new role, but to everyone’s surprise, I didn’t get the post. I discovered that my Head of Department, who was not an easy man to work for, had blocked the move. I was furious and began to consider possible courses of action.
I remember praying about the issue, and the verse came to me, “who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:23). I let the matter drop and felt a great sense of peace with what God had allowed. About a year later, I went on secondment to a department led by the Head of Department I would have worked for had my earlier application been successful. Within a short time, he promoted me to a senior role in his team. The experience taught me an important spiritual lesson. We can be misled into thinking that gentleness and meekness are signs of weaknesses. So we try to assert ourselves and fight for our rights or perhaps our pride. We don’t pause and ask ourselves, “What is God teaching me?” The overriding answer is simple: to become Christlike. The Lord Jesus was “gentle and lowly of heart”, but He was the most powerful man who ever lived in this world.
In the Old Testament Isaiah writes,
For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit” (Isaiah 57:15).
And in the New Testament James writes, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom” and then, “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:13, 17). These verses teach us that humility, meekness and gentleness are features of lives lived in communion with God; the lives of Christians who are “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10).
