God Loves… Himself

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

This week we will conclude out look at hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Rather than looking at one more angle of what this text may or may not mean, let us do some examination of our souls in light of this text. We may also want to think of this in light of the souls of others. But the Beatitudes are ways to examine our own souls to see if we are converted and to see if we have fallen into the dangerous zone of being lukewarm.

Our text tells us with the beauty and clarity of an omniscient God that the truly blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. In one sense this is easy to see intellectually. We can get bogged down with this in many other ways, even good ways, but still the basic meaning of this text is not terribly hard. True inner happiness is for those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Another way to say that would be to say that those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness are those who have true inner happiness. In fact, the text really tells us that only those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness have true inner happiness. When the text says “they,” it limits blessedness to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Let the examination begin. Do you have that true inner happiness? Don’t answer without some examination of your heart. I did not ask if you have fleeting moments of happiness. I did not ask if you are happy when your mind is engaged in worldly pleasures. I asked if you have true inner happiness. If you are forced to be alone for several hours, do you want to fill your mind with television, music, or even tickling the ear with sermons? Do sports fill you with happiness? Do you have momentary and fleeting feelings of joy when someone gives you money? Do you have momentary aspects of happiness when you buy something you have been wanting?

If you are brutally honest with yourself, you might find that your happiness is based in the things of the world. While you may be very religious and perhaps a teacher or pastor, you might find that your happiness is not really that much different than that of the world’s though it has a religious flavor. Fleeting and worldly bits of happiness in religious things can come from our sinful desires to do something well or to be honored. We can find bits of inner pleasure in teaching and preaching because we think others honor us. We can find something like happiness if we do good deeds because we swell at the opinion of others who honor us for what we do. We love the opinion of others and we love to think highly of ourselves when others compliment us. But those things are far different than the true inner happiness that is a co-product of hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

We can see what Paul thought about mercenary ministers from this text: “But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 20 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. 22 But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father” (Philippians 2:19-22). We can understand that the men that wanted to come to the Philippians as ministers would have been willing. They might have been excellent teachers with great knowledge. They might have been scholars of the Bible. They might have been honest and even hard workers. But Paul would not send them because they sought after their own interests. This meant that in the ministry they were more concerned with how things affected them rather than the true welfare of the souls of the people. If the minister does not have a genuine concern for the true good of the people, then his concern is all about himself. In that case he is not a minister for Christ but a minister for the benefit of self, whether it is money or honor or both.

Each person has the possibility of things like that. Each individual that professes Christ can be caught in the trap of doing things in a way that leads to success. A person can desire honor and attention from others or can do things just for the good feeling that s/he obtains in doing something. We can do things simply to be honored by other pastors or others in the local church. We can do things that appear as very sacrificial but are really in the pursuit of honor of others. No matter what we are doing and how outwardly successful it is, we must remember this text that Paul sets out for us. We are always seeking ourselves or we are seeking what is truly good for the souls of others. We can be as sound in theology as one can be but have selfish hearts that desire honor for preaching and theology rather than the glory of God in the true spiritual good of others. We can even be motivated to seek righteousness by our religious actions rather than seek the glory of God which is true righteousness. The heart is so deceitful.

Now it may appear that I have gone way astray from the text, but I have not. People that truly hunger and thirst after righteousness are not those that seek self in the pursuit of righteousness. Remember from Matthew six in the Sermon on the Mount how the Pharisees sought to do their acts of righteousness. It starts off with these haunting words: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” The text does not deny that these were in some way righteous acts, but it goes to the intent of them. The Pharisees did these to be noticed by other humans and found some measure of happiness and meaning in prayer in being noticed by others. But they measured that from what others thought of them or what they perceived that others thought of them. The passage goes on to show that the Pharisees did the same thing with giving of alms and fasting. They did their righteous acts to be seen of others. Do you?

Professing believers do the same thing today. Instead of doing things for the glory of God, we do them and want others to notice us in the doing of them. Do you ever brag about your Bible study? Of course you wouldn’t do it in an obvious way, but would you drop hints about how long you study and how faithful you are to study? Do we brag about our prayer life? Not that we would ever do this in an obvious way either, as that would show our pride in an obvious way, but in ways that we sneak in. When we pray are we really praying to God or are we trying to get our duty done? When we pray in public are we praying to God or are we concerned with what others will think of our prayer? Do we want them to admire how spiritual we are? Do we want them to admire our words? Do we want them to admire the length or wisdom of our prayer? Do we pray in order to get someone to say “amen” or give that grunt of approval? If so, are we different than the Pharisees?

If we are truly seeking the spiritual good of those around us, we will not care what they think of us but what they think of God. It is true that we should not want them to think badly of us unless it is for the sake of the Gospel, but we should not base what we do and how we do it on their good opinions of us. After all, God is what is good for them and not us. For anyone to hunger and thirst for righteousness is to do good works for the glory of God. There is no such thing as a good work that is not to the glory of God (Romans 3:23). When we have selfish goals and desires, even so-called spiritual ones, we are not doing things for the glory of God and so we are not hungering and thirsting after righteousness. This means that any joy we have from things that are spiritual in name though not in reality is not the blessedness that God gives.

Too often people are involved in what is known as ministry or ministries in the church (whether paid staff or not) and find joy in doing them. They make the assumption that their joy is the joy of the Lord when in fact it is nothing of the sort. Many people seek self in the world and in worldly ways while being part of the local church. Many seek their own joy in religious things and think that their joy which is for self in reality glorifies God in some way. This Beatitude should teach us something quite different. It teaches us that true joy is a gift of God in giving us that hunger and thirst for righteousness, but it is also at the most basic level giving us joy in Himself.

We must learn that our true joy is God and His joy in Himself that He shares with human beings. When we hunger and thirst for righteousness our joy must be a sharing in His joy in Himself and so our righteous acts are in reality a seeking of His glory in the world. Our joy is not in what other people think about us, but in being an instrument of the glory of God in the world. Our joy is not in what other people think about us, but in what they think about God. We are, after all, to do our works where people see them and glorify God (Matthew 5:16). Our joy is not to be just in anything or for any reason, but it is to be in God Himself. Any other joy no matter the outward results or action is simply idolatry as it is love of ourselves and not the love of God and His glory in us.

The heart is truly vital in determining what is righteous and what is not. The intents and motives of what we do determine whether we are hungering after true righteousness or whether we are hungering after things for ourselves. We must examine our hearts in light of God’s Word. We must examine our joy and happiness in light of God’s Word or we will be greatly deceived. God grants true inner happiness in the midst of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. That inner happiness is a sharing in His love for Himself which is eternal life. After all, it is in loving God that joy in God will be found. While many may find some degree of pseudo-joy in the outward acts and pursuits of righteousness, it is only the inner pursuit that allows one to truly have the live and joy of God in our souls. Any other pursuit of righteousness is to be like the Pharisees. Examine your heart.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

Three weeks ago we looked at hunger and thirst as desires of the soul and how this reflects the true desires of the believing soul. Christ warns Christians about being lukewarm. Two weeks ago we looked at the object of the hunger and thirst. In Matthew 5:6 that object is righteousness. In the context of the Sermon on the Mount this righteousness is behavioral as acts of righteousness. Within the context of the Sermon on the Mount there is no mention of the righteousness of Christ given as a free gift and there are several references to acts of righteousness. So we concluded that the believer or the blessed person is one that hungers and thirsts after acts of righteousness. Last week we tried to show how it is that a person has no righteousness, no way to obtain righteousness for self, and yet it is perfectly consistent with hungering and thirsting after righteousness. This week I would like to show how the soul is satisfied and blessed in hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

In one very real sense the only true blessedness is that of God. For a human to be blessed, then, is for a human to share in the blessedness of God. There is no true joy except that which consists in true love and God alone is the source of true love. This is seen at least in part in John 15:10 where Christ tells us why He came: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Then in John 15:11 Christ tells us this: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” When we see that “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17), then we know that blessedness is from God and that alone is what can truly be the satisfaction of the soul that hungers and thirsts for righteousness.

