Blessed are the Meek

Matthew 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Looking forward to Friday evening small group Bible study of the “Be” attitudes of the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 5 (the Sermon on the Mount), which focuses the blessings of the Believer, for life on this side of Heaven and the eternal rewards to come to those who are “born again” (John 3). Not how to “act”. These are “Be” attitudes, not “do” attitudes. This is the heart attitude of the regenerated heart of a Believer. Meekness, humble gentleness, is Holy Spirit-given fruit (Galatians 5:22-23), not by self effort. Not of us, it is a natural “fruit of the Spirit” in those saved by faith in the redemptive atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ – not by our works or any human desire and decision, so that no one can boast. The glory belongs to God alone. The opposite of “meek” is proud. Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek,” but realistically, in this day and throughout history it seems to be the aggressive, the fighters, the intellectuals, or even the just plain lucky that might inherit the earth. But Jesus’ view of life and righteousness is nothing like the world’s perspective. The ancient Greeks understood the gentle or meek person to be the one who is angry on the “right” occasion, with the “right” people, at the “right” moment, for the “right” amount of time. There is a thing called “righteous indignation” over sin, but in the intent is to correct with gentleness; neither in excessive anger, nor in pathetic mildness that never gets angry. In humility remember that, except by the grace of God, there walk I.

Psalm 37:10-11 “Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before (Rest in) the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.”

Joseph demonstrated the foundation of faith in action by his life when he proclaimed in Genesis 39:9b “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?", and also in Genesis 50:20 “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” He did not live a man-centered anthropocentric life, but a God-centered Theo-centric life, looking beyond actions to the sovereignty of God to choose meekness rather than anger. Gentleness is not weakness; it is power under control. James 1:19-20 tells us that every brother & sister in Christ must have the habitual nature to “be quick to hear (be a good listener), slow to speak (think about what you are going to say & watch your words), and slow to anger (in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control); for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” 2 Timothy 2:24-26 “A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

In our church’s Summer series, Ray Vanderlaan explained that sin brought chaos and death into the world and God is, by grace, working to bring “shalom” (peace and order) back through His redemptive plan of salvation, but not by excusing sin unpunished; that would be unjust. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." Sin must be paid for, and the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). We just discussed this issue this week in Wednesday’s Men’s Bible Study at church. We read in Romans 3:22-26 “The righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Psalm 37:22, 29, 34 “For those blessed by the LORD shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.” How do we get there? John 1:12 -13 makes clear, “To all who did receive him Jesus), who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” And consequently, Romans 8:16-17 “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” – inherit the earth. Revelation 5:9-10 declares, "Worthy are you (our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ) to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."

We will never be really, biblically gentle until we have surrendered our will to the will of God; aligning our will with His will. To put it another way, strength without control leads to chaos. Loving God sets the standard to live by and live out daily, not us. Meekness, gentleness and humility starts with unconditional surrender to the control of God. Have we ever given our will to God? As Jesus did, have we ever cried out to Him and said, “Not my will be done, but Yours”? When we do, meekness and gentleness becomes something the Holy Sprit works within us, not something we must try to manufacture on our own; it’s not a “DO” attitude. The mistake we make all too often is trying to live the Christian life on our terms, in our own strength, without unconditional surrender to let God work in us. We view gentleness as a law to be obeyed, a forced limitation on our behavior, rather than a character quality God is working into our lives. The Lord’s nature of meekness is sown into the fabric of our soul (mind will & emotion), and written upon our heart, that we do not try to be meek; we are meek and becoming meeker as we grow and mature daily in our walk as a Christian because it is a “BE” attitude of the child of God.

In Christ, Brian