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Unlocking Meekness: How to Embrace This Powerful Trait
This week's Word of the Week is "meekness," a character trait exemplified by Jesus and essential for Christians seeking to grow in their faith. Pastor Josh Massaro emphasizes that meekness is often misunderstood; it does not equate to weakness but rather embodies strength under control, humility, and selflessness. Throughout the podcast, he explores biblical passages that highlight the significance of meekness, including Jesus' teachings in Matthew and the encouragement found in the book of James. Listeners are reminded that meekness is a vital aspect of living out one’s faith and responding to others with gentleness and respect. Join Pastor Josh as he guides us through understanding and applying this transformative attribute in our daily lives.
The episode presents a thought-provoking exploration of meekness, a term often overlooked in discussions of character traits. Pastor Josh Massaro begins by defining meekness as a quality of strength combined with humility, drawing from biblical passages that showcase Jesus as the epitome of this trait. With reference to Matthew 11:29, he emphasizes the importance of learning from Christ, who described Himself as meek and lowly in heart. This sets the stage for a deeper understanding of what it means to embody meekness in everyday life, particularly within the context of Christian discipleship.
Throughout the episode, Pastor Josh highlights the transformative power of meekness, noting that it is not a sign of weakness but rather a deliberate choice to respond to life's challenges with grace and self-control. He contrasts societal views that often celebrate assertiveness with a biblical perspective that elevates meekness as a virtue. Using examples from scripture, including the Beatitudes and teachings from the book of James, he illustrates how meekness can manifest in various interactions, emphasizing that it is essential for loving others and receiving God’s Word.
In concluding remarks, Pastor Josh encourages listeners to actively pursue meekness as part of their spiritual journey, framing it as a character trait that is cultivated through reliance on God. He challenges them to reflect on how meekness can enhance their witness as Christians, promoting a lifestyle marked by humility and gentleness. This episode serves not only as a theological exploration but also as a practical guide for living out the gospel in a manner that honors Christ and fosters genuine connections with others.
Takeaways:
- Meekness is not weakness; it is strength under control and humility in spirit.
- As Christians, we are called to emulate Christ's meekness in our daily lives.
- Receiving God's Word with meekness allows for growth and transformation in our faith.
- Meekness involves humility towards God, His Word, and interactions with others.
- The Bible emphasizes that blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
- Meekness should be a defining characteristic of Christians as they grow spiritually.
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
Pastor Josh:In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical words that have great significance to our faith.
Pastor Josh:The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are familiar with in scripture.
Pastor Josh:So come along with me, let's study the Word of the week.
Pastor Josh:Pastor Josh here.
Pastor Josh:The word of the Week is meek.
Pastor Josh:The last few sessions we've been talking about the character traits of God.
Pastor Josh:We've been talking about his non communicable attributes, meaning attributes that only he holds.
Pastor Josh:We talked about omnipresence, omnipotence, all of those different things, omniscience, things that only God holds in his perfect nature.
Pastor Josh:But we do know that God holds certain attributes that as Christians, we can emulate in our lives, that we can be transformed into, not perfectly like him in his holiness, but certainly to the degree of growth in the sanctification process.
Pastor Josh:And so one of the things that we're going to be talking about today is the character trait of meekness.
Pastor Josh:Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 11, verse 29, take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
Pastor Josh:And so the challenge is as a believer and as a disciple is to learn about the truth of Jesus, not just about what he says, but how he lives.
Pastor Josh:He says, learn of me.
Pastor Josh:And that's really the definition of a disciple is a learner, someone who can learn from somebody else.
Pastor Josh:And so as disciples of Christ, we learn from Him.
Pastor Josh:And he says, learn of Me, for I am meek.
Pastor Josh:There's our Word and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Pastor Josh:And so the Lord tells us right here in this passage that we are to learn about his meekness.
Pastor Josh:Now, what is meekness?
Pastor Josh:We have to understand that definition before we can understand how we can live that out in our lives.
Pastor Josh:Meekness does not mean weakness.