Ephesians gives us another way of looking at the same issue. We hear many speak of wanting to be filled with the Holy Spirit and wanting more of Christ. Those are good things, but they can also be just words that reflect selfish hearts that desire to have God for sinful reasons. But Ephesians 3 gives us a real reason why we should want to be filled with the Spirit and to have more of Christ. Paul prayed “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:16-19). The things that are prior to being filled up to all the fullness of God are the things that lead to being filled to all the fullness of God. The true satisfaction of the soul is to be filled with God since nothing else will fill the soul but its Creator.

In looking at the passage in the paragraph above, we can see the progress of God in the soul. First we see that the inner man is strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit. The reason that the Spirit does this is so that Christ may dwell in hearts through faith. In other words, the soul that is not strengthened by the Spirit does not have the strength to contain Christ or be the dwelling place of Christ. The Spirit strengthens the inner man and Christ dwells in the heart through faith so that the soul may be rooted and grounded in love. A little later in this newsletter we will look at the connection between love and righteousness, but for the moment we can note that there is no righteousness apart from love. Therefore, another way to say that a soul hungers and thirsts for righteousness is to say that that soul has love and the desire to express that love. But in Ephesians 3 we see that it takes love in the soul to comprehend the immeasurable measurements of love. Human beings have to have love in order to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. It is in the experiential knowledge of God (eternal life in John 17:3) that the soul is filled with the experiential knowledge of a love that it can never exhaust and so the soul is filled with the fullness of God. That is a description of a satisfied soul. It is a soul that is as full of God as it can be and yet desires more and more righteousness so that its capacity can be stretched to have more of God.

The soul that loves God can and will never be truly satisfied with anything or anyone other than God. The satisfaction of soul spoken of in Matthew 5 must be that of God filling the soul with Himself. It is the language of the soul spoken of in John and I John. It is the language of love. It is the soul being one with God and the love of God flowing in and through that soul. It is the language of the commandments which teach us to love God and our neighbor. It is the language of the soul in which the love of God abides in it and it abides in God. The language of righteousness is the language of love. For a soul that desires righteousness, only love will fill it.
To buttress the general statements in the preceding paragraph we can look at I Corinthians 13. “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” (vv 1-3). While we are still looking at hungering and thirsting after righteousness, the verses in this paragraph demonstrate that it is not possible to hunger after righteousness apart from love. Anything we do apart from love is sin and nothing but sin. So a person hungering and thirsting after righteousness is a person full of the love of God and striving to love and glorify God.

We can also see from I Corinthians 13:6 that love “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.” This is another argument from the opposite side of the issue. The one that loves seeks the glory of God and hungers and thirsts after righteousness. The one that does not love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. People are both hungering and thirsting after righteousness or are rejoicing in unrighteousness. This verse also tells us that love rejoices in the truth. In Scripture knowing truth is not just an intellectual awareness of a fact or proposition, but is a love for that truth followed by the outworking of that truth in life as well. The hungering and thirsting after righteousness is really the outworking of a love in the soul for the expression of that love in the world. Having that love of God in the soul and seeing that love expressed to the glory of God is the satisfaction of the soul.

A hunger and thirst after righteousness cannot be apart from the Greatest Commandments. In this sense, then, we can see that a hunger and thirst after righteousness is simply the appetite of the soul that loves Christ. The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. The second Greatest Commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. There is no act (as also seen in I Cor 13:1-3) of righteousness that does not have love. But this can also be seen by this text: “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (I John 3:10-11). Love for God always leads to love for others which is doing right according to and out of the love of God.

What is it that satisfies the hungry and thirsty soul? “I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, And My people will be satisfied with My goodness,” declares the LORD” (Jer 31:14). “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You. 4 So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. 5 My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips” (Psa 63:3-5). “‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants” (Isa 44:3). “They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. 9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light” (Psa 36:8-9). Clearly, God alone fills and satisfies the soul.

A soul that hungers and thirsts for righteousness from love is a believing soul. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13). God fills the believing soul with His own joy and peace. He fills the believing soul with hope by the power of the Spirit. The desires of the believing soul are to be set on things above (Col 3:1-4). The believing soul that is filled with the fullness of God (Eph 3:19) is the soul that desires nothing but God Himself. “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psa 73:25-26). The believing soul wants nothing more than to simply behold the beauty and glory of God. “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple” (Psa 27:4).

Nothing satisfies the soul but God Himself so a hunger and thirst for righteousness must be as aspect of love for God. The pursuit of righteousness satisfies the soul in that the soul is filled with the presence of God instead of a hard heart that comes with sin. A righteous act such as prayer, when done out of love, is God communicating Himself to the soul and so the soul is filled with good and is satisfied with being filled with God. We are to taste and see that the Lord is good. In doing these things the soul is filled with God and as such is satisfied. That is a blessed satisfaction and the believing soul will settle for nothing less.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

Two weeks ago we looked at hunger and thirst as desires of the soul and how this reflects the true desires of the believing soul. Christ solemnly warns Christians about being lukewarm. Last week we looked at the object of the hunger and thirst. In Matthew 5:6 that object is righteousness. In the context of the Sermon on the Mount I tried to set out that this righteousness is behavioral. Within the context of the Sermon on the Mount there is no mention of the righteousness of Christ given as a free gift and there are several references to acts of righteousness. So we concluded that the believer or the blessed person is one that hungers and thirsts after acts of righteousness.

However, we saw problems that arose with that interpretation. In one sense there is no question about it from the context itself, but there is one question from the text and one theological issue as well. The first beatitude (blessed are the poor in spirit) seems to be in conflict with a person hungering and thirsting after righteousness. If, as the first beatitude teaches, I have no righteousness and no way to obtain it, then how is it that I am to hunger and thirst after that which I can in no way obtain? The theological issue that arises is how am I justified apart from works and by the imputed righteousness of Christ and yet I am to hunger and thirst after acts of righteousness.

First, the issue from the context: If I have no righteousness and no way to obtain it, then how am I to hunger and thirst after it? We need to look at the question and ask if the two points are really the same. In the first beatitude the issue is that of being righteous before God on our own merits. Clearly that is something that is not possible since earning merit would bring God under obligation to the creature. So if that is the case, there is no way of obtaining merit before God. Now we can understand that point and it is very clear in the issue of justification by grace alone through faith alone (apart from works). No human being can earn merit from God. But is that necessarily a contradiction with the fourth beatitude? The first beatitude only contradicts the fourth beatitude if the fourth beatitude is speaking of hungering and thirsting after a type of righteousness that merits anything from God.

