The Meek
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The Meek
Meekness Is Not Weakness
Many people misunderstand the meaning of meekness because they have the idea that meekness is weakness. We live in a world that worships power and rejects any evidence of weakness; perhaps this explains why many successful people will have little or nothing to do with the Christian faith. They have heard about “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” and they want nothing to do with Him. The ladder of success in today’s world is climbed with heavy steps; there is no place for timidity.
But meekness is not weakness or timidity. Meekness is power under control. Certainly nobody could accuse Moses of being a weak, timid man, yet God identified him as the meekest man on the face of the earth. Jesus was the most courageous man ever to walk among humans, and yet He said, “I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29 KJV). Both Moses and Jesus faced difficult, dangerous situations and came through victoriously because they exercised power under control.
God has given us the ability to become angry. Nowhere does the Bible honor the spineless person who is unable (or unwilling) to exercise the right kind of anger. “In your anger do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). There is a sinless anger, such as when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and saw his people reveling in sin or when Jesus strode into the temple and majestically cleansed His Father’s house. There is a godless anger that destroys, but there is a godly anger that builds up. Two verses from Proverbs explain the difference: “Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city (Proverbs 16:32). That is power under control. “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control” (Proverbs 25:28). That is power out of control.
Someone has said, “Temper is such a wonderful thing that it’s a shame to lose it!” We temper steel to make it stronger. People who lose their temper lose control of themselves and stop living like kings. A successful businessman, Roger Babson, once said, “The best administrator is the governor of his temper.”
“Anyone can become angry,” wrote Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics. “That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—this is not easy.” What the great philosopher was talking about was meekness—power under control. Anger is power, just as fire is power. (We sometimes say, “His anger flared up!”) When fire is under control, it is our servant and accomplishes great things for us. But when fire is out of control, it becomes our master, and the result is destruction. So it is with anger.
“There is nothing wrong with losing my temper,” a lady once told evangelist Billy Sunday. “I blow up, and then it’s over with.”
“So does a shotgun,” the evangelist replied, “but look at the damage that’s left behind.”
The Greek word that is translated meekness was a familiar word to the people in Jesus’ day. It was used to describe a soothing medicine. Doctors gave patients who wrestled with a fever medication to quiet them down and relieve their high temperature so that they could sleep. Sailors also used the word to describe a gentle breeze. Have you ever been exhausted on a hot day and then felt a cooling breeze blow on your body? It is refreshing. But doctors and sailors were not the only ones to use that word, because farmers used it too. It was used to describe a colt that has been broken. Every colt has to be broken, or it cannot fulfill its function on the farm. Somebody has to break the colt so that its power can be channeled into constructive work.
Look at these three illustrations: medicine, wind, and a colt. What do they all have in common? Power! Medicine has power to work in the body to calm nerves, kill germs, strengthen organs, and promote healing. The wind also has power. Hurricanes embody the power of wind, and the infamous Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, displacing over 700,000 people whose homes were destroyed. That is power. If you have ever watched a cowboy on a bucking bronco, you know that a horse is a powerful animal. But the medicine, wind, and horse must keep their power under control, otherwise they will do damage. The proper dosage of medicine can promote healing, but an overdose may kill. A summer breeze is a delightful thing, but a hurricane only destroys. A broken horse can give both work and pleasure to its master, but a horse out of control is dangerous. All of these have power, and when that power is under control, it is called meekness.
Meet the Meek
Perhaps the best way to understand meekness is to see it at work in the lives of people like us.
When Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, he took his nephew Lot with him, and it was not long before there was a family disagreement. “And quarreling arose between Abram’s herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot” (Genesis 13:7). If you were Abraham, what would you have done? Certainly Abraham had the authority to tell Lot to pack up and get moving. After all, Abraham was God’s chosen servant; he was even called the friend of God. It was Abraham whom God called and with whom God had made His covenant; Lot was simply a tagalong. Abraham had power over Lot, but he kept that power under control. He exercised meekness.
So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left” (Genesis 13:8–9).