Pastor Josh:Sometimes it's equated with that word.
Pastor Josh:So meek is not weak.
Pastor Josh:Literally, it means to be mild, gentle of spirit.
Pastor Josh:Really you could wrap it up in humility.
Pastor Josh:It's also related to the idea of self control, allowing the Spirit to control us.
Pastor Josh:Some scholars have called it this strength under control.
Pastor Josh:We know that God is all powerful.
Pastor Josh:We know that Jesus as God is all powerful, but yet he was completely meek.
Pastor Josh:And so meekness does not mean weakness.
Pastor Josh:So as a Christian, what does that look like for us?
Pastor Josh:It means that we do have the power of God in our lives.
Pastor Josh:We do have the strength and the confidence of the power of God in our life, but yet we have the control and we have the humility to be able to harness that and use it for the goodness of God.
Pastor Josh:Matthew chapter 5 tells us something very interesting.
Pastor Josh:This is Jesus speaking to the folks there on the Sermon on the Mount, some of the most well known preaching ever, if not the most well known preaching ever.
Pastor Josh:And In Matthew chapter 5, verse 5, he says, Blessed are the meek.
Pastor Josh:Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Pastor Josh:So what the Lord is telling us is that meekness is a character trait of those that follow him.
Pastor Josh:He is meek.
Pastor Josh:And we as Christians who are striving to be Christ like should be meek as well.
Pastor Josh:And so in that transformative process of being more and more like Christ, we are called to be meek.
Pastor Josh:And so when we understand the definition of meekness, what we can see sometimes is actually meekness is considered by the world to be a flaw, to be a weak element.
Pastor Josh:But what we can see in Scripture is that it's the complete opposite.
Pastor Josh:And so we know that it means to have gentleness of spirit humility.
Pastor Josh:And we even know that in the book of James, James chapter one, that we are to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save our souls.
Pastor Josh:And so the Bible says, not only are we to act with meekness in our lives with others around us, but also we are to receive the word of God with meekness.
Pastor Josh:Instead of receiving the Word in pride and in our own wisdom and in selfishness, we receive the Word with humility.
Pastor Josh:We receive the word with meekness later on in the book of James.
Pastor Josh:James 3:13 says, who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?
Pastor Josh:So who's wise among you, let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
Pastor Josh:And so the Bible tells us here that a wise man is a man who lives his life.
Pastor Josh:That word conversation in the King James is just the way that you live your life.
Pastor Josh:So a wise man is someone who lives his life with works of meekness, works of meekness.
Pastor Josh:And so we understand that as Christians, meekness is humility towards God and towards his Word and towards others.
Pastor Josh:It's having the right or the obligation of power that we have as Christians.
Pastor Josh:Let me say it this way.
Pastor Josh:We have the ability of power, but the obligation of humility.
Pastor Josh:And so we have the power to do something to somebody, but we refrain from that out of love.
Pastor Josh:And so Paul encouraged us to have meekness.
Pastor Josh:We even see that In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul says that we are called to walk worthy.
Pastor Josh:Verse one, verse two.
Pastor Josh:He says, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering for bearing one another in love.
Pastor Josh:And so to love another person is to show meekness to them.
Pastor Josh:So yes, we have the gift of God's power in our life that we can use, but we also have the challenge and the ability to fulfill that challenge of meekness in our life.
Pastor Josh:So we are to love others and display meekness to them.
Pastor Josh:This is perfectly seen in the humility of Christ and in his humble nature described in Philippians chapter 2.
Pastor Josh:Jesus came as a servant.
Pastor Josh:I would encourage you to read through that passage in the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 2.
Pastor Josh:It describes to us that we are supposed to have the same mind as Christ had.
Pastor Josh:What was his mind?
Pastor Josh:To put others before himself, to obey the Father, to humbly submit to the job that the Lord gave him, and that was to come and give his life for all of those who are broken in sin and giving us hope and giving us salvation.
Pastor Josh:So Jesus did that because of his love.
Pastor Josh:And so his meekness was displayed because of his love.
