FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
MEEKNESS
DR. JIM DIXON
AUGUST 17, 1986
GALATIANS 5:22-25, NUMBERS 12:1-16
He was a man above men, a titan, a person of superhuman size and strength. That’s how Michelangelo portrayed him when he carved him in stone. The greatest leader in the history of Israel. He led the people of Israel out of bondage. He stood against the Pharaoh of all Egypt. He struck down the oppressor. He parted the Red Sea. In righteous indignation, he once killed an Egyptian who was abusing a slave. In anger and rage, he struck twice the supernatural rock at Meribah, bringing water to thirsty people. To him alone, God spoke face-to-face. A man of power, a man of passion, he was called Moses, and of him, incredibly, the Bible says, “he was the meekest man in all the earth.” The eighth Fruit of the Spirit, Meekness. What does it mean to be meek?
Biblically it means two things. First of all, meekness is humility towards God. The Greek word for humility is the word “tapeinos,” it literally means “low-lying mind” and it was used to describe a person who was willing to place himself or herself beneath other people. Now the word for meekness is the word is “praytis” and it refers to a special kind of humility. It refers to humility towards God. A person who is willing to place himself or herself beneath God. A person who is willing to trust God’s will. A person who is willing to submit to God’s authority and sovereignty. A person who is actually willing to accept God’s control. “Clay in the hands of the Potter,” A person who is willing to be domesticated by God. Meekness.
When I was growing up, I wanted to be… I thought I was going to be a zoologist—I loved animals. I still love animals. I’ve been to the Denver Zoo many times and I’m sure that I’ll be going to the Denver Zoo many more times. I can sit and watch animals for hours on end, and my favorite animal is the hippopotamus. This is kind of embarrassing to admit, but I can sit and watch a hippopotamus for longer than an hour. Every movement fascinates me. Now, a hippopotamus isn’t called a hippo because of the size of its hips. The word hippopotamus comes from two Greek words, meaning “water horse.” The hippopotamus is not related to the horse, it’s related to the pig, but the largest of all pigs is barely the size of a baby hippopotamus. Now a hippopotamus is born underwater, and a hippopotamus is nursed underwater, but it’s only when a hippopotamus is fully grown that we realize how incredible the hippopotamus is.
The second largest of all land animals—second only to the elephant larger even than the rhinoceros. A full-grown hippopotamus is capable of weighing as much as 8,000 pounds and it’s 15 feet long, and when it opens its mouth, the mouth span is as great as four feet, and inside the hippopotamus mouth, there are tusks made of ivory, and some of these tusks are as long as two feet. When the hippopotamus sees an enemy, it flares its tusk, though it doesn’t need to because the hippopotamus has no enemy. There is not an animal on the earth that will attack an adult hippopotamus. Not even a lion. A hippopotamus is powerful, but it is also fast. It is able to run 25 miles an hour faster than any of us in this room. As fast as the fastest human being on the earth and it is able to swim with great speed—far faster than any human being can swim with its powerful legs and its webbed feet. It has great power on land, and it has great power in the water. However, there’s one problem with the hippopotamus, and that is that you cannot harness that power. You cannot control it. The hippopotamus is wild, and it cannot be domesticated, and for this reason, even though the tusks are used for ivory and the meat is sometimes used for food, basically, mankind has little use for the hippopotamus simply because it cannot be domesticated.
Now, there’s an analogy here, believe it or not. God wants us to understand that people who will not be domesticated by him are of no use to him. People who are not willing to be trained by Him, people who will not submit to His authority, people who will not accept His rule— they are of no use to him, and that is why our Lord Jesus once said, “He who hears my words and does not do them is a fool.”
The word “praytis,” the word for meekness was used to describe an animal that had been domesticated. It was used to describe an animal that had been tamed. The animal was just as strong as ever it had been, but now that strength was controlled, and it was able to be used for a purpose that was meaningful. God wants us to know that meekness is power under control. A person who is truly meek, “praytis” is a person who has humbled himself or herself before God. And God places that strength that has always been there under control, under his control, and he adds his strength to that person’s life.
You see, Moses was not only the meekest person on all of the earth, he was the most powerful person in all the earth because he humbled himself before God, but God’s power also flowed through him.
Now, we are not animals, and God would not treat us as animals. We are children—Children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and he would train us as children. Moses humbled himself like a child before God. Moses did what God wanted him to do and he went where God wanted him to go, and he accepted whatever God gave him. Moses didn’t want to return to Egypt. Moses didn’t want to stand against Pharaoh. Moses didn’t want to lead a complaining people for 40 years of wilderness wandering, but he did these things because he was “clay in the hands of the potter.” The meekest man in all the earth, and the power of God was in him, and the power of God worked through him. And the power of God will work through you and through me if we would humble ourselves before him and become as little children.
