What meekness is

Friends,

In reading the Sermon on the Mount, have you ever come across the verse "The meek will inherit the earth?" Why did Jesus single out meekness in His longest recorded sermon? What does it really mean to be meek?

First, we need to realise that Jesus was not a weakling. He isn't calling for an army of wimps and when He says the meek will inherit the earth, we must seek to understanding what meekness means.

To be meek, it does not mean that a person is week. If you remember, Jesus was meek when He took out a whip and drove the moneychangers from the temple, just as He was meek when He stood before Pilate and refused to utter a word to save Himself.

When Jesus said that the meek would inherit the earth, He was actually telling us His master strategy for winning the war against the enemy. God is going to utterly defeat Satan, and He's going to do it with individuals who move in the opposite spirit to the forves of darkness. We are going to win the victory, but only as we discern what the enemy is doing and do the opposite thing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Meekness is therefore an active and deliberate acceptance of undesirable circumstances that are wisely seen by the individual as only part of a larger picture. Meekness is not a resignation to fate, a passive and reluctant submission to events, for there is little virtue in such a response. Nevertheless, since the two responses—resignation and meekness—are externally often indistinguishable, it is easy to see how what was once perceived as a virtue has become a defect in contemporary society. The patient and hopeful endurance of undesirable circumstances identifies the person as externally vulnerable and weak but inwardly resilient and strong. Meekness does not identify the weak but more precisely the strong who have been placed in a position of weakness where they persevere without giving up. The use of the Greek word when applied to animals makes this clear, for it means "tame" when applied to wild animals. In other words, such animals have not lost their strength but have learned to control the destructive instincts that prevent them from living in harmony with others.

Therefore, it is quite appropriate for all people, from the poor to ancient Near Eastern kings, to describe their submission to God by the term "meek" (Moses in Num 12:3). On the other hand, this quality by definition cannot be predicated of God, and therefore constitutes one of the attributes of creatures that they do not share with their Creator. Nevertheless, in the incarnation Jesus is freely described as meek, a concomitant of his submission to suffering and to the will of the Father (Matt 11:29; 21:5; 2 Cor 10:1).

Sadly, today's church leaders lack the virtue of meekness in their character. If we are to inherit the earth, like Jesus said, let us ask God for meekness in character.

Blessings,

Meng Choo