PEARLS OF PAUL
FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – GENTLENESS
DR. JIM DIXON
GALATIANS 5:22-26
JUNE 11, 2000
In the year 997 AD, Mahmud of Ghazni, the Islamic sultan and Afghan king who was sometimes called Mohammed of Ghazni, ascended the throne, and he began 33 years of conquest. Mahmud of Ghazni built a vast empire extending from the Tigris River east to the Ganges River, and from the Indian Ocean north to the borders of modern-day Russia. He conquered, in those 33 years, 680,000 square miles of the earth’s surface.
In the history of the world, only seven people have conquered more of the earth’s surface than Mahmud of Ghazni. There was, of course, Napoleon Bonaparte, the French general, the self-proclaimed Emperor. He conquered 720,000 square miles of the earth. There was Adolph Hitler, the Nazi dictator, the racially bigoted madman. He conquered 1,360,000 square miles of the earth. There was Attila the Hun, King of the Huns, called the scourge of God. He conquered 1,450,000 square miles of the earth. There was Cyrus the Great, king of the Medo-Persian Empire. He conquered 2,090,000 square miles of the earth. There was Tamerlane, sometimes called Timur. This Islamic Mongol Chieftain conquered 2,145,000 square miles of the earth. Of course, there was Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia. He conquered 2,180,000 square miles of the earth. There was Genghis Khan, the Great Khan, the Mongol warrior. He conquered 4,860,000 square miles of this planet.
These eight men, from Mahmud of Ghazni to Genghis Khan, were all arrogant, and all of them wanted to rule the world. All of them, without exception, failed. The Bible tells us that there will come one more man on the stage of history at the consummation of the age, one more arrogant man who will seek to rule the world. The Bible calls him Antichrist, and he, too, will fail because the Bible tells us this world is not destined to be ruled by the arrogant. This world is destined to be ruled by the meek.
In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” The Greek word for meek is the word “prautes.” This word prautes is the word for the eighth fruit of the Holy Spirit, meekness, gentleness. Jesus Christ wants His people to be meek. He wants His people to be gentle. We need to understand what this means. The word prautes has two very different meanings. We need to understand them both. The first teaching is this. Prautes means “submission to God.” If you would be meek, you must live in submission to God.
You can go to the Denver Zoo, as many of you do. You can see the elephant, the largest land animal on the earth. You can see the rhinoceros, the second largest land animal on the earth. Or you can see the hippopotamus, the third largest land animal on the earth. Of course, the name hippopotamus comes from two Greek words meaning “river horse.” The hippopotamus is not related to the horse. In fact, zoologists tell us, incredibly, that the hippopotamus is related to the pig. But, of course, the largest pig in the world is barely the size of a newborn hippo. A hippo is born under the water, and a hippo nurses under the water. But it’s only when a hippopotamus is fully grown that you see the magnificence of this animal. The hippopotamus is huge and powerful. It grows to weigh 6,000 pounds. Some have been known to grow to 8,000 pounds. They can reach 15 feet in length. Their mouth span is four feet from the top to the bottom of their mouth when they open their mouth. Four feet! Inside the mouth, they have ivory tusks, and these ivory tusks can be two feet long.
Of course, whenever a hippopotamus feels threatened, the hippo flares its teeth, but a hippo never needs to feel threatened because there is not an animal on the earth that will attack an adult hippopotamus because the hippopotamus is so strong and they’re fast. I know they don’t look fast, but when a hippo is out on land, a hippo can run faster than 25 miles per hour, faster than any person in this worship center. They can swim fast, far faster, than a human being because of their powerful legs and their webbed feet. They are strong, and they are powerful, and they are fast.
But a hippopotamus is not very useful to the human race, not much good to man, because you can’t harness a hippopotamus and have the hippopotamus pull a weight. You can’t ride a hippopotamus to work. It doesn’t matter where you live in the world. You can’t take your hippo for a walk. If you call a hippopotamus, they won’t come to you. If they DO come, you’d better get out of the way because a hippopotamus is not tame. A hippopotamus is wild, and you cannot domesticate a hippopotamus. Because you cannot domesticate a hippopotamus, you cannot harness or control its strength and power.