What we must do is to think carefully through the biblical information and be wary of equivocation as seen from the previous paragraph. We must receive what Scripture says about each verse and yet move carefully in ways that keep us from the landmines of heresy. Man is dead in his sins and trespasses and cannot do one good thing of himself (Ephesians 2:1-3), yet the Pharisees tried to do works of righteousness to bring God under obligation. Paul was locked in mortal combat with that. We know that Ephesians 2:4-10 clearly shows that man is saved by grace apart from works so that no man can boast. Romans 3:24-31 demonstrates that salvation is by grace alone and merit cannot enter into that at all. So the Bible is quite clear that man is poor in spirit with no righteousness of his own and also has no way of obtaining righteousness before God. The Law was never given as a way for man to be saved. Man was always meant to be saved by grace through faith and not works or merit.

But how is it that we are to pursue righteousness and yet we cannot obtain merit by it? What sense is there in pursuing righteousness if it does not obligate God to do anything? The answer to this and the answer to the theological question are essentially the same. So let us set out the theological question. In reality the theological question is really in the contextual question. We know that man is declared just Christ’s work on the cross and the imputed righteousness of Christ. Romans 4:1-16 declares Abraham was justified through faith and that it is the imputed righteousness of Christ alone is the basis for anyone to be justified. We know from that Paul believed in that righteousness alone and yet he sought to share in the sufferings of Christ (Phil 3:8-11). Paul hungered after Christ and counted all but rubbish in order that he might have Christ. However, not by a righteousness of his own.

Let us look at three examples. God is perfectly righteous, yet He always acts in perfect righteousness. This is an attribute of God and is an aspect of His holiness. It is His doing what is right in all cases and in all that He does. It is the activity of God in being like God since God is the standard of righteousness. A hunger and thirst for righteousness is a hunger and thirst for the life of God in us and for that life to be expressed. It is not an attempt to obtain righteousness for self, but to express the righteousness of God in love. What is the connection between seeking for righteousness and seeking God who is righteous? If we are seeking righteousness for self, we are essentially seeking self from self-love. If we are seeking righteousness as a way of seeking God and His glory, then we are using self for what it was created for which is to glorify God.
Second, Christ was perfectly righteous, yet He pursued it. In one sense He was earning righteousness for His people, but in another sense He was the representative of His people and He needed to live a perfect life in order for them to be declared righteous. But the real issue is that He was righteous and He lived a life that was motivated by a perfect love for God. That was seen in His hungering and thirsting after righteousness. The third example, acts of righteousness, flow from the example of Christ. While the Pharisees did acts of righteousness for selfish reasons, Jesus practiced and gave us the Lord’s Prayer. While prayer is an act of righteousness, it earns no merit for salvation. Prayer was not given to us as a work for salvation, but is how believers out of love seek God and His glory in the world. Those that have the imputed righteousness of Christ are freed from seeking merit and to seek the display of His righteousness in the world. Imputed righteousness leads to hungering after acts of righteousness.

Again, being justified by Christ alone frees the soul from seeking merit. It frees the soul from bondage to self so that the soul may work and desire God and His glory from love. In a very real sense a human being hungering and thirsting after righteousness is simply hungering and thirsting after the display of God’s righteousness in the world. There is no true righteousness apart from God and He puts forth His righteousness in Christ. It is the life of Christ in a person that gives the hunger and thirst for righteousness. We must always remember that man does not do for God, but it is God doing for Himself through man. In pursuing righteousness, then, man is pursuing the glory of God. But in reality it is the glory of God dwelling in man that is shining in and through man. It is God communicating and externalizing His own glory through man so that God may have pleasure in the display of His own glory and that man may enjoy God inwardly as he is participating in the divine life (II Peter 1:4).

We must, therefore, see hungering and thirsting after righteousness as something very different from man being good. It is man’s desire to share in the life of God and to put the righteousness of God on display. It is an aspect of living to the glory of God in that the glory of God is the display of the beauty of God. In hungering and thirsting after righteousness in truth there is the display of the glory of God, that is, the beauty of His righteous character. What can be a standard of righteousness, after all, than that of the character of God? Can anything be righteous other than seeking the glory of God in the world? It should be obvious, then, that this hungering and thirsting for righteousness has to be linked with the glory of God as we should not seek anything that is not to the glory of God. If we seek righteousness in a way that is not to the glory of God it is nothing more than self-righteousness. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness, therefore, must be seen within certain parameters in order for it to fit within the Great Commandment of loving God with all of our being rather than love for self.

II Corinthians 3:18 shows this too. It is in beholding His glory that we are transformed into that image from one degree of glory to another. That is not pursuing it according to works, but rather it is in beholding that glory that God works in us to become like His glory. That is pursuing true righteousness which is to be like God in manifesting His glory. It is to pursue God according to the true nature of the Law which is a reflection of His glory in love. To pursue the Law in an effort to become righteous is self-centered and based on selfishness and as such is not love. Whatever is done externally to keep the Law in that way is not out of love and is condemned by the Law. The only way to keep the Law in truth is to see it as a reflection of the glory and character of God and to pursue Him out of love and to be like Him in love. The Pharisees tried to keep the Law out of love for self and failed miserably. The only way to keep the Law is as the New Covenant sets out which is to have God work it in us. In striving to love God by the love that He works in us, we are not obtaining self-righteousness but are pursuing a true righteousness which He works in us. In that it is all of grace. So we hunger and thirst after righteousness which is a desire for His glory to be manifested which is really His grace in us. There is no merit in this at all.

Since joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, we can be quite safe in assuming that whatever else Jesus means His teaching on blessedness and happiness are not apart from the work and fruit of the Spirit in working the joy of God in human souls that seek Him for Himself rather than seek for other things. Since all of this is of God and by the work of the Spirit, we can see how a soul that is justified by Christ alone can indeed hunger and thirst after righteousness. It is what the soul has been saved for. In fact, it is the justified soul alone that will hunger and thirst after righteousness without trusting in anything but the righteousness of Christ. This may not make sense to those who love their own works and merit, but to those that have been delivered from living for self to the kingdom of the Beloved this is the delight of their souls. It is the desire and love of the soul to pursue His glory which is what righteousness really is.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

Last time we looked at hunger and thirst as desires of the soul and how believers should seek the Lord with true desires in the soul. Christianity does not consist in being lukewarm with half-heartedness, but it must consist in love, joy, and fervent desire. God loves Himself with a perfect love and joy within the Trinity and if He lives in His people He will be working a love for Himself that is like the love He has for Himself. This week we want to look at the object of the hunger and thirst, which in our text is righteousness. When the text speaks of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, it is not necessarily clear what that means. Some believe that this is connected with being poor in spirit in such a way that it reflects the hunger of the soul for the righteousness that is found only in the imputed righteousness of Christ in justification. If that is true, then, the satisfaction is found in the moment of justification and this verse would no longer apply to believers. However, the context of the Sermon on the Mount does not give us that notion of righteousness.

In Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount the concept of righteousness is thought of in terms of behavior and attitude. In the verses below you will see the uses of “righteousness” in the Sermon on the Mount. 5:10 – “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 5:20 – “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” 5:45 – “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” 6:1 – “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” 6:33 – “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

In 5:10 people are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. It is true that Martin Luther and many others were persecuted for their teaching on the imputed righteousness of Christ. However, the concept of the imputed righteousness of Christ is not in the context. The context of the Sermon on the Mount appears to be a righteous life lived in the presence of God and others. It can also be stated of Luther that it was not so much his doctrine that got him into trouble, but the righteous way of living and preaching it in a way that made it clear.

