Gentleness is a tricky one. It's deceptive too, this Fruit of The Spirit that is included in that famous list of Galatians 5:22-23. Everyone knows what it is, right? Gentleness: it's sweet and quiet and kind and soft and fluffy bunnies, kittens and rainbows, right? Well, wait a minute! How is that a fruit of The Spirit? I'm thinking about the word and what it means, yet I'm finding myself asking how it can be spiritual. Whenever I think of gentleness I imagine graceful, quiet movements with polite smiles and soft words. I can very well imagine myself attempting 'gentle', I can even envision 'quiet and soft', I can see in my mind's eye one of the kids holding a kitten and stroking it's fur, but when I try to apply those things to evidence of the Spirit's work I come up short. I can't even begin to get into how it applies to our relationships until I can understand what it looks like in real life.
Is it to be that 'gentleness' only applies to women and children? What about the men? What about that 300 pound linebacker? He's a Christian; he should have fruit of the Spirit too. Except I just can't reconcile that persona with the gentleness that I described above. What's he gonna do? Tiptoe through the end zone? I somehow think NOT! So what gives?
This same circular thinking was spiraling around in my brain one night and I just had to ask my husband what he thought about it all. He's a man of the Word; he may have some insight on gentleness that I had missed. Well, he didn't exactly have anything specifically about gentleness right off the top of his head, but he did have a word of wisdom for how I should think about gentleness. He simply asked me a question: what is the antithesis of gentleness?
So it would seem that in order to figure out how gentleness should look
in our relationships, I need to think about how the opposite of
gentleness looks in our relationships.
The opposite of gentleness has an array of faces even more profuse than gentleness itself I think. Gruff, rough, crude, belligerent, brusque, coarse, harsh; those are a few that come to mind. So our end result should be an absence of those characteristics in our lives and thus, our relationships. It does not mean we have to be mamby-pamby about things. There is a time when the truth needs to be spoken or the law laid down in relationships; He does not expect us to interact as doormats and push-overs in our daily lives and relationships. However, he does expect us to stand up for ourselves in a manner that is becoming to a Christian. If we look at how the opposite of gentleness looks, we should start to get a picture of how gentleness, itself, presents. When I think about it like that, I can imagine that 300 pound linebacker conducting himself that way.
Whether we're employers or employees, parents or children, teachers or students, ministers or hearers, we all have the responsibility as Christians to bear the fruit of gentleness no matter who we are or where we currently are in our lives.
I do not find any other mention of the word gentleness in the Bible, but the word that is used for it in the original Greek is also translated as kindness and goodness, which are both found other places in the scripture. One verse that stands out to me in relation to the manifestation of the Spirit in our lives, is Colossians 3:12 where we are instructed to put on, as the elect of God, kindness.
It is easy to be kind and gentle when everything is rocking along all rosy in our lives, but what about when there is trouble in our relationships? What has been coming to my mind as I contemplate this subject, is the instruction given to us in Ephesians to 'be angry, and sin not'. (Ephesians 4:26 KJV) Jesus gave us an example of this when He threw the money changers out of the temple. (John 2:12-15) It is shocking to think about Jesus making a whip and chasing people out of the temple. He was angry, but he managed to avoid sin while he took care of the business at hand efficiently.
Now I personally could not get away with that kind of a response to my displeasure without it being referred to as a hissy fit, but I do glean from Jesus' example and Paul's words that it is okay to be angry; I just need to be sure that my actions do not cross the line of sin. Too many times we, as Christians, try to bury our feelings or overlook things that actually need to be addressed in our relationships because we feel as though our instructions to be gentle and kind require us to overlook such things, but that idea is a disservice to us and to our relationships. We need to ask the Lord to cover us with His Spirit to the point that when we are angry or trouble does arise in our relationships, that can respond efficiently, effectively and with gentleness.
Gentleness is a tricky one. It's deceptive too, this Fruit of The Spirit that is included in that famous list of Galatians 5:22-23. Everyone knows what it is, right? Gentleness: it's sweet and quiet and kind and soft and fluffy bunnies, kittens and rainbows, right? Well, wait a minute! How is that a fruit of The Spirit? I'm thinking about the word and what it means, yet I'm finding myself asking how it can be spiritual. Whenever I
think of gentleness I imagine graceful, quiet movements with polite smiles and soft words. I can very well imagine myself attempting 'gentle', I can even envision 'quiet and soft', I can see in my mind's eye one of the kids holding a kitten and stroking it's fur, but when I try to apply those things to evidence of the Spirit's work I come up short. I can't even begin to get into how it applies to our relationships until I can understand what it looks like in real life.
Is it to be that 'gentleness' only applies to women and children? What about the men? What about that 300 pound linebacker? He's a Christian; he should have fruit of the Spirit too. Except I just can't reconcile that persona with the gentleness that I described above. What's he gonna do? Tiptoe through the end zone? I somehow think NOT! So what gives?
This same circular thinking was spiraling around in my brain one night and I just had to ask my husband what he thought about it all. He's a man of the Word; he may have some insight on gentleness that I had missed. Well, he didn't exactly have anything specifically about gentleness right off the top of his head, but he did have a word of wisdom for how I should think about gentleness. He simply asked me a question: what is the antithesis of gentleness?
So it would seem that in order to figure out how gentleness should look in our relationships, I need to think about how the opposite of gentleness looks in our relationships.
The opposite of gentleness has an array of faces even more profuse than gentleness itself I think. Gruff, rough, crude, belligerent, brusque, coarse, harsh; those are a few that come to mind. So our end result should be an absence of those characteristics in our lives and thus, our relationships. It does not mean we have to be mamby-pamby about things. There is a time when the truth needs to be spoken or the law laid down in relationships; He does not expect us to interact as doormats and push-overs in our daily lives and relationships. However, he does expect us to stand up for ourselves in a manner that is becoming to a Christian. If we look at how the opposite of gentleness looks, we should start to get a picture of how gentleness, itself, presents. When I think about it like that, I can imagine that 300 pound linebacker conducting himself that way.
Whether we're employers or employees, parents or children, teachers or students, ministers or hearers, we all have the responsibility as Christians to bear the fruit of gentleness no matter who we are or where we currently are in our lives.
I do not find any other mention of the word gentleness in the Bible, but the word that is used for it in the original Greek is also translated as kindness and goodness, which are both found other places in the scripture. One verse that stands out to me in relation to the manifestation of the Spirit in our lives, is Colossians 3:12 where we are instructed to put on, as the elect of God, kindness.
Now I personally could not get away with that kind of a response to my displeasure without it being referred to as a hissy fit, but I do glean from Jesus' example and Paul's words that it is okay to be angry; I just need to be sure that my actions do not cross the line of sin. Too many times we, as Christians, try to bury our feelings or overlook things that actually need to be addressed in our relationships because we feel as though our instructions to be gentle and kind require us to overlook such things, but that idea is a disservice to us and to our relationships. We need to ask the Lord to cover us with His Spirit to the point that when we are angry or trouble does arise in our relationships, that can respond efficiently, effectively and with gentleness.