Pastor Josh:And so, you know, a lot of times we see certain character traits that we are called to have in our life as Christians, and we glorify those.
Pastor Josh:So, for example, courage, strength, boldness, all of these things that are considered in our society to be a great thing.
Pastor Josh:But one of the things that we don't usually highlight as an attractive attribute of God is His meekness.
Pastor Josh:But the Bible tells us that that meekness is directly tied to understanding the love of God and understanding the example of Christ.
Pastor Josh:And so if we are to love God as He loved us, he loved us in meekness sent his only Son.
Pastor Josh:And so we love him with meekness.
Pastor Josh:We receive His Word with meekness.
Pastor Josh:We don't receive the preaching of the Word of God with pride and hard heartedness, though we receive it with an open heart, a tender heart, being ready to be convicted by God, being ready to change for what he has called us to change in, in our lives.
Pastor Josh:And so we see that meekness is tied to love.
Pastor Josh:Meekness is tied to humility.
Pastor Josh:Meekness is tied to selflessness.
Pastor Josh:And that's all what God has called us to follow in our lives.
Pastor Josh:And so if we are to love others because we're called to love others, remember the first and greatest commandment is to love God with everything our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Pastor Josh:But a close second after that is to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Pastor Josh:And so we are to love our neighbor.
Pastor Josh:There's no way to get around that.
Pastor Josh:So the Bible says, as we love our neighbor, we love them in the way that God tells us to love them, because sometimes we want to love on our own terms.
Pastor Josh:But to love my neighbor, as we see In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 2, is to love them with humility and meekness.
Pastor Josh:And we even know that we're to deal with unsafe people with meekness.
Pastor Josh:And so we might say, okay, it makes sense that we need to have meekness with other Christians.
Pastor Josh:But when it comes to someone who is not a believer that might even be questioning us, we don't need to be meek with them, we need to be harsh with them.
Pastor Josh:Well, first Peter, chapter three, verse 15 tells us that we are to share the gospel with meekness.
Pastor Josh:First Peter 3, 15, it says this, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
Pastor Josh:And so the Bible tells us here that we are to be living our lives as Christians differently so that people notice us and notice that we have a different type of hope.
Pastor Josh:And when we have that different type of hope, people will say, hey, why do you have that hope?
Pastor Josh:Why are you different?
Pastor Josh:Why are you content?
Pastor Josh:Why are you joyful?
Pastor Josh:Why are you forgiving?
Pastor Josh:Well, we say we give our answer with meekness and fear, gentleness and respect.
Pastor Josh:What's our answer?
Pastor Josh:Well, I'm just a good person.
Pastor Josh:No, the reason why we can have hope is because of our relationship with Jesus Christ, what He has done for us and how we trust in him for that work.
Pastor Josh:So the reason why we are different as Christians is not because we just are good people.
Pastor Josh:The reason why we are different is because we have Christ living within us.
Pastor Josh:We have the spirit of God directing our lives, and we are dying to our flesh daily.
Pastor Josh:And so that's the hope that's within me.
Pastor Josh:The hope that's within the Christian is Christ.
Pastor Josh:And so therefore we share Christ with.
Pastor Josh:What does it say there?
Pastor Josh:Meekness and fear.
Pastor Josh:Not fear in the concept of I'm scared to do this.
Pastor Josh:That word fear has that understanding of respect.
Pastor Josh:So we respect people enough to treat them with meekness, to be gentle with them, to be controlled in our answers, to not answer in anger or answer in our flesh or answer in our emotions, but to answer in the truth of God and the love of God.
Pastor Josh:So therefore, yes, we are to treat God with that love and meekness in how we receive his word.
Pastor Josh:We are to treat other Christians around us with meekness and gentleness and respect.
Pastor Josh:But we do also see that we are to respond to people around us that are unsaved, asking for the hope that's within us as we share the Gospel with meekness and fear, with gentleness and respect.
Pastor Josh:And so meekness should be a defining character trait of a Christian.
Pastor Josh:If you see a Christian, one of the marks of a Christian should be meekness.
