gentlenessfruit

The Fruit of Gentleness

©David Kralik Ministries, Inc. 2003
Email: matthewfivesix@hotmail.com

We are continuing in our series on the fruit of the Holy Spirit and what will we find as we examine this aspect labeled gentleness.

In talking about the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we are talking about a singular fruit. We are not talking about a basket of differing kinds of fruit. We are talking about the one multi-faceted Holy Spirit of God who manifests himself in multi-faceted fashion in our lives.

It’s also important for us to understand that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is what the Lord Jesus is primarily looking for in our lives. Jesus talked about the fruit of the Spirit in John 15. He made it plain that without him we could do nothing of any spiritual or eternal benefit. Fruit is what he wants to see in our lives. In his parable of the sower, he spoke of seed bringing forth thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold. Jesus wants us to bear much fruit.

We don’t want to confuse the fruit (singular) of the Spirit with the gifts (plural) of the Holy Spirit. The gifts have an important place in the Body of Christ and should not be neglected. Much needful ministry is missed because of the neglect of those who diminish the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the church today. There is though an inherent danger associated with the gifts of the Spirit. It seems all too often that those who operate in spiritual gifts develop a tendency toward selfishness and pride and these elements can be devastating to the greater work of the ministry. When a person is filled with the fruit of the Spirit there is no room left for the operation of anything that produces the works of the flesh.

Gentleness. When we consult those who are more familiar with the original language of the New Testament than most of us will ever be we find here a fruit that emits an aroma of benignity and kindness. We find a tendency toward being conciliatory to others. By nature of being benign, no harm is done to others. If you are reading one of the more modern translations of the Scriptures, you’ll see that modern translators translated the original Greek word used here to say kindness.

To better understand gentleness as an aspect of the fruit of the Holy Spirit we need to do some Scripture mining.

The Apostle Paul was an extremely gifted evangelist. He was anointed with a powerful anointing to preach the Gospel and establish churches in the face of great political and religious hostility toward the work of Christ. Here I’ll dare to say aloud what others fear to whisper. We can learn a lot from Paul about how to conduct ourselves. It would do us all a wealth of good to go back to the Bible to find our role models instead of looking for them on the glamorous gilded and lighted stages of Christendom that have been built by man in the closing hours of the last day.

Consider what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 1:1-8.

“For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain: But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile."

But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.”

It is in a world filled with both spiritual and natural hostility that we find ourselves called to proclaim the Gospel and we find in the example of Paul that gentleness is the mode of transport for the Gospel in our lives. The New International Version renders verse 8, “but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.” Paul refused to allow his calling as a minister and his spiritual gifting to create a personal platform of self-exaltation.

A relevant example from modernity came across the cable just this morning. A noted television minister was teaching in his large center on the West Coast. In the middle of his televised teaching, he stopped to scold someone in his service telling the person, “Open your Bible in front of you and at least look like you’re reading it. I find it very distracting to have someone sitting in the front row not paying attention.” Does this resemble the nature of a nursing mother caring for one of her children? Of course it doesn’t.

Our enemy has been quite successful in dealing the Kingdom of God numerous dastardly blows in the past several decades. None, from the pulpit to the door, have been overlooked by his schemes. We are, without a doubt, living in an age where the grace of God MUST cover a multitude of sins. Should it not, the Church, regardless of its denominational name or ecclesiastical structure, will have to shut down a lot of churches for lack of leaders that meet the guidelines for qualification laid out by Paul. And what do we find in the qualification mix for leaders?

Consider 1 Timothy 3:1-3.

“This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous”.

Also consider 2 Timothy 2:24.

“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves”.

Yes. God does have high expectations of all of us. Because his expectations are high, some are trying to rewrite the Book to delete or water down the harsh and pointed places in Scripture. But the truth will always remain that we are sinners that fall short of the glory of God. We fail. All of us fail God in one way or another. A point being made here in these Scriptures is that gentleness is just as important as any other positive character trait. It’s sad that there are denominations that refuse to qualify a person for leadership because they fail to measure up to their denominational interpretation of certain points found in Paul’s list of qualifications but never think twice about the gentleness quotient.

Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. There are Biblical standards that will never change and we must ever be endeavoring toward the standards of God’s righteous economy. We must, however, realize that the world, the world from which believers are born-again, is not morally or spiritually perfect. At best, those of us who are born-again will ever be on the road toward the goal. The Church is not social club for the morally and spiritually elite It is a place of hope and healing for sinners who are on the road toward wholeness in Jesus Christ.

Where we’ve been and what we’ve done is not the most critical issue. Where we are and where we are heading is. The road that we are traveling needs to be paved with the fruit of gentleness and our emphasis needs to be upon restoration and reconciliation rather than upon belittling and hindering people from walking in their holy calling. (See Galatians 6:1-2)

We mine another golden nugget of truth from Titus 3:1-2. Paul writes “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.”

Titus contains a lot of the same information concerning standards for leaders. It also reaches into the pews where most of us are. Gentleness is not only a trait desirable in leaders, it is also something that is desirable in the lives of every saint born into the Kingdom of God.

There’s one more vein that we need to explore as we mine the Scriptures concerning the fruit of gentleness. We enter it by way of the Book of James. James writes, “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” James 3:13-17

The Lord desires that our lifestyles be those that are filled with works of meekness and wisdom. In reading this passage from James, and from living life in the midst of imperfect people, it’s apparent that much hardship and heartache comes when people refuse to walk in the ways laid out by God. It must also be said here that meekness is not weakness. Far from it Jesus was meek and he was anything but weak. According to James, gentleness is a commodity that is inherent in the wisdom of God.

We have our individual callings in the Lord. Our individual callings are designed to operate within the context of the collective Body of Christ. Our great challenge is to walk in a worthy manner within our calling and to achieve this in the greater Body we must be continually cultivating the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Otherwise our individual works will take on selfish and divisive natures that do more to fracture and harm the Body than to insure the unity of the Spirit that comes as part of the peace of God. (See Ephesians 4:1-3)

Our aim then should be for maturity in the unity of the faith. May the Spirit of God fill us with his fruit as we put on the new man that is created in the righteousness and holiness of God.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
Galatians 5:22-23