You see, in the ancient biblical and Greek world when you could harness, control an animal’s power, when you could domesticate an animal, the word used to describe that domestication is this Greek word, prautes, meek, tame. We are not animals. I mean it’s secular Darwinism that views human beings as mere animals, but God doesn’t view us as animals. The Bible makes it clear that we are the crown of His creation, and He has breathed into us “nephesh,” the Hebrew word for “soul.” We are created in the Imago Dei, the “image and likeness of God.” We are precious to God. But if we would enter His house, there’s a sense in which we must be domesticated. If we would come into His kingdom, there’s a sense in which we must be meek. Jesus Christ is at work in this world to make His people meek, submissive before Him, obedient to His word.
Many of you have read the book of Daniel, and you’ve read Daniel chapter 2, chapter 3 and chapter 4. Those three chapters deal with Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Babylonian Empire. Secular historians love to write about Nebuchadnezzar because of the greatness of his reign. The Bible tells us that Nebuchadnezzar was arrogant, but God sought to make him meek. God gave this Babylonian king a visionary dream. Nebuchadnezzar, in this visionary dream, saw the future. He saw the future of the Babylonian Empire and its fall. He saw the rising up of the Medo-Persian Empire and the fall of that empire. He looked into the future, and he saw the rising up of the Greek Empire and the fall of the Greek Empire. He looked into the future in this visionary dream, and he saw the rising up of the Roman Empire and the fall of Rome. Then he looked through the portals of time to the distant future, and he saw the consummation. He saw the coming of an eternal kingdom which is the kingdom of heaven.
This visionary dream was given to Nebuchadnezzar in order to make him meek, that he might understand the transitory nature of his glory and his reign, but it did not make him meek. Shortly after receiving this vision, Nebuchadnezzar the Great erected a statue on the Plain of Dura outside the royal city of Babylon. This statue was 90 feet high, laden with gold. Most historians believe it was a statue of Nebuchadnezzar itself. This Babylonian king, in his arrogance, demanded that all people throughout the empire come on a special day and “bend the knee” to this image, bow down and worship this image. On that day, he assembled a great orchestra, but on that day there were three sour notes called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three Jewish men who refused to “bend the knee.” They were friends of Daniel, and Nebuchadnezzar had regard for Daniel. Nevertheless, he could not allow this insolence, so he threw these three Jewish men into the fiery furnace. And you know the story. You know how the angel of the Lord appeared in the fiery furnace and how God protected these three men and rescued them.
King Nebuchadnezzar was impressed. He was impressed. He acknowledged the God of Israel as great, but he would not become meek before him. It was shortly thereafter that Nebuchadnezzar went to the top of his palace. There from his palace roof, he looked out on the royal city of Babylon. He saw the incredible magnificent buildings. He saw the broad boulevards. He saw the Temple of Marduk. He saw the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. He saw the 7-storied Ziggurat. He saw it all, and he said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my own power for my own glory?” He was not particularly meek.
The judgement of God came upon him, but first there was a warning, another visionary dream, wherein this Babylonian king saw a great tree rising to the heavens with beautiful leaf and bearing great fruit. The animals of the earth came and found shelter beneath its wings, beneath its branches. Suddenly in his vision, he saw a holy one, a heavenly being descend, and with power, chop down the tree and hew it to the ground. He did not know the meaning of the vision and so he called on the prophet Daniel. Daniel said, “Oh King, you are the tree. Your empire is this great tree reaching to the heavens but one day, unless you repent, unless you become meek, unless you submit to God, He’s going to destroy your kingdom.” Nebuchadnezzar would not become meek. He would not repent and therefore he was afflicted by God. He was stricken with something very much like lycanthropy. He became like an animal. He began to crawl around on all fours and eat grass like an animal. Even the secular historians record this bizarre period in the life of this Babylonian king because he would not become meek before God.
I don’t know what’s going on in your life. I don’t know the circumstances of your life. I don’t know your ups and downs, your successes and failures. I don’t know your pain or your joy, but I know this. I know God’s at work. He’s at work in your life as He is in mine, and He’s seeking to make you meek. He’s seeking to make me meek. He’s seeking to bring our gifts, our abilities, our power under His control. He wants to harness it for the use of His eternal kingdom. We really can’t enter His kingdom without meekness. We really can’t enter His kingdom without submission. We live in an arrogant world. People are creating their own gods, and people are creating their own values and their own laws. But if you would enter the kingdom of heaven, you must become meek, prautes. You must submit.