Pastor Josh:It might be something that's growing later on, right?
Pastor Josh:It might be something that doesn't happen right away for some folks.
Pastor Josh:And certainly it's a character trait that is not necessarily anywhere close to being a natural thing of our flesh.
Pastor Josh:But we even see that in Galatians, chapter five, when the fruit of the Spirit is listed.
Pastor Josh:And these are the character traits that are evident in the life of a believer that has the Spirit living within them.
Pastor Josh:We see meekness listed, right?
Pastor Josh:So, but the fruit of the Spirit is, and this is Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22 and 23.
Pastor Josh:But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
Pastor Josh:And then verse 23, there it is, meekness, temperance.
Pastor Josh:Against such there is no law.
Pastor Josh:And so we even see that meekness is listed here in the fruit of the Spirit.
Pastor Josh:And so we can rightly say biblically that meekness is a character trait of a Christian.
Pastor Josh:And it should be a character trait that is growing as the Spirit guides our life.
Pastor Josh:And so God says, yes, blessed are the meek.
Pastor Josh:Jesus preaches meekness, humility.
Pastor Josh:God gives grace to the humble.
Pastor Josh:God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Pastor Josh:God gives grace to the meek.
Pastor Josh:Blessed are the meek.
Pastor Josh:Why?
Pastor Josh:Because those are the ones that are going to inherit the earth.
Pastor Josh:Jesus says In Matthew, chapter 11, we started with this, we will end with this.
Pastor Josh:He says, learn of me, be my disciple.
Pastor Josh:Learn about meekness.
Pastor Josh:And don't just make it a head thing.
Pastor Josh:Don't just make it a head knowledge, but make it heart knowledge.
Pastor Josh:Apply it, right?
Pastor Josh:Remember back in the book of James, we already mentioned it.
Pastor Josh:It's the man who is wise who lives out meekness in his life.
Pastor Josh:So the wisdom is the application of knowledge.
Pastor Josh:And so therefore we can know what meekness is.
Pastor Josh:We can have the definition, we can understand that God commands us.
Pastor Josh:But the true challenge is to live that out in our lives.
Pastor Josh:Meekness, gentleness, control, and being able to say, lord, I can die to my flesh so that I can be more like you on a daily basis.
Pastor Josh:And so the challenge here is to be more and more and more meek as we go about this sanctification process.
Pastor Josh:As we go about our spiritual walk, it's not meekness that we inherit in our own strength, our own wisdom.
Pastor Josh:It is the power of God that gives us this meekness.
Pastor Josh:And so as we go through this study, we're going to look at various character traits that we as Christians should pursue in our spiritual growth process.
Pastor Josh:But I will say that I think a good place to start is this area of meekness.
Pastor Josh:Because if we look at Christ as our greatest teacher, he perfectly, perfectly lived out a life of meekness.
Pastor Josh:And so therefore, it should be something that we're striving to understand, we're striving to grow in, and we're striving to apply in our lives to the best of our ability in the power of God.
Pastor Josh:And so ask the Lord to give you meekness.
Pastor Josh:Today, read about passages of scripture that define meekness, that explain meekness.
Pastor Josh:But truly the only way that we're able to understand this meekness and use it as a tool in our life for the love of God and for the love of others is by asking God to give us the strength to do so and then yielding to him in that process.
Pastor Josh:Not always easy, but needed for Christians to understand the truth of God and for Christians to live out that gospel witness with meekness.
Pastor Josh:So thank you again for listening today.
Pastor Josh:We will be back next week with another character trait of God that we will study and that we will desire to grow in in our lives.
Pastor Josh:Well, God bless you.
Pastor Josh:We will talk to you next week.
Pastor Josh:See you soon.
Pastor Josh:Hey, I really appreciate that you listened to the Word of the Week podcast.
Pastor Josh:If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church, Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper into words that impact our life according to scripture.
Pastor Josh:Thank you so much.
Pastor Josh:God bless.
Pastor Josh:We'll talk to you soon.