Had Abraham been like most of us, he would have said, “I am the elder of this clan, and I get first choice!” To many people, that kind of an attitude would have been exercising leadership. To God, it would have been committing sin. Abraham had power, but his power was under control, and he gave Lot first choice. “Honor one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10). “Let each esteem others more important than themselves” (Philippians 2:3, literal translation). Because Abraham was surrendered to God, he was not afraid to submit to Lot. Abraham knew that his own inheritance was secure in the Lord and that no decision on the part of his nephew could ever rob him of anything that God had for him. Abraham had power, but his power was under control, so God kept His promise and enabled Abraham to “inherit the earth.”
Joseph is another vivid illustration of meekness. Mistreated by his brothers, Joseph was sold into Egypt as a slave. Then he was put into prison when his master’s wife falsely accused him of making sexual advances towards her. But one day Joseph was elevated to become the prime minister of Egypt. He had the power to take revenge against his master’s wife, but there is no record that he ever did. And then his brothers showed up, begging for food, and although Joseph could have refused them or punished them, he did not. To be sure, he dealt with them so that they eventually confessed their sins and gave evidence of true repentance; but in the end Joseph refused to hurt them. He had power over them, but he kept his power under control.
Remember: Meekness does not show itself when we are wrong but when we are right. Meekness is not the shamefaced boy who is caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Meekness is not embarrassment when I am caught doing something wrong. Meekness is power under control. It reveals itself when I am right and when I have the power to hurt someone who is wrong.
I think of David as another illustration of meekness. David’s greatest victories were not with his hands but with his heart. In 1 Samuel 24, Saul blundered into the cave where David and his men were hiding. With one flashing stroke of his sword, David could have killed Saul and taken the throne. In fact, some of David’s men urged him to do just that, putting an end to the man who was chasing them and seeking their lives. Instead of cutting off Saul’s head, David quietly cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe; even that action made him feel guilty. David had the power to kill Saul, but he kept his power under control.
There was another episode in David’s life that reveals his meekness in an even greater measure. It is recorded in 2 Samuel 16. David’s son Absalom took over the kingdom and forced his father to flee into the wilderness. During that difficult time, one of Saul’s men, Shimei, cursed David and threw stones at him. Abishai, David’s nephew, said to the king, “Let me go over and cut off his head” (v. 9). That would have been a reasonable thing to do in that day, but David would not permit it. His only answer was, “Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to” (v. 11). That is power under control.
It is likely that Saul would have killed David had he caught him in the cave, and no doubt Saul would have killed Shimei as well. The difference between those two kings is not that one had power and the other did not, for both had power. The difference is that David’s power was under control. He was a meek man. David used his authority to build up people; Saul used people to build up his authority. At one time, Saul was going to kill his own son for a trivial matter, just to show the people how powerful he was (1 Samuel 14:36–45). David was willing to die for his own son, even though Absalom was a rebel (2 Samuel 18:33).
Of course, the greatest example of meekness is the Lord Jesus Christ. “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). It took more power for Jesus to submit than for Peter to draw out his sword and fight. Peter’s action was natural; what our Lord did was supernatural. Jesus exercised power under control. He could have summoned legions of angels, but instead he “became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8).
Are You Meek?
How can you and I tell whether we are meek?
Perhaps the simplest answer is a question: Are we exercising self-control? Is our power under control? We have physical power, mental power, emotional power, and even spiritual power. Are we keeping all of this power under control?
But I believe that the best test of meekness is found in the word attitude. For example, what is our attitude toward the circumstances of life? When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth,” He was quoting from Psalm 37:11: “But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.” When you read Psalm 37, you discover that the writer was going through a great deal of trouble. Evil unbelievers were trying to cut him down. They were slandering him and trying to ruin his reputation. In fact, they were plotting against him and trying to take his life. Perhaps you and I have never had our lives threatened, but we have experienced difficult circumstances. How do we respond to them? What is our attitude toward the difficulties of life?
Too many people respond—or react—to the difficulties of life by fretting. “Do not fret,” says the opening verse of Psalm 37, and it is repeated in verse 8: “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.” The normal thing to do when people attack you is to get angry, fret over it, and fight back, but this is not the spiritual thing to do. Meek people submit themselves and their enemies to God and let Him handle the problem. Look at the admonitions in Psalm 37: “Trust in the Lord; . . . Delight yourself in the Lord; . . . Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; . . . Refrain from anger; . . . Turn from evil and do good” (vv. 3–4, 7–8, 27). The meek center their attention and affection on the Lord, not on themselves or their adversary. When you find yourself fretting because of people or circumstances, you can be sure that you have lost your meekness.