In 5:20 we are taught that our righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees. Now surely, some might say, this shows that we must have the imputed righteousness of Christ. The Pharisees lived such strict lives and kept the law so strictly that we cannot surpass them. However, the context is vital to take note of again. What Jesus does immediately after this verse is go into a treatise on a select few of the commandments. He starts off with a “you have heard that it was said.” What they had been taught was that the commandment was kept by outward behavior with some external rules. Jesus then goes on in contrast with what had been taught and says, “but I say unto you.” He then expounds the true meaning of the Law. The clear teaching of this passage is that the righteousness that a person must have that surpasses the scribes and Pharisees is the inner righteousness which is the inner keeping of the Law. It is the heart that must pursue righteousness and find it according to this verse.

The word as used in 5:45 also refers to behavior as it speaks of God causing His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sending rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. The contrast is on those that behave wickedly and those that do righteous actions. The text does not say that God sends these things on both those that have Christ and those that do not, but on the evil or unrighteous and the good or the righteous. The contrast has to do with behavior. Theologically there is no question that the righteous have Christ and the unrighteous do not, but that does not negate the point Jesus is making in this text.

The point is beyond dispute in 6:1 where the acts of righteousness that He is speaking of He talks about in the context. The acts of righteousness were prayer, giving alms, and fasting (6:1-20). Here is also another case where the righteousness of the blessed surpasses and exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. The Pharisees did all of those things outwardly, but also for their own honor. Whenever something is only done outwardly, the sinful self is the center of it all. However, Jesus taught that prayer and whatever else is done is to be done out of love for God and in a God-centered way. Instead of praying to receive honor for self, we are to pray that God’s name would be hallowed and that His kingdom would come. Instead of giving alms to honor self, do them in secret and for God. Instead of fasting to be noticed by men, hide your fasting and do it as directed toward God alone.

6:33 flows from 6:1-20 and is the righteousness that is to be sought is also in seeking the kingdom of God. This verse also helps us see the intensity of hungering and thirsting and what the focus of that should be. We are to hunger and thirst (seek) for His righteousness more than we are to desire and seek for food and clothing (6:24-34). No one can serve two masters (6:24) for one will be sought and the other hated. We cannot seek God for the purpose of obtaining clothes, food, and security for the future (worry about tomorrow). Rather, we are to seek His righteousness and kingdom first. God will take care of the other things. We can only seek God’s righteousness in accordance with how we seek the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the reign and rule of God in the human soul. So we can make another observation that seeking the righteousness of God corresponds to the reign and rule of God in the soul of man. The righteousness of God is that righteousness that God requires and yet it is what He works in His people as He sets up His kingdom in their souls. The inner reign of Christ is worked out in the human heart by His lordship and the work of the Holy Spirit in working His fruit in the hearts of His people.

We also see this concept of righteousness taught in Luke 1:6. Regarding the parents of John the Baptist, the text tells us that “They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.” Righteousness is defined for us as walking blamelessly in the commandments and requirements of the Lord. While we must remember that this is still the Old Testament period in the sense that the Holy Spirit had not been poured out yet, this is not to assert in the slightest that salvation is by works or that a righteousness that saves can be obtained apart from Christ. This is not to assert that a person is ever justified in the sight of God apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ. No human being apart from Christ will ever be declared just by God apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ. However, we must let Scripture speak as it is the Word of God. If Scripture says that a person is blessed if he or she is hungering and thirsting after righteousness, then that is the way it is. It also does not mean that hungering and thirsting for righteousness is contradictory to God’s gift of grace in the form of the imputed righteousness of Christ. The two go together, though we will not address this at the moment.

What we must see, then, is that the first beatitude is not contradictory to this one (the fourth). The first one tells us that the blessed person is the one that is poor in spirit and has no righteousness or merit of his own. It also tells us that this person not only has no righteousness of his own, but that he has absolutely no way to obtain righteousness of his own. Poverty of this type is such that a person has nothing and no way to obtain it. But how is it, then, that a person is to hunger and thirst for righteousness and in that be declared blessed and find satisfaction? The explanation of that will have to wait until a later time, but we can rest in the imputed righteousness of Christ knowing that it is all that is needed to enter into the full presence of God in heaven. We must also stress that the righteousness we are to hunger and thirst for is not opposed in any way to the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is grace and nothing but grace and all of that to the glory of His holy name.

We must stress over and over that no one hungers and thirsts for righteousness without and apart from the grace of God. It is grace that works in human beings and gives them that hungering and thirsting for the things of God. “8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:8-11). We can leave this issue for the moment noticing that Paul did not want or have a righteousness derived from the Law. He wanted that righteousness which came from God on the basis of faith. But that moved him with a desire to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. All things were rubbish to him and he wanted to know Christ. So his righteousness was not from the Law but was all from Christ. However, he wanted to pursue knowing Christ while counting all other things as rubbish and dung. For Paul, being given salvation by grace through the free gift of righteousness was no hindrance to pursuing holiness and Christ. In fact, his pursuit now was greater than when he was a Pharisee. A hunger for righteousness in this way will always be far beyond the Pharisee and the legalist.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

The first thing that should be noted in a verse like this is that those who are blessed are not dull and lifeless in their pursuit of God. These are not people who are half-hearted and settle for any little service or any little affection. No, those who are truly blessed are those that are marked by a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Let us not think that this is just a slight thirst and a slight hunger, but this is a life that is marked by a craving and a deep thirst for God and His glory. How we should be ashamed in our intellectually slovenly and religiously insipid lives and desires.

Jonathan Edwards puts it this way: “That religion which God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull and lifeless wouldings, raising us but a little above a state of indifference: God in His Word, greatly insists upon it, that we be in good earnest, fervent in spirit, and our hearts vigorously engaged in religion.” Christianity and true blessedness are not just a bit above indifference, or even a fair amount above indifference. It is to be earnest and fervent. It is to have our hearts vigorously engaged in religion. Edwards remarks again, in his book on Religious Affections, that “true religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” He then tells us what the affections are: “the more vigorous and sensible [things pertaining to the senses] exercises of the inclination and will of the soul.” For Edwards (built on I Peter 1:8) true and biblical religion consisted in the vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul. Not just the exercise of some affections, but vigorous affections. As Scripture proclaims: “And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (I Peter 1:8).

Well, one might say, that is Jonathan Edwards. But what does Scripture say? After all, it is imminently rational and surely is above such things as Edwards speaks of. I Peter 1:8 has already been quoted, but it is only one verse. It speaks of a joy so great that it could not be expressed and that based on love for Christ. We then go on to read Psalm 36: 8: “They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.” If that is not strong enough, we can move on to Psalm 16:1:1″ You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Fullness of joy is only found in God. That full joy will never be found in the world. So why do people seek the things of the world with such desire and affection? Maybe believers have not discovered the true glory of Christ. Maybe believers are too much involved in the inferior things of the world too. After all, Psalm 73:25 should describe all of us: “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.”

As we look at these few verses of Holy Writ, let us understand that this is a common theme in Scripture. Man is not to live with weak desires toward God and His glory, but man is to be like Paul who said that for him “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Whatever else that is, it is not half-hearted. Perhaps one real problem with the churches of today is that things are so watered down and diluted with the world that people have no real hunger and thirst for God except to obtain worldly things. Churches today are far more like those described in Revelation 3:15-16 than we realize: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” Rather than that, the biblical model is like the verses listed above from Psalm 16:11 and 73:25. We have far too many desires on earth and so we have virtually no hunger and thirst for things above. In other words, we are idolaters.

