What is meekness?
To be meek is to be gentle, humble, quiet, and calm, to take what comes, to submit to sorrows and injustices, to trust fully and completely in God, who is a righteous judge and rewarder. It is the opposite of being hot-tempered and impetuous, angry and irritable, impatient and anxious; the opposite of quarreling and bickering, going on strike and rebelling, the opposite of taking one’s neighbor to court.
On account of Jesus Christ, those who are meek have given up all their rights. If someone scolds them, they remain silent; if they are treated unjustly, they don’t make a fuss. They do not demand their rights. In every single word, in every single gesture, it becomes clear that they do not belong to the earth. And yet it is about such as these that Jesus says they shall inherit the earth! Those who now have taken possession of the earth by violence and injustice will lose it, while those who gave up the earth entirely, and all the things that are in the world, those who humbled themselves all the way to the cross, they shall inherit the earth.
Moses – a great example in meekness
During the journey through the wilderness, all those who had suffered injustice came and voiced their distress to Moses. Moses listened to all these complaints. So whenever someone did evil to him personally, Moses probably thought: if I say anything in protest, I will only become like that person. If I also begin to complain, I am no better than the others. So he kept silent. It is written that he was the humblest and meekest man on earth. Num. 12:3. The one who is meek is placed as a judge or prince over the people. They are the ones who inherit the earth, not those who make the most noise to assert their rights and who get hold of as much of the earthly as possible.
Meekness is written about in connection with the Lord being at hand. When the Judge of all, with eyes like a flame of fire, draws near—meekness comes instantly. Then all quarreling, fault-finding, and being wise in yourself cease. And meekness is precious both in the eyes of God, and in the eyes of all spiritual, wise, and godly people.
Take note, it is when it comes to ourselves, our own honor and gain, that we are to show meekness—but not when we are to defend the truth of the gospel, or when we are to save the sheep and the lambs from the wolf. Then we must fight like men on the day of battle.
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References
Johan Oscar Smith. Summary of a Bible Study Held in Oslo, December 28, 1921. Skj. Sk. Dec. 1922.
Elias Aslaksen. Bible Studies in the Gospel of Matthew. Published as a series in Hidden Treasures between 1936 and 1941.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship.