You know, I remember when Heather was a little girl and came home from camp. She came home from a Christian camp. She had learned a new song. Heather has always had a great memory, but like all of us, she sometimes will get a word confused. The song that she learned went something like this. “The Lord liveth and blessed be the Rock, and may the God of our salvation be exalted.” But as Heather was singing the song around the house (and she would sing it around the house with great gusto), she would sing “The Lord liveth and blessed be the Rock and may the God of our salvation be exhausted.” I remember sitting down with her and saying, “Now, Heather, I think the word here is exalted instead of exhausted.” Heather just looked at me and she just received it completely. I mean, she didn’t say to me, “Well, I was there, Dad.” She didn’t say to me, “Well I heard it. I heard what they taught, and it IS exhausted.” She was just meek before me. As a little girl, she was often like that, and so was Drew.
I remember going to the movies with Drew. We would be watching the movie, and he would turn to me and say, “Dad, what’s going to happen?” He knew I was there for the first time just like him, but he thought I knew. He honestly thought I knew everything!
Of course, when we taught the kids to swim I would get down in the water. They would stand outside. They were afraid, but when I’d say, “Jump to Daddy.” They were afraid, but they would jump because they were meek. They were meek with regard to Barb and me. Of course, as the years passed, they became less meek. They entered their teenage years. Today, we’re all just great friends, but our Lord Jesus Christ tells us if we would enter the kingdom of heaven, we must become like little children. He didn’t say, “If you would enter the kingdom of heaven, you must become like teenagers.” He didn’t say, “If you would enter the kingdom of heaven, you must become like adults.” He said, “If you would enter the kingdom of heaven, you need to become like little children. You need to come in meekness. Prautes. Submission to God.”
There’s a second meaning to this great word, this great fruit of the Holy Spirit. When it’s used vertically, it means “submission to God.” In the Bible, when this word is used horizontally, it means “humility before people.” In the Septuagint, in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Hebrew words for humble are sometimes rendered by the Greek word for humble, the word “tapeinos” or “tapeinosphren.” On other occasions in the Septuagint, the Hebrew words for humble are rendered by prautes, this word for meek or gentle, because meekness is virtually synonymous with humility.
In Zechariah 9:9, where the prophet prophesies that the Messiah, the King, will come “humble, riding on a donkey,” prophesying Palm Sunday and the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into the holy city. That verse in Zechariah 9:9 is quoted in Matthew 21, and when it’s quoted, the word humble, the Hebrew word “ahnee,” is rendered by the Greek word prautes, meek, because to be meek is to be humble. Oftentimes in the Bible, the word for humble, tapeinos, and the word meek, prautes, are used together because these words are joined. For instance, when Jesus said “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me for I am humble and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” In that verse, Jesus takes the word prautes and the word tapeinos, meek and humble, and he joins them because these concepts are joined. And so, as Christians living on the horizontal, living with other people, we’re called to humility, meekness.
We need to understand what characterizes humility. What does it mean to be humble? Well the Bible tells us that humility is illustrated perfectly and supremely through Jesus Christ. In Philippians, chapter 2, Paul described humility by looking at the incarnation of Christ. Contextually, there is no doubt he’s talking about humility. He said, “Let there be no self-arrogance, no vain glory, but let us live in humility.” Then he says “Have this mind in you, which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be clutched. But He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant being born in the likeness of man. Being found in human form, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even unto death on a cross.”
So when Jesus Christ left heaven and emptied himself, lowered himself and came to earth taking our flesh upon himself, that was humility. He came into our world that He might help us. He lowered himself that He might exalt us and that is the essence of humility. If we would be a humble people, we must leave our worlds every day and go into the worlds of other people. We must become incarnate in their world. We must wear their skin. We must walk in their shoes. We must lower ourselves to exalt them. This is the essence of meekness, the essence of humility, that we would be incarnational.
We tend to isolate ourselves in this culture. Most of us seek isolation. More and more people live in gated communities. People live in homes with security systems. Houses have become enclaves where we find protection from the world, sanctuaries that set us apart from other people. Sometimes we don’t even make the effort to get to know our neighbors. We’re living in our own world. We don’t want to enter the world of other people. Even when we come to church, sometimes we just come, we sit, we leave. We just stay in our own world. We don’t bother to enter the world of other people.
In the Latin Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Greek New Testament, the word prautes, this word meek or gentle, is rendered by the Latin word “tendare” from which we get the English word “tender,” because when you enter another person’s world, you need to come with a tender heart in order that you might understand what they’re feeling, and you might respond to their needs.