Another test of meekness is one’s attitude toward God’s Word. James 1:19 commands us to be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” James 1:21 (KJV) commands us to “receive with meekness the engrafted [imparted] word.” James wrote his letter to a group of Christians who were at war with each other. “What causes fights and quarrels among you?”(4:1). One reason for their division was a stubborn attitude toward God’s Word. Instead of receiving God’s Word with meekness—like planting seed in soft soil—they were arguing and becoming angry. They were not “slow to speak and slow to become angry.” The meek Christian submits to the Word of God and receives it gladly into a prepared heart.
Again we see the contrast between Saul and David. When Samuel gave Saul God’s message, the king argued with it and tried to excuse himself. He blamed the people, and he even blamed Samuel. “I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash” (1 Samuel 13:11). Later, God gave Saul another chance to live like a king, and again he failed. Instead of slaying the enemy as he was commanded (1 Samuel 15), he kept the best for himself and then blamed the people. “The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, . . . in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal” (v. 21). Saul was not a meek man; he refused to submit to the Word of God.
But David submitted and “received with meekness the engrafted word. “David’s chaplain, Nathan, took his life in his hands when he confronted the king with his adultery and murder (2 Samuel 12), for David was a backslidden man and could have ordered the prophet to be killed. Nathan told the touching story about the one little ewe lamb that the rich man stole from the poor man. Bravely, Nathan said, “You are the man” —and waited. Would David’s anger be kindled against his prophet? No, because David was a meek man, and he received God’s Word without arguing, making excuses, or defending himself. “I have sinned against the Lord” (v. 13). He was a man after God’s own heart.
The third test of meekness is one’s attitude toward fellow Christians who sin. Do I receive the news gleefully and start to spread it? Am I pleased that they have sinned because their fall makes my walk look better? “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). When a Christian has fallen into sin, I have the power to hurt him or her, but meekness is power under control. I also have the power to help. “Restore such an one.” Doctors used that word restore in Paul’s day; it means “to set a broken bone.” When a Christian falls into sin, it affects the body of Christ the way a broken bone affects your physical body; it must be restored. My first response to a fellow believer’s sin ought to be sorrow and pity and then a desire to help him or her get back into fellowship with God. Shimei threw stones at David when David was at his weakest physically and politically, yet David proved himself to be the stronger man spiritually. Later, when David’s throne was restored, Shimei came to beg forgiveness, and David forgave him. He restored him in a spirit of meekness (2 Samuel 19:16–23).
A broken bone is painful, and setting it can be even more painful than the break itself. Doctors do not use a crowbar and a pipe wrench to set a broken bone; they use power under control. That is meekness.
A fourth test of meekness is one’s attitude toward division in the church. “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1–3). There are people in every church who always want to take sides and divide God’s people.
When I was a boy in the junior department of Sunday school, I remember hearing a teacher say, “Well, there’s a business meeting this week, and I’m going to be there loaded for bear!” The next Sunday a number of people were missing from the services, and I discovered that the “hunter” had shot off his mouth and there had been a church split.
Christians who exercise meekness are not interested in taking sides; they are interested in “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3 NASB). They follow the example of Abraham: “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me . . . for we are brothers” (Genesis 13:8).
The fifth test of meekness in our lives concerns our attitude toward those people who disagree with us. “The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:24–25 NASB). It is possible to win arguments and lose friends—and souls!
The poet Oliver Goldsmith said of Samuel Johnson, England’s “czar of literature”: “There is no arguing with Johnson, for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it!” Some Christians are like that. “Watch out for So-and-So,” a friend warned me. “He uses a cannon to kill a mosquito!” It is a mark of meekness—and maturity—when we realize that good people disagree. Even the person who opposes the Word of God has a better chance of being convinced if we have a meek and gentle spirit. I like J. W. C. Wand’s translation of 2 Timothy 2:27: “The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, good at teaching, slow to take offense, one who can reduce his opponents by the mildness of his manners.”
Finally, what is my attitude toward the unsaved? “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness [meekness] and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). Peter is warning against arguing with lost souls and using the Bible as a club to beat them down. He is telling us to be witnesses and not prosecuting attorneys. Too often we use high-pressure salesmanship methods in our zeal to win souls, but that is power out of control. Jesus could have overpowered Nicodemus or crushed the woman of Samaria, but instead He patiently led them into the truth of the Word of God.
