“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5).
Many Christians have come to believe that “meekness” is basically synonymous with apathy, niceness, softness, and generally spineless cowardice. But this is not biblical meekness at all.
First of all, Jesus says that the meek shall inherit the earth. This means that meekness wants to inherit the earth. You cannot be meek unless you are ambitious. Jesus is not saying that it is foolish to want to win the whole world. Jesus is telling us how to want to win the world, and how to actually do it.
Jesus Himself is the Meek One. He died and rose again and inherited the whole world. The ends of the earth have become His possession. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. He must be our standard for what it means to be meek. He was meek when he ditched his parents as a twelve year old in order to debate with the scribes in the temple. He was meek when He later called them hypocrites and snakes. He was meek when He overturned tables and cracked a whip. He was meek in agony in the garden, and meek when He cried out on the cross.
The Bible says that Moses was the meekest man on the earth in his days. While Moses was not perfectly meek like the Lord, he was no soft man. He was no coward. He was not generally known for his niceties and pleasantries. He stood before Pharaoh and declared the word of God boldly, and he did so again and again while reducing the Egyptian empire to ruins. He led Israel through the sea and through the wilderness, while they complained and plotted against him. He interceded for them when they deserved to die.
So what is meekness? Meekness is the Spirit’s grace that allows believers to rule their passions, their emotions, their feelings in holiness. Meekness is the peace that passes all understanding, the fortress of God’s goodness and love surrounding your heart and mind, in the fiercest storms of life. Meekness is pursuing justice without panic, without fear, without emotional rollercoasters. Meekness is a glad, steeled resolve, a zeal for righteousness and truth that is grounded in Christ the Rock, that cannot be moved; meekness is not easily offended, forgives freely and gladly, and repays good for evil at every turn.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Photo by Richard Clark on Unsplash
Leave a Reply