5) Bible Study on “meekness.”
a) “Meekness”
is a quality of the life of Christ. He
told us to learn of Me for I am meek, lowly of heart (Mt. 11:29). The picture of His triumphal entry, entering
Jerusalem to offer Himself as their King, is one of “meekness” (Mt. 21:5; quoted from Zech. 9:9).
i) How
do we “learn of” Christ? We learn about
Christ in the Scriptures. There can be
no learning of Christ without a steady diet of the Word of God in our
lives. But as we learn “about” Christ we
must reckon that what we see in Christ is true of the new man that we are
becoming in Christ. In Col. 3 we are
told to “put on … meekness” as we would put on new clothes (v12). The motivating factor as that we have already
put off the old man (the sin-oriented person we used to be) and have already
put on the new man who is the image of our Creator (v9-10). That “new man” is Christ who lives in
us (Gal. 2:20). Rom. 6:11 says it this
way: Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive
to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ii) The “fruit
of the Spirit” in Gal. 5:22-23 is another description of this life of
Christ. “Meekness” is one of those
spiritual fruits (translated “gentleness” in the NKJV). The context of Galatians makes it clear that
we cannot be “meek” simply by hearing and obeying a command or law to be
meek! We must be led by the Spirit (Gal.
5:18) and walk in the Spirit (5:25). He
leads and we walk as we yield ourselves to Christ.
iii)
Prov. 22:24-25 has something important to say. Make no friendship with an angry man, and
with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your
soul. We can learn Christ through
the fellowship of believers. We need
role models to learn “meekness,” which is the opposite of anger.
b) What
kind of people need to grow in meekness?
Everyone, of course (Titus 3:2f).
It should adorn the life of a woman (1 Pt. 3:4). It should characterize leadership (a mature
believer who reaches out to restore a fallen brother, Gal. 6:1; a pastor who
seeks to correct “opponents,” 2 Tim. 2:25; the Apostle Paul as he encourages
the Corinthian believers (2 Cor. 10:1). And
believers in Christ who seek to be Christ to their unsaved friends, must be
ready to give an answer of the hope they, but with meekness and fear. Let us not be those who lord it over others.
c) Here’s
one last word of encouragement: there is no happiness in life apart from
meekness; Jesus said so (Mt. 5:5).
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