Children trust their parents. When Heather came home from camp a week ago, her first camp, she had learned a song at camp. The words of which went something like, “The Lord liveth and blessed be the rock. May the God of my salvation be exalted.” Now Heather has a pretty good memory, but every once in a while, like all of us, she gets her words confused, and I heard her singing the song around the house and she was saying, “The Lord liveth and blessed be the rock. May the God of our salvation be exhausted.” Now we explained to Heather that the word was not ‘exhausted,’ but it was ‘exalted,’ and Heather didn’t have any problem accepting that. In fact, when we correct Heather, she receives it very well because she just assumes that we’re right, right? She’s meek before us.
When we go to a movie, sometimes if the movie’s exciting and there’s a lot of suspense and it’s a little bit scary, Drew will lean over me and say, “What’s going to happen?” Now, we’re both at the movie for the very first time, but Drew just assumes that I know what’s going to happen because I’m Dad, and Drew might turn over and he might say, “Is this person going to live? or “is it going to have a good ending?” and he thinks, I know because I’m Dad, and he’s me before him. When we ask the kids to go to bed, they go to bed, usually. When we tell them to get up, they get up. When we tell them to clean their room, they clean their room, though not always promptly. They eat what we give them to eat. They wear what we tell them to wear. They are meek before us—literally “clay in the hands of a potter,” and the Bible says, the Lord Jesus says, “Unless you’re willing to become like children before God, you’ll never enter. The kingdom of heaven.”
Job was meek before God, and that’s why Job was able to say, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” He was meek before God, and that’s why Job was able to say,” Though he slays me, yet will I trust in him?” Mary was meek before God, and that’s why Mary was able to say,” Behold, I am the bondservant of the Lord. Be it done to me in accordance with I will.” The Bible says,” Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and in due time, you will be exalted.” If you want power in your life, if you want strength under control, humble yourself under the hand of God. That is the meaning of meekness.
Now, there’s a second meaning of meekness in the scriptures, and this is our second and final teaching this morning. This word “praytis” also means gentleness towards people. Humility before God, but gentleness towards people.
In 1851 in the town of Griffin, Georgia, Gentle John was born. That’s what the people called him. He was born into a wealthy and prominent family and was reared in a stately house, and he was taught courtly manners and proper bearing. John’s father had been a confederate army officer and he was a rugged man and he wanted John to be like that, but John just wasn’t cut out of that kind of cloth. John was shy and he was kind of withdrawn and he was soft-spoken, and he hated violence, and that’s why they called him Gentle John. When he was 17 years old, he was fully grown. A 5’10 ectomorph, he was incredibly skinny. He believed it took two people to make a fight. Therefore, he believed he would never be in one, but one day, a guy picked a fight with John and John didn’t resist. He didn’t fight back, but the guy went ahead and beat him up anyway. John’s dad thought, “What am I going to do with his gentle son?” John’s dad sent him, in 1869, to Baltimore to a dental school. He thought it might be good for John to get away, and John proved to be a good student.
In 1871, John graduated from that dental school, and he moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he began his postgraduate internship with a well-known dentist in Atlanta. But in 1873, when John was still only 22 years of age, he became homesick, and he returned to Griffin. There on the corner of Coronado and State Street, John opened a little dental office and John thought he would remain there all the days of his life, but later that year, the doctor told John that he was dying. He had tuberculosis. John said, “How long do I have to live?” The doctor said he didn’t know, but perhaps if he moved to a drier climate, he could add a year or two to his life, and so John moved to Dallas. It’s not known what happened to John in Dallas. It’s believed that he was told that he had to carry a gun because Dallas was a wild western town, so John carried a gun, and he knew how to use it because his father had taught him. In 1875 in a dispute over a dental bill, John took out his .45 and he shot a man. His life was never going to be the same. He lost his dental practice.
John died 14 years later of tuberculosis, but in those 14 years, John became famous, or perhaps infamous. He became well-known as an alcoholic and as a gambler. But most of all, John became known as a gunfighter, one of the most famous gunfighters in the Old West. When John died, he had 30 notches on his gun, and Marshall Wyatt Earp said of John that he was the “fiercest, the quickest, the deadliest man with a six-shooter he’d ever seen,” and by now I’m sure most of you know who John was. His full name was John Henry Holliday, and history refers to him as Doc Holiday.
What happened to Gentle John? It’s not known whether it was tuberculosis or maybe the town of Dallas, or maybe he just got tired of being called gentle and he didn’t want to be gentle anymore. There’s a kind of stigma attached to the word gentle, an implication of weakness. When a man is called gentle, it sometimes implies that he is perhaps effeminate. When a woman is called gentle, it sometimes implies that she is perhaps excessively compliant. In the Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ was called gentle, and He was called meek, but He was not weak. He was a carpenter, a leader of people. Men and women were drawn to Him, both the poor and the affluent, and rugged men. Fishermen left their trade. They left their nets to follow Him. He spoke with power, and He was capable of anger and righteous indignation. He called the Pharisees a brood of vipers, and He overturned the tables of the money changers. In the temple. He drove them out, and yet He was gentle. Whatever gentle means, it does not mean weak.
