An
internet ad’ showed a T-shirt with this message emblazoned
on the front: "Sometimes I wish I was an octopus so I could slap eight
people at the same time." We live in a rough and tumble world. There seems
to be little if any gentleness. Political leaders at the highest levels of our
federal government chew each other up with unkind words and irresponsible
speech designed to fan political flames among voters. Bullies do their damage
in our schools. Social media is saturated with much that is, rather than gentle
and civil, actually very anti-social! Prime-time TV programming is replete with
violence, both physical and verbal. Daily headlines remind us that at every
level of human society and relationships, our world can be a mean, harsh,
brutal, bruising, revengeful, place.
God’s people are called to be different – but sadly,
sometimes aren’t. Like the wag who said, "Some people are kind, polite and
sweet-spirited, until you try to sit in their pews." Some preachers spout
verbal violence while claiming to preach a gospel of peace. Be that as it may,
Christians follow One who was "gentle and lowly in heart" (Matthew
11:29). Jesus Christ could be bold and aggressive when the situation called
for it. Read Matthew 23 or see Him turning over money-changers’ tables
and chasing animals and hypocritical and irreverent humans out of God’s temple
with a whip in John 2:14-16! The Lord was meek but never weak. His
gentle hands held little children and reached out with a tender touch to heal
lepers most people avoided and never dared to touch. Jesus never dismissed sin
but was always gentle in dealing with sincere sinners who were open to God –
even with a woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8:1ff) or a
Samaritan woman who had had five husbands and was living with a man who was not
her husband when Jesus encountered her (John 4:1ff)! Gentleness was a
great need when the Lord walked among people. And gentleness is a dire need
today. The Bible calls on God’s people to see to it the church is a gentle
place. "Gentleness" is included in "the fruit of the
Spirit" along with love, joy, peace and other qualities that build and
strengthen human relationships (Galatians 5:22-23). Gentleness is
developed in every Christian who truly "walks in" and is "led
by" the Spirit (5:16, 18). The apostle Paul declares that a
bishop / elder must not be "violent"... but gentle, not quarreler" (1 Timothy 3:3). Elders are to be "gentle-men!"
Preachers (and really, all Christians) are directed to "avoid foolish
and ignorant disputes" and the strife that springs from them. Instead,
"a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to
teach, in humility correcting those who are in opposition ..." (2 Timothy
2:23-25a). Gentle with opponents? Who does that? Christians are "to
speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all
men" (Titus 2:2). Peter said "a gentle and quiet spirit" is
"very precious in the sight of God" (1 Peter 3:4). Many people
are harsh, hard, and hostile in the way they speak to and about others. But our
gentle Savior continues to call – whether you are a shepherd of God’s people or
one of the sheep, God desires that you be gentle as you deal with others inside
and outside the church. God help His church be a gentle place in a gruff world.
– Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN
No comments:
Post a Comment