Meekness Grows in Trials
How can the believer go about cultivating this grace of meekness? Galatians 5:23 tells us that meekness is not something that we manufacture; it is part of the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit is not manufactured; fruit must be cultivated. There was a time when Moses, the meekest man on earth, became angry with an enemy and killed him. God had to put Moses on the backside of the desert for forty years, taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep, in order to prepare him for his ministry. Alone in the desert, caring for the meekest of animals, Moses began to learn meekness. He was the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, educated in all the wisdom of Egypt, and yet he became a shepherd.
We cultivate meekness in the difficult experiences of life. Think of what Moses had to endure as he led the people of Israel. No sooner was the nation delivered from Egypt than the people began to complain, and they complained for the next forty years until that generation died. They complained about the way God led them and about the way He fed them. They rebelled against Moses’ authority. They tried to organize a party to return to Egypt. When Moses finally brought them to the border of the Promised Land, they refused to go in. All of his sacrifice and work was for nothing. No, it was not for nothing, for Moses was growing in grace and cultivating the wonderful grace of meekness. Moses had always had power, but it was not under control. It was in the school of hard knocks that he learned to be meek.
King Saul never learned meekness because he always tried to scheme his way out of the difficulties of life. Instead of trials bringing out the best in him, they brought out his worst. And he always had an excuse ready whenever Samuel showed up. “An excuse,” said Billy Sunday, “is the skin of a reason, stuffed with a lie.” People who are good at excuses are rarely good at anything else. But David profited from the trials of life and, in spite of his failures (and we all have them), learned how to be meek. Saul tried to use his own authority to make himself great, but David said to God, “You stoop down to make me great” (Psalm 18:35). As David reviewed the trials of his life, he looked back and saw how gentle God had been. Anybody can submit to harshness, but it takes a great person to submit to gentleness. It takes a person whose heart is gentle and whose attitude is characterized by meekness.
The Saul of the Old Testament never learned meekness, but the Saul of the New Testament did. When Paul the apostle was Saul of Tarsus, he possessed great power. And he used that power to persecute and even to kill. “It is hard for you to kick against the goads,” Jesus said to him (Acts 26:14 NASB), suggesting that Saul was like a wild animal that had never been broken. But God broke him, and a spirit of meekness came into his life.
As a Christian and an apostle, Paul had more power and authority than ever before, but he used that power for the good of others and the glory of God. He had learned meekness. The situation in the Corinthian church, for example, was enough to test the patience of Job, yet when you read Paul’s Corinthian letters you see power under control. “What do you prefer?” he asks in 1 Corinthians 4:21. “Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?” In his second letter he beseeches them “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (10:1). To the believers in Galatia, Ephesus, and Colosse, Paul urged the cultivation of meekness, and when he wrote to the pastors—Timothy and Titus—he reminded them to show meekness. Like Elijah on Mount Horeb, Paul had learned that God was not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, but in “the still, small voice.” That is power under control.
You and I must make the choice: Will we submit in the difficulties of life and cultivate meekness, or will we rebel and produce hardness? The fruit of the Spirit is meekness, but it takes time for the fruit to grow, and the fruit grows best in the storms of life.
The Meek Are Enriched
From the world’s point of view, meekness is the first step toward failure. Unless you toot your own horn, wave your own flag, and promote your own goals, you will never get anywhere in today’s competitive world. Centuries ago, the Athenian statesman Pericles described the situation perfectly when he said, “Fishes in the sea, . . . as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.”
But from the divine point of view, self-promotion is the fastest way to failure. “Although you were once small in your own eyes,” Samuel said to King Saul, “did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel” (1 Samuel 15:17). When Saul was little, God made him great, but when Saul made himself great, God made him nothing. Saul lost his crown.
But David showed a spirit of meekness, so God gave him the crown. “The Spirit of the Lord came upon David . . . [but] the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul” (1 Samuel 16:13–14). Because David submitted to God, he grew in the trials of life and was prepared by God to sit on the throne and rule Israel. Both David and Jesus, the Son of David, had to suffer and be rejected before they reigned; the same pattern is duplicated in our lives. We reign in life by resigning our lives. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25).
