Gentleness

*Love*Joy*Peace*Longsuffering*Gentleness*Goodness*

*Faith*Meekness*Temperance*

This week we are discussing gentleness. Definition of Gentle: Considerate, kind, tender; Not harsh or severe; Easily managed or handled. The words gentle and gentleness are not used very many times in the Bible. You'll see in our definition that there are three main aspects of gentleness that we will be dealing with. The dictionary gives a few others, but they are not pertinent here. Just like some of our previous fruits, gentleness is a characteristic of both God and Jesus. In II Sam. 22:36, King David said this about God, "Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great." This is a great chapter; please read it some time. Paul said this about Jesus, in II Cor. 10:1, "Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:" People tend to think of gentleness as being a "woman thing", but it's pretty apparent that God expects it out of all of us. It doesn't mean to be a wimp or a pushover.

Paul gave Timothy some instructions on how a servant of the Lord is to behave: "And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient," II Tim. 2:24. In writing to Titus, he said this: "To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men." Titus 3:2. God doesn't want us to be going around always ready to jump into a fight, or an argument, with anyone that crosses us. Look how Paul and his companions behaved, "But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:" I Thes. 2:7. Where does gentleness come from? Is it something you are either born with, or not? NO. Like every other good thing, it comes down from God, and is delivered to us through His Word! "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." James 3:17. "Wisdom that is from above" has to come from God's Word, because that's how He speaks to us. Among other things, it is gentle; so, when we have that Word abiding in us, we will increase in gentleness, too!

Kindness is probably the most well-known part of gentleness. If you look through the Old Testament, you will find many references to someone showing kindness. Most of them are when a warrior or king showed kindness to another nation or group of people; i.e., he let them live instead of killing them when he could have. In our day and age, God expects a little more kindness than that out of us. Look at this beautiful verse about God's kindness to His people, "In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer." Isa. 54:8. Everlasting kindness; how about that? That is my favorite chapter in the whole Bible. Read it when you get a chance; it's short. As ladies, we have an extra bit of kindness to shoot for. "She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness." Prov. 31:26. We have to watch those words. Keep them sweet and kind, not sharp and nasty!

The Apostle Paul suffered many things, but he sure did talk a lot about kindness. In II Cor. 6, he was describing how the people of the world are supposed to be able to recognize followers of Christ. Look at verse 6: "By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned," People are going to be looking for fruit on us. What will they find?

When he was writing to the Colossians, he was giving them some instructions for how to behave with each other, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." Col. 3:12. We sure do want to be the elect of God and be holy and beloved in His sight! We're going to have to put up with each other's junk, and be kind, and forgive each other, because Jesus forgave us when we were sinful and rotten. The Apostle Peter also wrote somewhat about kindness. Look at this: "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." II Pet 1:5-8. This list is pretty close to the Fruit of the Spirit list, but not in the same order. See that part about "giving all diligence"? That means it doesn't "just happen". We have to work at this. You know how? First, making sure we aren't carrying around sins that we haven't repented of yet. Then, we have to pray – daily. And study the Bible – daily. How else are you going to increase in knowledge if you don't go to the source of that knowledge and get some?! Then we have to take all that, and with the help of the good Lord above, put it into practice. It's not enough to read the Word, say "God, help me be good", and then go about your merry way doing as you please. We have to make the conscious effort to do these things.

OK, let's look real quick at that last part of the definition. "Easily managed or handled." What does this boil down to? Submission. Submitting to those who have authority over us. Not being ornery and cantankerous. And who might we be submitting to? First, God Almighty: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7. Then, we submit to the laws of our land, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;" II Pet. 2:13. Then, there are individual people we have to submit to. Our pastor, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you." Heb. 13:17. Our boss, "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward." I Pet. 2:18. As wives, we submit to our husbands, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." Eph. 5:22. The young submit to the elder, and we all submit to each other rather than fighting about everything, "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble." I Pet. 5:5.

CHALLENGE: This week, let's start making a conscious effort to be gentle whenever we are given the opportunity. Let's each give ourselves an evaluation. Are we praying on a daily basis? Are we reading the Bible daily? Are we paying attention to how we act and how we treat those around us? Following the Lord Christ is not for wimps. It's not for the faint of heart or the weak. There is spiritual warfare to be fought. As our fruit-bearing increases, so will our strength. It takes some strength to be kind sometimes. It certainly takes strength to submit to those we don't want to submit to. But guess what? "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him." Psalm 28:7. Amen!