The things of the world have our affections & we give God but a nod. This beatitude takes that attitude & shoves it back in our face. We are to crave with insatiable desires Christ & righteousness. What has our hearts and affections? Do we show desires after Him? Do we have desires to be righteous? We have desires, but where are they? Are we hot for the things of the world and so cold to Christ? Does Psalm 42:1 (“As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God”) and 63:3 (“Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You”) describe the yearnings and cravings or our hearts? Why not? Has God and His glory changed? Are we just going on in the world with Christianity being part of our life, maybe even the largest part, but it is primarily intellectual? Where are those strong desires? What do our hearts burn within us for? Are we hungry for God’s Word and prayer? Are we thirsty for Christ? God’s people are commanded to love Him with all of their hearts, minds, souls, and strength. Where is the evidence for that? Sure there are many rock concerts given in the name of worship and there are places where tears and shouting may be heard. But where are those that have a true hunger and thirst for Christ Himself and not just the things they might get from Him?

We do not want or at least will rarely accept coldness or half-heartedness in the actions of others. We want children to obey with good attitudes. We want spouses to kiss with affection instead of wooden, perfunctory pecks. We want friendly waiters that will appear to enjoy serving us, and we find artificial sweetener in their smiles revolting. We find careless attitudes and divided attention revolting in salespeople. We desire those who help or wait on us to be sincere and joyful. Shouldn’t we do at least the same for Christ? Do we praise our children or spouses in a wooden monotone voice with a smile pasted on? Do we tell people that they did a good job or that we enjoyed what they did with a wooden monotone voice? Then why do we think that praise for Christ in song and prayer is acceptable in that way? We are much like some of the Israelites of old that brought to God as a sacrifice the lame and disfigured animals when they would not dream of giving those things to a human being as a gift.

Hungering and thirsting is a sign of a desire or even need in the soul. We must have nutrition, so we hunger. We must have water, so we thirst. We must have love, so we hunger. We must have life, so we thirst for the fountain of life. Our bodies hunger for the elements of life, so the soul hungers for the elements of its life. We crave the bread of life and the water of life. We hunger for the milk of the word and the meat of the word. For dessert we taste and see that the Lord is good and that the judgments of the Lord are sweeter than the drippings of honey from the honeycomb. The eyes of the soul hungers for beauty, and it is satisfied with the character of God displayed in nature and most of all in Christ. The ears of the soul longs to hear delightful sounds and is only satisfied with the voice of Christ in the Word. The soul hungers for pleasure and that is found in the command to delight ourselves in the Lord. The world seeks pleasure with entertainment and sensuality. The believer seeks Christ above all and finds true pleasure in Him. The believer has pleasure in his food, digestion, and drink because they are Christ. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is not walking around with a lack all of the time, it is one that is filled and the filling leads to more desires for walking with and pleasing God.

A true hunger and thirst for righteousness is a sign of love for God. II Timothy 2:22 shows this: “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” One must flee from youthful lusts in order to pursue righteousness. But along with pursuing righteousness one must pursue faith, love, and peace. That is part and parcel of pursuing righteousness. But those things are necessary if one is to call on the Lord from a pure heart. What is a pure heart? It is a single and undivided heart, or an unmixed heart. Its focus is on God and God alone. This shows that to pursue true righteousness one must be pursuing it out of love for God. I John 3:10 also shows this: “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.” Love for God and our brother (Greatest Commandments) are not possible if one does not practice righteousness. True love and true righteousness go hand in hand and cannot be separated. The pursuit of righteousness flows from a heart that loves God.

We think of Christianity as something added on to the rest of our lives rather than being our life itself. The true form of hungering and thirsting comes from the life of Christ in the soul. He gives the soul its desires and works in it the pursuit of God. It is this concept that makes sense out of Philippians 2:13, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is indeed the work of Christ giving the soul a hunger and thirst to be like Him. To put it another way, hungering and thirsting after righteousness is the work of grace in the soul. It is possible for people to hunger and thirst in some way to be moral for the sake of self-righteousness. That means that people long to have a form of righteousness out of self-love and want it for a selfish purpose. But the true hungering and thirsting after righteousness is the work of grace in the soul. It is grace giving the soul the desires to do all for the glory of God. Assuredly, then, a true hunger and thirst in the soul is the work of grace drawing a person to share in the glory that flows from the throne of God to His people who are united to Christ in love. Being united to Christ in love and receiving the love that flows from the Father through the Son to His people which gives them a love for Him is indeed the greatest of blessing. As hungering and thirsting are the workings of the body that demonstrate a lack of food, so hungering and thirsting spiritually show us our desperate need to feed our souls upon the glory of God in Christ. There is satisfaction and joy in that, but also a longing to know more and more of God.

“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5)

In finishing with the teaching on meekness, it seemed as if it would be helpful to bring attention to the massive biblical theology and practices that are the foundation of the possession and practice of meekness. Meekness is not just something that a person sees that needs to be done and so works up the internal fortitude to be calm and nice while verbal or physical abuse is being poured out on him. Meekness is not something that the natural man can work up; it is the life of Christ in the person. It is the fruit of the Spirit and is the result of love as we have seen.

If it is a correct position, and it would be hard to deny it from Scripture, that meekness is inseparable from love, then we must look at the connection between meekness and the Great Commandments. The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. The Second Greatest Commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Meekness flows out of a love for God and then the neighbor. In fact, it is the working out of the love for God that comes when the Spirit pours out the love for God in the heart of man (Romans 5:5ff). It is the believer receiving the love of God which is love for God and that love flowing back toward God and toward those made in His image. The Great Commandments come to all of humanity and command man to love God and the neighbor all of the time. This command is explained in various ways throughout Scripture. We are told by Jesus to love our enemy (Mat 5:42-48). Beyond any real question this falls under the Great Commandments and is seen as meekness in returning good for evil as Paul teaches us in Romans 12:17-21). The only way to return good for evil and to love an enemy is to have meekness.

We also see an aspect of meekness in relation to the Great Commandment and the sovereignty of God. The root of meekness is intensely theological since it is really the life of Christ in us but also all that happens to a person is brought by the hand of God. We see the great promise of Romans 8:28 as resting on the sovereignty of God: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Part of meekness, then, is the realization that God is the One who has ordained that this happen and for good causes. The way we react to situations shows our real belief in the sovereignty of God. We know from Hebrews 12:4-11 that God disciplines His children by bringing trials upon them. He does this so that they may share in His holiness (Heb 12:10). He does it for His glory which is their real good.

If the points from the previous paragraph are true (and they are), then we can see that God is at work in His children to make them like Himself and share in His holiness. Part of being holy is to be delivered from being self-centered and focused on self. God brings trials and hard things on His people to deliver them from their selfish hearts and to give them Himself. In doing this He teaches them to focus on Him and others in love. In doing this He teaches them to rely on the love from Him and for Him rather than to respond based on selfish considerations. So when the growing believer is met with the trials of persecution, the believer learns to look at the trial and know that perhaps the other person intends evil but God intends good by it. So the believer learns to love God and look to God for love instead of responding according to selfish considerations. This clearly shows that meekness has a foundation in the character and sovereignty of God.

If we want to say that meekness is a virtue or learned behavior that is in the power of man, then we must think of meekness in a different light altogether. It then becomes self-effort that depends on the power of the individual being persecuted. That makes it a work that depends on how much self-love a person has instead of how much love for God and neighbor that a person has. The differences are dramatic between a meekness that flows from the character of a sovereign God and that which comes from the self. It is no less than the difference between Christianity and the idolatry of self.

