An Exploration of Galatians: Fruit of the Spirit Part 9
An Exploration of Galatians: Fruit of the Spirit Part 9
Galatians 5:22-23 - Gentleness results in the perfect emotional balance in the believer.
”But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.“
Galatians 5:22-23 NASB1995
The eighth fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. Gentleness comes from the Greek word πραΰτης or prautes meaning mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness, and (by implication) humility. Prautes does not translate easily from the Greek, according to some of the commentary I read. I found a superb explanation of this fruit on Gotquestions.org that I’m going to share (this is truly an excellent commentary, much better than what I could write):
Gentleness, also translated “meekness,” does not mean weakness. Rather, it involves humility and thankfulness toward God, and polite, restrained behavior toward others. The opposites of gentleness are anger, a desire for revenge, and self-aggrandizement.
It takes a strong person to be truly gentle. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow gives us a wonderful illustration of gentleness in “The Village Blacksmith.” In the poem, the main character is described thus:
“The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.”
However, in church, as he hears his daughter singing a hymn, the smith is overcome with emotion, “And with his hard, rough hand he wipes / A tear out of his eyes.” This is gentleness. Might restrained. Humility and grace.
God wants us to give Him control of our lives. Relying on our own logic, we have no impetus to submit to God’s leadership. With the wisdom given to us by the Holy Spirit, however, we begin to see why we should completely submit to God as Lord of our lives. Human power under human control is a half-broken weapon in the hands of a child. But gentleness places our strength under God’s guidance; it is a powerful tool for God’s kingdom.
Every person is powerful. We can speak words that influence others; we can act in ways that help or hurt; and we can choose what influences will inform our words and actions. Gentleness constrains and channels that power. To be gentle is to recognize that God’s ways and thoughts are high above our own (Isaiah 55:9). It is to humbly realize that our worldviews are shaped by exposure to sin and the misinterpretation of experience. It is to accept God’s worldview, reflecting truth about the spiritual and the material worlds.
It is to our advantage to have a gentle attitude toward God because He is omniscient and we are not. "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" God challenges Job. "Tell Me, if you have understanding" (Job 38:4). God knows everything of the past, present, and future (1 John 3:20); we can’t even get the weather forecast right. Like a petulant teenager to his parents, we may cry out, "You just don’t understand!" but God does understand, more than we could possibly know (Psalm 44:21).
When we are filled with the Spirit’s fruit of gentleness, we will correct others with easiness instead of arguing in resentment and anger, knowing that their salvation is far more important than our pride (2 Timothy 2:24-25). We will forgive readily, because any offense toward us is nothing compared to our offenses against God—offenses He’s already forgiven (Matthew 18:23-35). Competition and sectarianism will disappear, as the goal becomes less about ourselves and more about preaching the gospel (Philippians 1:15-18). John the Baptist was a fiery preacher, yet he evinced true gentleness when he said, “[Jesus] must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).
Gentleness also means giving up the right to judge what is best for ourselves and others. God is not as concerned with our comfort as He is concerned with our spiritual growth, and He knows how to grow us far better than we do. Gentleness means that we accept that the rain falls on the evil and the just and that God may use methods we don’t like to reach our hearts and the hearts of others.
Finally, to live in a spirit of gentleness toward God is to accept His judgment on people and issues. We tend to think it is gentle to go easy on people and try to justify actions that God has called sin. Or to let someone continue in sin without speaking the truth. But Paul says, "If anyone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness" (Galatians 6:1). This doesn’t mean to be so soft that the sinner doesn’t realize he’s sinned. It means to confront the brother in a manner that is in line with Scripture—to be mild, loving, encouraging, and clear about the holiness that God calls us to.
Jesus gave us the perfect picture of gentleness: “See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey” (Matthew 21:5), and now He offers us His gentleness as a gift. If we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, we will be filled with fruit of gentleness.
Some things worth observing in this Gotquestions.org article:
Gentleness places our strength under God’s guidance.
Gentleness accepts God’s worldview, reflecting truth.
We correct others with easiness, knowing that their salvation is more important than our pride.
God is less concerned with our comfort than with our spiritual growth.
Gentleness allows us to confront others in a manner that is in line with scripture.
Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit that goes in two directions: Between us and God and between us and other people. It is humility, grace, restrained power, and meekness before the almighty and infinite power of God. It does not mean allowing ourselves to be stepped on or stepped over by others in their arrogance and it also doesn’t free us from counseling others about their sin, but with gentleness we are to be “mild, loving, encouraging, and clear about the holiness that God calls us to.” Jesus also told us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light because he is gentle and humble in heart.
Gentleness also implies a teachable spirit. Precept Austin has an excerpt from commentary by William Barclay, a Scottish preacher, on prautes and how it relates to being truly teachable and clear-eyed about the truth:
Gentleness is an attempt to translate the untranslatable word praǘtēs. This is a great Greek word which has no precise English equivalent. Aristotle defined it as the mean between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness; it is the quality of the man whose feelings and emotions are under perfect control. Andronicus Rhodius, commenting on Aristotle, writes, “Praǘtēs is moderation in regard to anger … You might define praǘtēs as serenity and the power, not to be lead away by emotion, but to control emotion as right reason dictates.”
The Platonic definitions say that praǘtēs is the regulation of the movement of the soul caused by anger. It is the temperament (krasis) of a soul in which everything is mixed in the right proportions. No one can ever find one English word to translate what is a one word summary of the truly teachable spirit. The teachable spirit is docile and tractable, and therefore humble enough to learn. The teachable spirit is without resentment and without anger and is, therefore, able to face the truth, even when it hurts and condemns. The teachable spirit is not blinded by its own overmastering prejudices but is clear-eyed to the truth. The teachable spirit is not seduced by laziness but is so self-controlled that it can willingly and faithfully accept the discipline of learning. Praǘtēs describes the perfect conquest and control of everything in a man’s nature which would be a hindrance to his seeing, learning and obeying the truth.
So what we can derive as the opposite states to this fruit of gentleness (from the Gotquestions.org answer) are unjustified anger, a desire for revenge and self-aggrandizement. From the commentary above, you can include resentment, blind prejudices, and laziness (lack of discipline ). All of the fruits combine together to create a person who can overcome deeds of the flesh; gentleness helps to us contain emotions, overcome prideful attitudes, and move beyond pure inertia and sloth that would hinder learning and obeying the truth.
Gentleness in our world today is usually viewed through the lens of how people treat animals. It is, indeed, noble to be humane and gentle with God’s creation. But people are also His creation, so our gentleness needs to extend to other humans. Reserve anger for things that grieve God and treat other people’s foibles and follies with a light touch and kindness!
My next devotional examines the last fruit of the Spirit: Self-Control. Then I will finish this subsection from Galatians 5:22-23 discussing the statement that Paul makes about how there are no laws against the Fruit of the Spirit.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
My prayer today comes from F.B. Meyer, quoted in Precept Austin:
O God, our behaviour has not manifested all the fruits of the Spirit, or been full of the graciousness and gentleness of Christ. Forgive us, and enable us so to live that His beauty may be on our faces, the tone of His voice in our speech, the gentleness of His tread in our steps, the unselfishness of His deeds in our hands. AMEN. (F B Meyer. Our Daily Walk)
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 1/21 to review the lexicon for gentleness.
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 1/21 to review the answer to the question about the Fruit of the Spirit of gentleness.
The personal testimony of Bruce Hurt, creator of Precept Austin, can be found Here.