When I was growing up, I always remember seeing a picture of Jesus. He’s wearing a white robe and He had a real tranquil face, almost effeminate. Soft hands, cuddling a wooly lamb. Gentle Jesus is meek and mild, but that’s not really what gentle means. The word gentle comes from a French word, meaning noble or royal. Initially the word gentle meant the same as the word genteel, and they had the same root, and gentle came to mean “conduct befitting royalty.” It came to refer to behavior that was appropriate for nobility, and thus we get the word, “gentlemen” and in this sense, the word gentle is an accurate translation of the Greek word “praytis,” meekness because the Bible says that “all Christians are called to be meek,” “praytis” and Christians are royalty. We are children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, who is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and we are royal offspring with an eternal inheritance, a heavenly one, a royal one, and we are called to behave ourselves like royalty.
This word “praytis” was used of a person, a Christian, who treated other people with respect and treated other people with dignity. It was used of a person who treated other people with grace and mercy because as Christians, we know that our King has had grace on us. He’s had mercy toward us. This word “praytis” meek, gentle, was used of a person who could live in harmonies with other people, was used of a person who was able to get along with other people and overlook those minor differences, was used of a person who was loving and tolerant. A person who could live in unity with others. And the Bible tells us that the body of Christ just can’t exist—it can’t function as it was meant to function without this gentleness, This church can’t continue to function unless we treat each other meekly with respect and dignity as befitting of nobility.
You know, there’s an animal called the platypus. This is kind of “animal week.” The platypus is a real strange animal. I don’t know how many you’ve ever seen one. The platypus lives in Australia and the little island of Tasmania. The platypus looks like a duck. It has a duck’s bill, and it has webbed feet, and it sometimes is called the ‘duck-billed platypus,’ but of course, the platypus is not a duck. Some people think the platypus looks like a beaver because the platypus has a beaver’s body. It’s very furry and it has a flat tail just like a beaver. But of course, the platypus is not a beaver. And the platypus has venomous hind leg spurs with which it strikes like a snake, but the platypus, of course, is not a snake, It walks with a lizard-like gait and lays leathery eggs like a reptile, but, of course, the platypus is not a reptile. It nurses, it’s young like a mammal, and indeed the platypus is a mammal, but not a normal one.
I like to think that God expressed his sense of humor somewhat when he made the platypus. He kind of combined a whole bunch of different animals into one animal, and yet it’s able to function like one animal. And here is an illustration of the body of Christ—because we are so diverse. We are all so different. The body of Christ includes Baptists, and Methodists, and Lutherans, and Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Catholics. The body of Christ includes Calvinists who stress the sovereignty of God and Armenians who stress the freedom of man. In the body of Christ, there are various views of baptism and the mode of baptism. Some people baptize infants, and some Christians only believe in baptizing adults and some baptize through sprinkling and some through immersion. In the body of Christ, there are some people who are evangelicals and there are dispensationalists, and there are charismatics, and Pentecostals. In the body of Christ. Some people are economically poor, and some people are affluent. There are all socioeconomic strata of society represented in the body of Christ. Some are liberal. Some are conservatives. Some are Republican. Some are Democrats, and most of these diversities are represented in this body, this church, and it’s impossible for us to get along unless, truly, we are meek and genteel in our behavior towards each other.
The first passage of scripture, the first chapter of scripture I ever memorized was 13 years ago, and that was Romans, chapter 12, and in conclusion, I would like to share a portion of that chapter. I don’t think there’s any chapter in the Bible that describes more beautifully the Christian life and the way we’re called to live and what it means to be meek, what it means to be humble before God, and gentle towards others, and so I will share with you this portion of his chapter and the conclusion.
Paul says, “I bid each one of you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the major of faith which God has assigned you for, as in one body, there are many members and all the members do not have the same function so we, though many are one body of in Christ, an individually members of one another, having gifts which differ. According to the grace given us, let us use them. If prophecy and proportion to our faith if service in our serving, he teaches in his teaching, he exhorts in his exhortation, and he contributes with liberality, he who gives aid with zeal, he performs acts of mercy with cheerfulness, let love be genuine. Hate what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honors. Never lag in zeal. Be aglow with the spirit and serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope. Be patient and tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty but associate with a lowly. Never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil but take thought of what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, insofar as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all and Beloved, never avenge yourselves. But leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. No, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him to drink. In so doing, you will heat burning poles upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.”
You see that passage of scripture describes a person who has been domesticated by Jesus Christ, “Clay in the hands of the Potter” and it describes a person who is truly genteel, meek in the treatment of others. We’re called to meekness and we are given this promise. The meek shall inherit the earth. Let’s pray.