We also see meekness as possible within the framework of the sinfulness of man. Scripture speaks of sin as being the worst thing in the universe. It is because of sin that the wrath of God abides on people. It is because of sin that there is a hell which is the lake of fire which is where there will be eternal torments. But all of that is because of sin. If sin makes me so bad that I deserve the everlasting wrath of God in eternal torments, then nothing worse can be said about me. This means that meekness is made easier by realizing that I am so poor in spirit (first beatitude) that no human can insult me. The worst thing about me is my sin and no other human being can really know the depths of my own sin. So when another person calls me names, I should realize that regardless of their intent their names are actually compliments to me in terms of what I really am. Meekness flows out of poorness of spirit (how I view my own righteousness) and mourning for my own sins and those of others. A perfectly meek heart would not be able to be insulted. This is not from weakness, but is from the strength of true love (as in Christ). This is the strength that will also speak out for the glory of God even when it will bring more persecution.

A meek heart also relies on the true intents and motives. The Great Commandment is also stated in different ways in Scripture. I would think that it is clear that the command to do all to the glory of God falls underneath the Great Commandment. The intents and motives of believers, then, should be to do all to manifest the glory of God in them. As we come down to a practical level, when we are insulted or persecuted our response will either be out of love for the glory of God or out of a love for selfish me. If my true desire is to manifest the glory of God, then I will respond with meekness which shines the meekness of Christ and the power of the love of God to all that see it. If my true desire is to preserve my selfish honor before men, then I will let my selfishness shine out and unbelievers will not question what I have done. After all, it will be said, the other person deserved it. Perhaps, but what did God deserve in that situation? He deserved for His glory to be seen in that situation and not my selfish and sinful desire to maintain my honor before others.

Another of the theological issues here is the indwelling Christ and the lordship of Christ. It is the life of Christ that is in the believer and the believer has no right to himself to act in any way that is not honoring to Christ. The believer is to seek to be like Christ which is really another way of saying that it is Christ in us that is to live through us. In common parlance, “what would Jesus do?” In one sense that is not a good question since we are not God in human flesh, but in another sense it is a good question since believers are the body of Christ and Christ is the very life that is in them. When we ask what would Jesus do, we need to think of it as what would the life of Christ in me want to work through me. That is a very different question.

It is not that believers have the right to determine what they do; they are to be guided by the life and words of Christ. How would Christ have responded to the person persecuting me if they were persecuting Him? We know how He would have responded by His prayer for those who crucified Him to be forgiven. We must also recognize that believers are the body of Christ and how we are treated is how He is being treated. We must also realize that how we treat others in one sense is how Christ is treating them. We are letters from Christ and we spread the aroma of Christ and the Gospel to those we are around. Christ is seen in and through the meekness of His people.

We should also consider the New Covenant teaching of the temple of God. Believers are the temple of God and that means that they are not their own and should not behave as their own. Christ has purchased them with His precious blood and not with worthless things like gold or silver (I Peter 1:17ff). This means that the believer is owned by another and is in no sense his or her own. The believer has no right to treat the temple as if it is his or her own. It is the dwelling place of God and it is to shine forth His glory as His temple should. When another person persecutes me, he or she is mistreating the temple of God and nothing that I own. Therefore, I am to respond in such a way that honors the wishes and character of the owner of that property. God commands me to love Him and all my neighbors and so that is how I must respond. The owner of me commands meekness.

As we have seen, the issue of meekness is not simple and it is not easy. It is founded on a massive theology and it only flows from hearts that have the indwelling Christ working His character in and through them. Indeed all that have Christ in them are blessed and eternally blessed. This should lead us to show meekness with joy in all circumstances. However, when we fail let us not give up, but seek the Lord for more of Himself which alone can make us like Him in order to enjoy His life expressed through us.

“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5)

We will continue our study of meekness this week by looking at the joy or happiness of meekness. This does not sound like it would be much of a study, but the promises given to the meek are enormous. Remember that the text tells us that inner happiness is what the meek have. It is the meek that have true happiness and not those that are slandering and abusing the believers. The promise of inheriting the land or the earth is a promise repeated many times in the Old Testament. The promise within the covenant then was that it was the humble and the righteous that would inherit the land which pictured the coming promise of the New Covenant. In the New Covenant the promise is that the humble and meek will inherit the earth.

We see the teaching of Psalm 37:11 where it is “the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity,” and in Psalm 37:29 it is “the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.” The promises in the Old Testament had this element to it. There were promises to Abraham about this as well in Genesis where he is told that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen 12:3). It was also the promise to Abraham after his faithfulness in the issue with Isaac that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen 22:18). The promises to Abraham were far reaching as to time and as to the extent. We see this continued in the promises concerning Christ in the Psalms. “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession” (Psalm 2:7-8). This promise was to Christ and by inference to all that belong to Christ.

In the New Testament we see that Romans 4:13 teaches us that “the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.” The promise is now that believers are heirs of the world. We see that same theme in Galatians where it is showing that those who are of faith and those who have Christ are the true seed of Abraham. “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:29). Clearly, then, the promises made to Abraham and his seed were promises to Christ and to those who have faith in Christ who are the seed of Christ and the seed of Abraham.

Romans 8:17 tells us the promises are to the children of God which makes us fellow heirs with Christ: “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” Ephesians 3:6 teaches the same issue as well: “to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” When the believer sees these promises, they should bring some level of anticipation. Believers are promised the earth and so they do not have go out to defeat the world by military force, but instead wait in humility and meekness for the Day of the Lord. The giving of the earth will happen when there are new heavens and a new earth. In that day all those that are meek like Christ will see what it means to be fellow heirs with Christ.

While being heirs of God and those that receive the earth may sound like pie in the sky to some people, it should have some influence on the way we view things now. We do not work in order to overthrow governments by force and threats; we are to work in the harvest of the Gospel. We are to spend out efforts in the kingdom of God which works in the inner man before it flows out into the outer man. The kingdom of God is simply where the King is exerting His reign at the moment. King Jesus reigns in the hearts of His people and exerts His power of love within them. Since meekness flows from love and is in a sense a control over sinful power within the soul, meekness is actually a great power of God within the soul. Meekness is not weakness; it is a Divine power in the soul working a likeness to Christ there.

As mentioned in earlier newsletters, meekness is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit (singular) is described by nine characteristics in Galatians 5: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control” (vv 22-23). In this newsletter we are looking at how the meek can be blessed or have inner happiness. In light of the fruit of the Spirit, then, when we see the “fruit” is singular and is described by nine characteristics, we should make the deduction that the other characteristics should accompany meekness. In other words, wherever meekness is it should be accompanied with love and joy. True meekness, then, flows from love and joy. So if a person has true meekness, it will be accompanied by love and joy which are also constituent parts of the fruit of the Spirit and meekness. There is no meekness apart from love and joy.

We can also look at peace, patience, and kindness in light of the fruit of the Spirit. Meekness has as a necessary part of it peace, patience, and kindness. Whenever meekness is present, so are peace, patience, and kindness. When a meek person is verbally attacked, a necessary part of meekness is also there. So the desire to be at peace with all men and patience are there. There is also the attribute of kindness too. When a person abuses us verbally or otherwise, while remaining sin may respond to some degree, if the Spirit is in us we should have some degree of meekness which responds with the desire for peace with others and exercises patience with others. Surely this shows how meekness is a necessary part of true happiness and in fact that true happiness flows from those that have true meekness.

