“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5)
This verse is the opposite of many of the Clint Eastwood movies and of movies as a whole. The plots of various books and movies appear to be motivated by revenge though sometimes under a thin veil of justice. What type of man or woman is portrayed in the majority of leading roles? It is someone that will stand up for his rights and someone that will take revenge. In the culture of today we see fighting in sports and it is usually based on what one player did to another and an action is taken as revenge. We have heard of people being shot because they “dissed” another person by stepping on his shadow or things that were thought to be a lack of respect. At least some of the school shootings in the past several years were acts of revenge. Gentleness is the direct opposite of this.
The Greek word that the NAS translates as “gentleness” and other translations as “meekness” is the word praus or The word simply means gentle, meek, and humble. But the concept is really far beyond what the natural man understands or is even capable of. A gentle or meek person is the one that returns good for evil. This person does not respond with anger and a desire for revenge when wronged, but with concern for the other person that wronged him or her. In other words, this term describes an aspect of true love. True and biblical love flows from God who is love itself (or Himself). It is purchased by Christ and poured out in the hearts of all that know God in truth. Let us be very careful at this point to think this through biblically and carefully. Normally love is thought of as one person making much of another person. This means that a person thinks that he or she is loved and feels loved when he or she is made much of. When one is loved one is able to return love and so both people enter into a form of mutual and self-adulation. However, biblical love does not operate that way. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Notice that the fruit of the Spirit is singular and not plural, though the singular fruit of the Spirit produces at least the nine things mentioned here. I Corinthians 13 describes true love for us in the following verses: “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered” (vv. 4 -5). Love is not provoked and does not take into account a wrong suffered. That is simply to say that love is expressed in meekness.
As we try to piece some of the above statements together, we want to notice that love is not just an action. I Corinthians 13:1-3 should completely put that concept out of question. Love is of the heart. A more biblical concept, based on I Corinthians 13, Galatians 5:22-23, Romans 13:9-10, passages from John and the book of I John, is that love is the Holy Spirit working the character of God in our hearts. Love is the life of Christ worked in a human being and is not just some sort of power of niceness that people have. True love has a concern from the heart for the true welfare of others and wants what is best for others even at personal discomfort and cost. True love, instead of having joy in my own personal and selfish interests, is having joy and pleasure in the true interests of other people even when they mistreat me. Another way to put it is that true love is to be like Christ who loved His enemies and died for them. Even another way to put it would be to say that true love is the life of God working in man so that love is not based on the behavior of others but the desire to manifest the true character of God. That, then, is the basics of true meekness. It is love expressed as a response when wronged. It is the glory of God’s love expressed through a human being by the indwelling Christ and the Holy Spirit in response to a wrong.
The cause of non-gentleness and non-meekness is pride, selfishness, and a narrow self-love limited to perceived interests. The heart that is selfish and desires honor for self will respond to those things that are interpreted as embarrassing or as against self with anger and a desire for revenge. Why is that? Because its definition of good is limited to self and it is willing to harm others in order for self to be honored. When the movies and shows that glorify the seeking of revenge are seen, what is behind that is the satisfaction and pleasure people get in obtaining revenge. People love to see others get revenge and think that it is really justice or the other person getting what he or she deserves. Maybe, but something very biblical has been lost in that equation. If person A wrongs person B, the real wrong is done to God. We must always remember that all human beings are made in the image of God and all are to glorify God. So when person A wrongs person B, person A has primarily sinned against God in at least three ways. One, person A has wronged the image of God in the person of person B. Two, person A has wronged the image of God in person A by acting like the devil rather than loving God. Three, person A has loved himself more than God and in doing that has violated the Great Commandments and the Ten Commandments as well.
Let’s look at this from a different angle. Let us again imagine person A doing a wrong to person B. What is the proper response of person B? Person B is also obligated to glorify God and His law each moment as well. If person B responds in a way that dishonors God, person B is also guilty of a great sin. As a side note, person A is even more responsible at this point because he is a causal factor in the sin of person B. Person B must respond to the wrong done in a way that glorifies God or person B will sin against God as well. What this beatitude teaches us is that true love responds to wrong with love for the guilty person.
Another angle is also helpful. How is person B to view the situation of being wronged? When this is seen with spiritual glasses, or perhaps a divine camera angle, the wrong that person A commits against person B should be seen by person B as a wrong against God. Person B should respond with mourning (Mat 5:4) for person A’s sin rather than acts of revenge. The sin is against God as is so clearly taught in Psalm 51:4: “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” This was David’s confession when he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and planned her husband’s death. David’s sin was against God and that means that all other sin is against God as well. When any person wrongs another, the primary sin is against God.
When we think that we are wronged, if we are thinking spiritually, we can know that God is the One that has been sinned against. He is to be our chief love and we should mourn the wrong done to Him more than anything else. In other words, any wrong done to me by another person does the other person far more harm than me. If I have the love of God in me and a biblical perspective, I will recognize that the other person has harmed himself and not me. Therefore, when we are wronged we should mourn for the one that has wronged us. What can another human being do to us? In reality all that a person does against us will be used for real good by God. The wrong done to true believers turns out not to be real harm but will be for real good. Wrongs done to us by others harm them far more than we can imagine. True love and meekness, then, mourns when another tries to bring harm to us.
Let me illustrate the point above. If our spiritual glasses are on, we will interpret all that happens to us by Scripture and not our selfish hearts and wounded feelings. When a wrong is done to a believer, if the believer whines, sulks, and wants revenge there are two ways to look at that. One, the believer is not seeing things spiritually. The only real harm done to the believer is by the believer’s reaction to what the other person did. Two, to whine and moan at anything that is done to us as believers is like whining over a hangnail in a hospital while visiting another person that has broken every bone in his body with severe internal injuries as well. As we stand there looking upon a person that has been badly harmed in a wreck, are we complain about a hangnail? That is a picture of what happens when believers whine and moan about a wrong that another has intended for them.
Imagine a world where people respond to wrongs with meekness, though it would be heaven at that point. Let us try to imagine a church where all perceived wrongs resulted in meekness. That would be a place where biblical love would be and others would be amazed and know that those people were disciples of Christ. A person will only be meek when s/he sees his or her own utter spiritual poverty and knows that s/he has no righteousness to defend. A person will only be meek when s/he loves God enough to mourn and have sorrow over his or her own sin as well as that of others. A person will only fake like he is meek without a true sight of the sovereignty and love of God. Man must have the life of God in his soul in order to love those who attempt to do him harm which is true meekness. As an ancient Church Father told those who came to kill him, you can only send me into the arms of Christ. He begged them not to kill him for the sake of their own souls. He was wearing his spiritual glasses that day and responded with true meekness. Oh for a heart like that and a church full of people with hearts like that.
Maybe some day people will flock to a movie with a different plot. This movie starts with a terrible wrong done to the star of the movie. The star begins to weep only to get up and begin to pursue the person. At night when the star is trying to sleep he weeps again. During the day he pursues the villain until he catches up with the man. The closing scene would be something like the star finally catching up with the villain and telling the villain that he has sinned against God. The star was weeping for the dishonor done to God’s name and wanted to catch the villain to do good to him and deliver him from great harm. Perhaps the epilogue would show the good to the star that resulted from the villains attempted harm. Perhaps the title of the film would be Blessed Are the Gentle. In case you missed it, this movie is based on the fall of man and what Christ did to those that hated Him. It is the Gospel.
God Loves... Himself 
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