"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness..."
~Galatians 5:22-23a
In our series on the fruits of the Spirit, we come now to the fruit of gentleness. Sadly, of all the fruits, this is oftentimes one of the most lacking in us as believers these days. It is also one of the most commonly misunderstood.
Far too often we have the mistaken idea that gentleness equals weakness. But nothing could be further from the truth. To illustrate this fact, let's take a look at 1 Peter 3:4, an often misunderstood passage. "Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."
Some translations translate "gentle" as "meek", another word commonly misunderstood. But meekness can accurately be defined as "strength under control", a definition which shows us that meekness and gentleness are anything but weakness. It goes against our nature to treat others with gentleness and meekness, and that is precisely how know that it reveals a great deal of inner strength and dependence on the help of the Spirit when we actually do exhibit the fruit of gentleness towards others.
This topic is an important one for us in a day and age in which even Christians are far too often guilty of being anything but gentle. This is serious because James 3:17 reminds us, "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere." The surrounding context of this passage reveals that not only is wisdom from the Lord gentle, but the opposite is also true - lacking gentleness or exhibiting "wisdom" that is not gentle is exhibiting "wisdom" that is demonic and comes from the enemy.
This is serious.
When we fail to speak the truth in love, when we are puffed up with pride and arrogance, when we are quick to harshly pass judgment, we are guilty of exhibiting demonic behavior. That is the sobering truth here.
But, praise the Lord, we have good news to remember! As with each of the other fruits of the Spirit, the Lord Himself is the One tasked with the production of this fruit in our minds and hearts as well. We don't have to (and truly mustn't!) rely on ourselves to produce gentleness. It's not a burden on our shoulders to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and just strive to try our hardest to be gentle. It doesn't work that way.
As we purpose to walk by the Spirit by spending time with Him in the Word and through prayer, He will faithfully conform us ever more into the image of Christ and produce each of the fruits of His Spirit in us. And that's good news indeed!
Reflection Questions:
1) When have you seen a lack of gentleness in professing believers? What kind of damage have you seen this do?
2) How can you seek to live a life of gentleness?
3) What is at stake if we are not known for being gentle?
Too often, t is not weakness. In fact,
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