We must also not flee from noticing that all of these fruits of the Spirit are attributes of God which is the fruit of what the Spirit works in believers. The Spirit works in His people in order to make them like God. So it is no wonder that as believers grow in faith that the Spirit works in them to become more and more like God. Since God is eternally blessed and His perfect joy and blessedness are never lessened, to become more like Him is to become more like Him in blessedness and joy. No believer can become more like God with the presence of God in him or her without some joy being expressed. We also know that the promises of God for the persecuted are that He will be with them. When God is with His people, there is joy since the joy of the Lord is our strength (Neh 8:10). When a believer is persecuted and responds with meekness and love, that believer is being like God who is hated by unbelievers all of the time and yet responds with by sending the sun and the rain on them. In this God has perfect joy and blessedness the whole time.

Meekness is the fruit of the Spirit, yes, but it is the work of the Spirit working the life of Christ in His people. In Christ we see the beautiful display of meekness. While on earth He was ridiculed and made fun of. He was hounded by the religious leaders and persecuted. When brought to trial for crimes that He had not committed, He was lied about and found guilty. He was then beaten and lashed with a whip that was made of leather and most likely had pieces of bone and metal in it. What was His response? He was quiet. What was His response when the nailed Him to the cross? In meekness He prayed for those that put Him there. What was His response to the thieves who were nailed to the cross beside Him and mocked and ridiculed Him? One of them was converted and Christ told him that he would be in paradise that day. In other words, He was meek and returned love and goodness for persecution and ridicule. We also know from the Scripture that it was for the joy set before Him that Christ endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). So it is no stretch to say that as Christ was being persecuted He had joy in the meekness He had and exercised. Meekness always has love present and so must have some degree of joy.

There are many reasons throughout Scripture to support the statement of this beatitude that the meek are blessed and have true happiness and joy. Through meekness and its constituent elements the kingdom of God is being extended and He is our greatest joy. With the exercise of meekness we are seen to be sharing in the character of God. That should be a great joy. With the exercise of meekness the character of Christ is seen to be in us and we can know that we have come to Christ the meek and lowly Lamb of God. With the growth of meekness we can look at ourselves and be amazed with joy what God is doing in our souls. We can know that no harm is being done to our estate in the slightest because God is at work in us to manifest His glory through us. We should not desire anything more than that. So our greatest desire (His glory) is being carried out regardless of whatever else happens. In this we are to have great joy.

“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5)

The past two weeks we have been looking at meekness which is an aspect of love for those that abuse us. Meekness flows from love for the people that speak against us and perhaps even do bodily harm. It comes from the character of Christ being worked in His people. It is from Christ because this is not the natural man’s response which is always a protection of his own perceived honor and selfish approach to life. Christ endured reproach, physical beatings and the crucifixion with sorrow, concern, and even love for those who executed Him. That is a true Divine power and something that is beyond any natural man apart from the indwelling Christ.

This week we will be looking at God as the basis and source for meekness. If people are like me, they see the impossibility of meekness as coming from themselves and know that it must come from another source. As all true love and actions that flow from it are beyond the ability of the natural person in all ways and the saved person apart from the work of the Spirit, so meekness appears to be even harder than other acts of love. In reality it is the heart of love for God’s glory in fallen humanity and is expressed when fallen humanity is at its worst.

Meekness is founded securely in the character of God and specifically on the self-existence of God. God loves because He is love within Himself and no other cause or reason. Another way to say that is that He loves from within Himself. Believers should grow to the point where they are free from a controlling self-love and so are able to love because God is love and not because of how other human beings treat them. The self-existence of God teaches us that all that God does is from Himself since He needs nothing other than Himself to exist or act. So for God to love all that is needed is for God to choose to express Himself since He is love. What man needs to love is to share in the love of God for Himself so that man’s love is moved from and by God rather than other things.

We need to think this through for a few moments. People think of love as niceness and doing good things to other people. Some people think of love as the good feeling one gets when something nice is done for others. Others think of love as simply actions that benefit other people. But those types of things are usually caused or motivated by things within the selfish nature of man. If I don’t want to see someone suffer, I might help them just because I don’t want to see them suffer. I might help people to soothe my conscience and so I won’t feel bad. On the other hand, I might help them in order to feel good about myself. In all of those situations I am doing things that benefit others but I am really doing them for myself in terms of the motives. That is not love but in reality is self-love.

If a man operates or works according to self-love, then when other people do things that are harmful or hurtful to him then the desire to do good to the person doing the harmful or hurtful things is gone. But love is something different than that and meekness which flows from love is far different than that. Love is taking joy and even pleasure in the true good of others even when it is hurtful to self. Meekness is love expressed when harm and hurt are done. But this love has its source in God and so is able to be expressed because the nature of love is from God and God needs no cause outside of Himself to love. God does not need good in others to show love, so those who share in His love are able to show love even when harm and hurt are done to them. This is what we learn when we see the meekness of Stephen and Jesus. The harm and hurt done to them produced a real love and so they were and are seen as meek.

Meekness is found in those who live before God and have the life of God in them. It is found in one who understands that all things ultimately come from a sovereign God. In fact, it is a response to a sovereign God from the life of God in the soul. As with all things, meekness comes from a biblical view of God. All that man does is a response to what man thinks of God and His sovereignty. If a person knows that all things that happen to him or her will be turned for good by the sovereign hand of God, then the harm and hurt that another does will be viewed differently than if one did not believe that truth.

We must also understand and fight to see past the present world of the senses to know that God is in control of all things and to be content with what God brings to pass. We see an example of this in Eli as given I Sam 3:18. “So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the LORD; let Him do what seems good to Him.” What Samuel told Eli was that his (Eli’s) house was cursed and nothing could atone for it. Eli’s sons had sinned greatly against the Lord and judgment was about to come down on them and Eli. I Samuel 3:18 was his response. He submitted to the Lord meekly because God does what is truly best in all situations.

Meekness comes from a spiritually poor person and one who mourns over his own sins and the sins of others. It comes from a heart that loves God’s glory more than all other things, even one’s own honor and name. This meekness comes when one loves the glory of God through the welfare of another person more than obtaining revenge and returning evil for evil. We see this so clearly in the following text: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. 20 “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:14-21).

The text in the previous paragraph displays the true spirit or heart of meekness. The meek person returns blessings instead of curses to those that persecute him. The meek person does not pay back evil for evil but tries to be at peace with all men and that includes his enemies. The meek person is not wise in his own estimation because his own reason and heart would tell him to get even with the other person. The meek person never takes his own revenge but leaves room for the wrath of God. It is God’s work to carry out the work of vengeance and His alone. So the meek person is to feed his enemy and give him drink if he is thirsty. In doing this the meek person is not overcome by evil but overcomes evil with good. This text stands out with vivid clarity against the way of the world today. It teaches the way of love and meekness and not returning evil for evil. It shows that the biblical life can only be carried out by God working His life in the soul of man. It is truly a work of God in the human heart when a human being responds to insult and harm by love. That is meekness and its only real source is God Himself.

