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The
Meek Matthew 5:5 Jesus tells us “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Can you tell me: who are the meek that Jesus is referring to, and what character traits do they have? Dictionary.com tells us that meek means (1) humbly patient or docile, as under provocation from others, (2) overly submissive or compliant; spiritless; tame, and (3) Obsolete . gentle; kind. In today’s world, one who is meek is typically reviled, and is considered to be a spineless wimp who lets everyone walk all over them. But this is not what Jesus meant by His use of the word. Spiros Zohdiates tells us the following (See The Complete Word Study Dictionary, New Testament) for Strong’s 4240, “Meekness, but not in a man’s outward behavior only, nor in his relations to his fellow man or his mere natural disposition. Rather, it is an inwrought grace of the soul, and the expressions of it are primarily toward God. It is that attitude of spirit in which we accept God’s dealings with us as good and do not dispute or resist.” Jesus calls Himself meek in Matthew 11:29; Scripture tells us that Jesus was meek in Matthew 21:5; and Paul tells us that Jesus was meek in 2 Corinthians 10:1. According to Scripture, Jesus was humble, patient, docile, submissive, and compliant, as Dictionary.com says, … though, only to the Father’s will, not to the world’s, nor to His own. We see Jesus’ meekness in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He is willing to submit His will to the Father’s, even when His soul was sorrowful, praying for the Father to remove the coming burden from Him. (See Matthew 26:36-46) We see first hand the inward grace of Jesus’ soul in the Gethsemane passage, where He was willing to accept the Father’s will without dispute, and without resistance. How many of us would do the same? I know I would be the first to try bargaining with God so as not to have to endure the cross, nor the shame; yet Jesus counted it as joy (Hebrews 12:1-2). What a great example Jesus is for us. He shows us how to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Matthew 16:24), no matter where He leads us. It’s important to remember that Jesus learned obedience through suffering (Hebrews 5:8), and we are not greater than our Lord (John 13:16). Jesus modeled meekness for us, so there would be no doubt about what it really looks like, so we could see first hand the inward grace of His soul, His willingness to accept God’s dealings with Him without dispute or resistance. We are to follow His lead to be meek; and when we do, His promise to us is that we will inherit the earth. That is to say, everything that is His will be ours too. We are after all joint heirs with Him (Romans 8:17). As followers of Jesus, our promised inheritance is the redemption of our soul through His blood, for which we have the Holy Spirit as down payment (Ephesians 1:7, 13-14); and then we will get to dwell with Jesus for all eternity (John 14:1-4). Thus, the new heaven and the new earth will belong to all of us who are meek, to all who believe Jesus is the Son of the living God, that He died on the cross for our sins, was raised the third day from death to life, and sits for all eternity at the right hand of the Father on His throne in heaven. The whole earth will belong to us, who are the meek, who are the followers of Jesus Christ, Lord of Lords and King of Kings, God with us.
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