Fruit Of The Spirit - Gentleness

Fruit of the Spirit - Gentleness

Galatians 5:22-23

May 27, 2018

VIDEO of a fight at Wisconsin Dells Water park this past Mothers Day. Found on youtube.

Sometimes you have to laugh, because if you don’t you’re certainly going to cry! That was a scene from the Wisconsin Dells this past Mother’s Day. So, what did you do on Mother’s Day? I bailed my family out of jail.

Why did this fight occur? Like any good fight at a crowded indoor water park, someone took a lounge chair from another person’s table and it was on. Not only did the two families fight it out, but other families got involved as well.

One other story about family love on Mother’s Day - - was the story about the wife of pro golfer, Lucas Glover. Glover’s wife got into a fist fight with his mother. That’s right with the mother in law. Yup, I wonder what their Mother’s Day dinner looked like? Why did they get into a fight, where the mother was bloodied?

According to the arrest report, Glover told the police that his wife yells at him, stating he’s a "loser" and other choice words, when he plays poorly in a tournament. Earlier in the day, Glover missed the 54-hole cut at the Players Championship and only earned a check for $21,000. She threatens to move out and take the kids with her. His mother was defending him and the two got into it. So far this year, he’s sadly earned just over $750k, and slightly over $20M in his career. Yup, he’s a loser!

Well, I thought I would show you what we are not supposed to be like. We are on our 8th week of looking at the Fruit of the Spirit. If you remember, Paul tells us in Galatians 5:22-23 ~

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23 GENTLENESS, self-control; against such things there is no law.

This week we're looking at gentleness. Now, if many of us were to be honest, we might think - “really, Paul, do you know what happens to people who are described as GENTLE?”

They get walked over, stepped on, spit out, laughed at! They are the brunt of jokes about soft Christians. I don’t want any part of that. Maybe I’ll show faithfulness, and try to be patient, and be loving, but gentleness, NOPE, give that to that golfers wife, she needs it more than me.

We really struggle when we hear that word. We don’t like the thought of being gentle out in the world. The world is ruthless and we’re told to turn the other cheek and be gentle. That sounds like a prescription for disaster. Maybe at home with your family, you can be gentle, kind and good. But when I’m at work and dealing with those clowns and customers, gentle? Never!!

When you look up the word gentleness in the dictionary, it’s no wonder we avoid it like the flu. We hear words like ~

kindly; amiable; mild: a gentle wind; easily handled or managed; to mollify; calm; pacify.

If we were to be honest, most people, especially men, will run from that description. We hear words like mild, soft, delicate. It gives us a sense of being submissive and overly passive. We use those words for the soap and lotions we use. Most of us don’t want to really be described in that image.

When we look at this list of 9 character traits, virtues God wants us to live by, GENTLENESS is one of them. So, if it’s important to God, it must be important to us. Part of the issue when we hear these phrases is that we don’t really understand what the word means.

So, as we’ve been doing, what does the word really mean? If we looked at the Greek word, what was Paul trying to tell us?

The word which is used in the KJV of the Bible is meekness. And we usually associate meekness with weakness.

But that’s not what meekness or gentleness means.

The word literally means “possessing and demonstrating a gentle strength which expresses power with reserve and gentleness.

For the Christ follower, meekness (or gentle-force) is attained through the Lord’s inspiration, direction and empowerment. It’s a divinely - balanced virtue that can only operate through faith.

Biblical meekness is not weakness but refers to exercising God's strength under His control. So, that’s a biblical understanding of gentleness.

In one of his books, Pastor and author, Charles Swindoll wrote ~

In our rough and rugged individualism, we think of gentleness as weakness — being soft and virtually spineless. But that is not so. Gentleness includes such enviable qualities as having strength under control, being calm and peaceful when surrounded by a heated atmosphere, emitting a soothing effect on those who may be angry or otherwise beside themselves, and possessing tact and gracious courtesy that causes others to retain their self esteem and dignity.