“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:12-14 ESV)
Jesus illustrated meekness as no man before or since as He stood before Pilate and His accusers before His execution. He could have called 10,000 angels to come to His rescue and they would have intervened in a heartbeat; however, that would have thwarted God’s plan and destroyed any hope we might have had for a home in heaven. Without a Savior there can be not forgiveness and without forgiveness there can be no eternal life.
Was Jesus strong in the face of resistance because He was weak and defenseless or because He was strong beyond our ability to perceive or imagine? Meekness is power under control, energy harnessed by authority and discipline for a greater good and a higher purpose. The Lord’s design for us to be meek has nothing to do with being a doormat, it has everything to do with being bold in the face of opportunity to be more like Jesus in the face of opposition.
Jesus could be strong because He knew exactly who He was and from where He’d come. He said to Pilate, the Roman Governor: “’My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, My followers would fight to keep Me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But My Kingdom is not of this world.’ Pilate said, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus responded, ‘You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.’”
When we know Jesus we have a bearing to know what is true and what is not, but we also have a balance, a means of weighing what’s right and wrong, appropriate and inappropriate, what’s in our defense and what’s in defense of Truth. Meekness is the ministry of the Holy Spirit that keeps our emotions in check long enough to allow us to draw from the strength of the Spirit and not our own energy. Too often in difficult situations or circumstances we get angry and our undisciplined anger gives rise to behavior that is inappropriate for a Jesus follower.
We say and do things that project our need to defend ourselves or “our” position of things, nullifying our witness for the Lord and destroying our credibility as a believer. Jesus proved His position as Lord and God by allowing His accusers to accomplish what God had ordained before the beginning of time. Had Jesus not had the courage and strength to hold fast in the certainty of who He was and why He came, He could have interrupted the will of God.
Too often that’s what we do when we seek to take things into our own hands. We perceive our spiritual maturity, or position is being questioned or challenged, as if it’s a test of our spiritual strength or stamina, which in reality it is, but we too often fail the test because we confuse meekness with weakness. A. W. Tozer illuminates our thinking when he writes: “Jesus calls us to his rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort.”
When being like Jesus is our goal, meekness is our method. We’re never weak when we’re meek in Him.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 