I want to tell you a story, and that story concerns a woman named Katie. It’s an old story. I read it years ago. You may have heard it. It’s a true story. Katie was 66 years old when she attended the Philadelphia Church in the city of Chicago, Illinois—the Church of Brotherly Love, the Church of Philadelphia. Katie was 66 years old. Whenever she would come to church, she would usually wear three or four dresses on top of each other. She would just wear three or four dresses, and it looked really weird. She would wear a wig, and it was always kind of a funky wig and it never looked right. I mean she didn’t get it on there right. Usually, it was kind of tilted to one side or the other side. That’s how Katie wore her hair.
Katie was sometimes speaking and gesturing to people who weren’t there. She always brought bags with her. She would have a bag on one arm and a bag on the other arm. The people at the Philadelphia Church called her “Katie, the Bag Lady.” When Katie came to the church on Sunday morning, nobody wanted to sit with her. They didn’t know anything about her. They just knew that she was strange, so they would put a Bible in the pew right next to them or a coat or a purse because they didn’t want the “bag lady” sitting next to them.
The pastor of the church was a man named Dennis Sawyer. He saw Katie there week after week. The Lord convicted him that he needed to enter her world. He needed to become meek, prautes. He needed to lower himself that he might exalt her, help her. So, Dennis Sawyer and his wife invited Katie to come to Thanksgiving dinner at their house. When Katie came, this pastor heard her life story, learned that she was born in Germany. At the age of three, her parents brought her to America. Her father died that year. Katie was reared by her mother who loved her very much.
Katie was pretty much deaf and dumb in those early years. She was mute. She could not speak very well, and she could hear very little. When she was 14 years old, her mother was told that Katie needed surgery because her tongue was literally tied to the bottom of her mouth cavity. She couldn’t free it to use it, but she couldn’t afford the surgery. In her desperate love for her daughter as she would hear her just mumble sounds that made no sense, she took a pair of sewing scissors and she tried to do surgery herself at home. She did the best she could. Of course, there was a lot of bleeding and a long period of healing, but ultimately it helped. Katie was able to speak a little bit better.
When Katie was 33, her mother died. Katie was all alone in the world. People thought she was mentally impaired, so she was institutionalized. She lived in an institution for 33 years, moving from one institution to another. When she just turned 66, they decided to give her hearing aids and they were amazed how she began to improve. Then they gave her tests, and they discovered she was not intellectually impaired. I mean, socially, relationally there was impairment, but not intellectually. So, at age 66, they released Katie and she actually found a job stuffing envelopes and she found her way to the Philadelphia Church. This pastor, Dennis Sawyer, learned all of this that Thanksgiving Day as Katie visited his house.
Well, he invited Katie to come back from time to time, and one day at his house he heard Katie humming a song, singing a song, “I’ll Live for Him Who Died for Me.” He said, “Where did you hear that song?” She said, “My mother used to sing it to me.” He said, “Do you know the meaning of the words?” She said, “I think I do.” He said, “Have you ever given your life to Jesus Christ?” She said, “No, I haven’t.” He said, “Would you like to?” She said, “Yes,” and she invited Jesus to be her Lord and Savior.
It was a few weeks later. They were having a healing service at the Philadelphia Church. A little baby was brought forward. This little baby had been pronounced terminal, had a horrible disease and was not going to live. That’s what the doctor said. And so, they had the elders come to pray over this little baby. The elders surrounded the baby. The congregation was stunned when they saw Katie, the bag lady, walk down front, join the elders and put her hands on this little baby and pray. People thought, “Who does she think she is?” They were amazed that this baby miraculously recovered. It was a supernatural healing.
In subsequent months, they had subsequent healing services. It seemed like whenever Katie prayed over somebody, God had a special ear for her prayers. Inevitably when Katie laid hands on somebody and prayed for them, God healed them. Pretty soon, everybody in the Philadelphia Church wanted to sit with Katie. Nobody put a purse down in the pew next to them anymore. No more coats put there. No more Bibles. They all wanted to sit next to Katie. More and more, people entered Katie’s world. Dennis Sawyer had Katie come and share with the congregation one Sunday, and she cried. She thanked them for being her friend. She said, “I am learning to speak better now because, for the first time, people are speaking to me.” Isn’t that incredible? “I’m learning to speak better now because, for the first time, people are speaking to me.”
Meekness. People had begun to enter her world. Everyone in the world needs that. This is the call of Christ upon us, that we would leave our world and become incarnate in somebody else’s world, wear their skin, walk in their shoes. This is what it means to be meek and gentle, to enter another person’s world, to help them.
So, what does meekness mean? On the vertical, it means submission to God. We can’t enter the kingdom of heaven unless we come like little children. On the horizontal, it means humility, to enter another person’s world with a tender heart. Let’s close with a word of prayer.