"Blessed are the gentle, because they will inherit the earth."
Matthew 5:5
The gentle? What happened to the survival of the fittest, or the old truism that "God helps those who help themselves?" Well, friends, here's a painful truth for you and me both: neither of those things are in the Bible. They sound pretty neat, and they are things we've created for ourselves to believe, but they are not found in the Bible. And if they are not in the Bible, then they cannot be "Gospel Truth," and we should probably look to what actually IS in the Bible for how we should live... don't you think?
Further, in the culture the Hebrews lived in at the time, the misplaced belief was that the Messiah would be a military leader, one coming to free the people from the oppression of Rome. This man was to be a brilliant strategist, holding no mercy for anyone except the Jews, and bringing forth the wrath of God upon all the enemies of the Jewish people. And with that teaching in mind, for Jesus to tell these Jews that the gentle would be the ones who are blessed would be almost insulting. Meekness wasn't something they looked upon with great admiration... until now.
And of all the possible people who could be "gentle" and "inherit the earth," doesn't it seem appropriate that Jesus was so very gentle? His love and compassion and teaching and preaching and sharing of the Truth of God to all who would come to hear speak volumes about His character, and He is the Son of God, able to do more than we could ask or think... that means that He could have just said, "Nope, I'm taking over and putting an end to it all to straighten things out," but He planned to gently lead us. And His gentleness is to be our model.
But for those of you who are naturally gentle, and you give and give and give without thinking of return or repayment, I want to extend an encouragement to you from this. Your giving is seen, and your life as you live it is blessed, because you understand that giving to all who are in need, as we see in Luke 6, is what it means to be more Christ-like. Also, for those who give like the poor widow in the Gospels, please know that the giving Jesus speaks about and the gentleness in spirit with which you do it has NOTHING to do with your financial status... in other words, you don't have to be a wealthy philanthropist to give away freely. Just give of yourself, from your heart, because THAT is the measurement of how you give: for what reason and in what attitude.
And I know, as Americans we get all "HOO-RAH, we're the greatest nation on Earth," and we get competitive and confrontational about anything that we choose, really. But what if we were to break that mold, the one that the Jews lived under (and we saw how that went for them) of believing that we are the best and no one can stop us just because of our birthplace? What if we responded in gentleness and kindness to all things? What if we looked at the world and saw people who need gentleness, rather than people who need American ideals? I'm proud of my country, and I love that I live in a place where we are freely allowed to worship and read and study and blog... but I'm saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, and my calling through that salvation is to spread His Good News, and that must be done gently.
God bless you all!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment