4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
In His sermon on the mount Jesus is describing His kingdom - it is the spiritual description of the kingdom of the King of Kings. And then He starts off by offering the people blessedness - but it's not at all what they're expecting. In fact, every single characteristic is pretty much the opposite of society today, isn't it?
From John MacArthur's Bible Commentary.....
Mourning over sin means having the godly sorrow that produces repentance leading to salvation without regret (2 Corinthians 7:10). The "comfort" is the comfort of forgiveness and salvation (cf Isaiah 40:1,2).
Meekness is the opposite of being out of control. It is not weakness, but rather supreme self-control empowered by the Spirit (Galatians 5:23).
In his sermon, Happy are the Meek, MacArthur adds....
Now let's talk about meek. It's different from broken in Spirit. Let me show you how. The root word is the same idea, different word, same idea. But let me show you. In fact, some place in the Bible these two words could be used interchangeably, but there's a beautiful distinction made here. Now watch. "Broken in spirit" centers on my sinfulness, okay? Verse 3, "Broken in spirit" centers on my sinfulness. "Meekness" centers on God's holiness. Two sides of the same thing. Broken in spirit because I'm a sinner and meek because God is so holy by comparison. Two sides of the same thing.
Look at it another way, broken in spirit is negative and it results in mourning. Meekness is positive and it results in seeking righteousness. See? It's just the other side of this thing. That's be beauty of the sequence. There's a progression here. First of all, there is this brokenness, this tremendous sense of sinfulness and it's negative and it results in mourning. And then all of a sudden you begin to see the other side of it. You begin to see a holy God, and that's meekness. And then you begin to hunger after His holiness.
Isn't that beautiful? When we recognize our spiritual bankruptcy and then mourn over our sin which leads to repentance, then we recognize and hunger after His holiness.
MacArthur defines meek as mild, gentle, soft, patient, kind, quiet, willing, submissive...It's power under control. It's Ephesians 4:26, "It's okay to be angry, but don't sin."
In other words, let it be a righteous anger, a controlled anger for God's purposes. Don't be angry because you've been offended, be angry because God has.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 5:6-7
1 comment:
Excellent. I never really thought too much about what "meek" means.
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