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” What does that mean? Does it mean that meek people escape the difficulties of life? I don’t believe so, because Moses was meek and yet he faced one difficulty after another. To answer the question we must go back to Psalm 37, where the original statement is found.
The conflict in this psalm is between the righteous and the wicked. (Note the repetition of “the wicked” in verses 10, 12, 14, 20–21, 28, 32, 34–35, 38, and 40.) It appears that the wicked are winning and the righteous are losing. James Russell Lowell phrased it, “Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.”
What can the righteous do in such a dangerous and difficult situation? Fret? No. God said, “Do not fret because of evil men” (Psalm 37:1). Fight? No. The Lord stands by to protect the righteous and fight their battle for them. “The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble” (v. 39).
Then what should the righteous do? Meekly submit to God’s will by trusting in the Lord (v. 3), delighting in the Lord (v. 4), committing their way unto the Lord (v. 5), and resting in the Lord (v. 7). The result is that they will “inherit the earth,” which simply means that they do not have to be afraid of anybody or anything because God is in control of them and their circumstances. To inherit the earth means to reign as king over yourself and your circumstances through the power of the Holy Spirit. “A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace” (vv. 10–11).
When you are meek, you seek nothing for yourself, and when you seek nothing for yourself, God gives you all things. Saul’s self-seeking cost him his crown, but David’s submission gave him the kingdom. Something else is true: Meekness means power under control, and when you can control yourself, everything belongs to you. If you can reign in peace over the kingdom within you, then God will give you all you need in the kingdom without.
The saddest event in David’s life, his sin with Bathsheba, helps to illustrate this principle. Second Samuel 11:1 says, “At the time when kings go off to war . . . David remained in Jerusalem.” He was not living like a king. Not only had he taken off his armor but he had also taken off his crown. The sad result is recorded in the rest of the chapter: adultery, deceit, murder, sin covered and not confessed. About a year later, Nathan rebuked David for his sins and reminded the king of how much God had given him. “I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more”(2 Samuel 12:8). God was saying through Nathan, “David, when you were meek, I gave you blessing after blessing. But when you became proud and disobeyed My word, you started to lose. It is the meek who inherit, not the proud. If you had remained meek before Me, I would have given you all that you needed and desired and more. But now I cannot do it.”
The meek own everything because they are submitted to the God who made everything and controls everything; God is their Father. “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God” (1 Corinthians 3:21–23). “Having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
Again, our Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect illustration of this truth. Because He was “meek and lowly in heart,” He never worried about the people or the circumstances in the world. You never find Him fretting. Often you find the disciples fretting and even fearing, but never Jesus. He never fretted about the storms because He knew His Father was in control. In fact, He slept in the storm! He never fretted about food. The disciples asked, “Where can we find enough bread to feed this hungry crowd?” (John 6:5, paraphrase). But Jesus was not worried because He knew His Father could provide all the bread they needed and more. When the soldiers came to arrest Him, Jesus willingly submitted because He knew His Father was in control. “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11).
Those who cannot control themselves are never satisfied. There is a restlessness in their hearts that robs them of the joys that are found in the blessings of God. “Thou hast made us for Thyself,” said Augustine, “and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” “Be still before the Lord,” commands Psalm 37:7, and verse 11 promises, “The meek will inherit the land.” Meekness is the secret of possessing everything. And when you possess everything, you do not have to fret over what others have or what they are doing. King Saul’s restlessness was caused by his envy of David, and he literally killed himself chasing David and trying to keep him from getting the crown. Saul’s power was not under control, and it destroyed him.
“The meek will inherit the land.” You inherit something because somebody dies and leaves a bequest to you in their will. In this case, it is we who die—die to self—that we might grow in meekness; as we grow in meekness, we share the rich inheritance that we have in Christ. There is no need for us to assert ourselves to impress others, boast about ourselves, or even defend ourselves, because the Father has all that under His control. The meek person is never envious of others because of what they have. “Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked” (Psalm 37:16). “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).
The great enemy of meekness is impatience. This is why the psalmist admonishes us: “Wait for the Lord and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land” (v. 34). Joseph waited on the Lord, and one day he was exalted and inherited the land. David waited on the Lord and endured the persecution of Saul, and one day God exalted him to inherit the land. The meek do not fret or fight; they simply submit and wait, knowing that God’s timing is perfect. “The testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:3–4). Not lacking anything? That means having everything!
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”