Meekness requires a broken heart and humility as it is this heart that the Spirit works in. A proud heart is not the heart that receives the work of the Spirit in working the character of God in the soul. A proud heart wants to do things by self for the sake of self. A proud heart is too concerned about his own honor and reputation to have true meekness. So the heart that has the work of the Spirit must be a humble heart and a heart that is broken from selfishness and self-love. In other words, it is a heart that is poor in spirit. It does not have any righteousness of its own to defend and has been broken from its selfishness and self-love. It is empty of self and so pliable to the work of the Spirit in working the character of Christ in the heart. This is the soul that is more concerned with the glory of God than what happens to self. This is the soul that has stopped caring about self-righteousness in the sight of others and is now concerned that the life and glory of God would be expressed through it.

As long as the churches remain full of the psychology of the world whether in the name of Christ or not, it will stress self-esteem over Christ-esteem. People in the churches will remain sensitive about how they feel about things rather than sensitive to the love and glory of God. As long as people focus on themselves rather than the glory of God, true meekness and poverty of spirit will be lost. When people take pride in their humility rather than a humility hating their pride, meekness will not be seen. In other words, the churches will be more interested in programs and self-fulfillment than they will be in expressing the love of God that comes in hard things and times. The churches will be more interested in a form of love that is showy and makes them feel good rather than a true love that is expressed in the midst of suffering and sometimes even the love is met with disdain by those who see it. The churches must repent of the thinking of the world that has come into it even though it has been baptized by a few verses and big names. True love as expressed in meekness is not glamorous and showy. But it is true love and it is true love that sets the disciples of Jesus apart from those that think they are.

“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5)

Last week we continued our study of the Beatitudes by starting on the issue of meekness. The essence of meekness is absorbing a wrong or wrongs from others and returning good for it. It is not just the actions, it is of the heart, Poorness of spirit (first beatitude) is seen when we see our own sin and are convicted of our own lack of righteousness before God and so we pronounce names on ourselves. Meekness is seen when other people call us names or wrong us. We respond to our own lack of righteousness and sin by mourning before God because our sin is against God. In the same way when we respond with meekness to the sin of others (even when it wrongs us) without wanting to get revenge but by mourning for their sin because it is also sin against God.

Meekness is not something that a natural man is capable of, but it is something that belongs to the spiritual person because this is the life of Christ being worked into and then through His people. This is not being wimpy and weak; it is actually the power of God in a person. It is not just outward niceness or weakness of personality; it is the life of God through Christ being worked in and through a person. In other words, instead of responding with anger and malice, meekness responds with true love. In that sense meekness is love for those who mistreat us. Meekness is based in love for God and our neighbors. It is a fruit of the Spirit as opposed to the works of the flesh.

When attacked (real or perceived) with the words or actions of others, something will come out. What we are full of will come out. When attacked our self-love or our love for God will come out. Meekness bears injuries, forgives injuries, and returns good for injuries. It has no malice as that is mental murder. It is opposed to revenge and speaking evil. It prays for those who abuse us (Matt 5:44), feeds our enemies (Rom 12:20), returns blessing for evil (I Pet 3:9), and is the ornament of great beauty (I Pet 3:4 and Col 3:12). It is the opposite of self-will toward God and of ill-will toward men. Meekness is indeed a thing of beauty as it displays the loveliness of the character of Christ and as such it is not a work of man but is the work and life of God in the human soul.

For the rest of this newsletter we will focus on some biblical examples of true meekness. We can examine the actions of Noah during the time of building his boat (ark). The biblical accounts do not tell us exactly how long it took Noah to build the ark, but we have some dating from the text (see Genesis 5:32; 6:3; 7:6). It most likely took around 100-120 years for Noah to build the ark. Many believe that it had never rained before and so had never flooded. So while Noah was building the ark, he was most likely enduring persecution. But Noah is called “a preacher of righteousness” (II Peter 2:5). Noah is also in Hebrews 11and commended for his faith. Noah appeared to have responded to the mocking that he received by preaching righteousness. That is meekness.

We also have Moses who is called the most humble or meekest man on the earth (Numbers 12:3). In fact, he is perhaps one of the most striking examples of meekness on a continual basis. He prayed to God over and over when people grumbled against him (see Exodus 15:24 as an example). In another example of great humility and meekness the Israelites had sinned against God by making a golden calf and worshipping it. This was a great insult to Moses and his leadership, though primarily against God. God told Moses that He would make a great nation out of Moses and to let Him alone and He would destroy them. Moses responded to this by praying to God and for the sake of God’s great name he plead with God not to destroy them (Exodus 32:10-14). Moses responded to personal insult when the people did not obey his authority by praying to God for them. That is meekness.

We will skip other Old Testament figures like Abraham and his meekness toward Lot and David’s meekness toward Saul and move to the New Testament. Here we find a man named Stephen. His story, sermon, and martyrdom are all found in Acts 6:8-7:60. The text tells us that Stephen was a man that was full of grace and power (6:8). Some men from various places began to argue with him but were unable to cope with the wisdom and Spirit with which he was speaking (6:10). So they stirred up the people and the elders and brought him before the Council. Then they brought false charges of blasphemy against him. Stephen was given a chance to speak and he preached to them. He concluded with some pointed application: “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. 52 “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; 53 you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it” (Acts 7:51-53).

At this point the men were cut deeply by his words and they began gnashing their teeth at him. Stephen, however, being full of the Holy Spirit saw the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God. When he saw that he told them what he saw which led them to cover their ears and rush him. They then took Stephen and drove him out of the city and began stoning him. So far we have Stephen doing nothing wrong, being lied about in court, and then taken out to be unjustly and illegally stoned. What was his response? “Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:60). Stephen prayed for those that persecuted him and were killing him. He is an example of true meekness.

We can look at another example of meekness in Paul. We should also remember that it was Paul’s feet that the witnesses laid their coats as they stoned Stephen. In other words, he was in on the stoning of Stephen (possibly the ringleader) and saw Stephen’s witness when he died. “Paul said this many years after his conversion: “To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; 12 and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; 13 when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now. 14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children” ( I Cor 4:11-13). He did all this despite the beatings and scourgings that he had received. “Giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, 4 but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, 5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger” (II Cor 6:3-5). Paul was meek in his persecutions because he did not want to give any cause for offense so that the ministry would not be discredited. He was an example of meekness.

The greatest example of meekness is that of Jesus. He demonstrated the quality of meekness. He was the zenith point of meekness, the great strength and spirituality of the heart. His was mildness, lowliness, a non-retaliating quality, and patience. He was these things even in the face of injustice. He had a heart that was able to rest quietly in the face of persecution and leave it all in the hands of God. He was able to pray for those that abused Him, even when they crucified Him. In fact, this is surely the example that Stephen followed when he was being stoned. He was being like Christ. He fed His enemies and those who hated Him. When Jesus fed the thousands He knew that in reality they hated Him and would turn from Him as soon as they saw who He really was. It is Christ who went to the cross and died for His enemies. All of these are the greatest examples of meekness that can be found.

“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, 22 WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH;
23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (I Peter 2:21-23).

“When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. 34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. 35 And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One” (Luke 23:33-35).

“Your adornment must not be merely external– braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; 4 but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God” (I Peter 3:3-4). This text tells us what a beautiful soul looks like. The context is that of wives, but the principle applies to all. After all, the great example of this is Christ. If Christ lives in us we will have some meekness and will be growing in it. To some degree meekness must be in the soul because it flows from a love for God and others. If there is no meekness, then Christ is not the life of that soul. Instead of being like the world in praising revenge, we should be like Christ in meekness. Only then will any soul be truly beautiful as it expresses and reflects the life and beauty of Christ in it.

“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.