Jesus commends meekness in his third beatitude: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt. 5:5). Meekness is often mistaken for weakness, but nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus was meek, yet we do not find him afflicted by the same moral weakness or cowardice that seems to affect so much of our modern society. Jesus stood firm against hypocrites, yet he also dealt gently with the broken.

How, then, should we define meekness? Much like love, we recognize meekness by what it does. Thomas Watson helpfully points to two essential features of meekness, especially as it relates to God. First, it implies submission to God’s will and second, conformity to God’s Word.

How do we submit to God’s will? We see this particularly in how the Christian submits to God’s providence in his or her life. Providence, according to the Westminster shorter catechism, is God’s “most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.” Providence means that God is active in his world and in our lives. He preserves, guides, and provides. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains, God’s providence “is a description of His continuing activity, of what He does in the world, and what He has continued to do since He made the world at the very beginning.”

Submitting to providence is not always easy. Job understood this better than most. He faced soul-crushing calamity, but his response was surprisingly meek. He said: “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21). And again, after receiving more bad news, he said: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). On both occasions we are told that “Job did not sin with his lips.”

Jesus Christ is the supreme example of meek submission to providence. Before Jesus was arrested, we are told that he prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matt. 26:39). Christ submitted to his Father’s providence, even as he wrestled with its frightening implications.
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This wasn’t fatalistic resignation but trusting submission. Meekness says “not as I will, but as you will” because it trusts that God is in control and that he is good. We might not be able to make sense of God’s providence, or see God’s good purposes, but we trust him. Why can we trust him? Because he “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32). Such a God has earned my trust.

In the same way, meekness does not just submit to God’s providence but also seeks to conform to God’s revealed will. This means that we don’t oppose, argue with, or resist the Word, but conform our thinking to God’s. James 1:21 captures this beautifully: “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

There may be passages of Scripture that we find difficult to understand or hard to apply. We wrestle, ask questions, and search, but the goal should never be to “get around” the text. Our aim is to understand and obey. Meekness not only trusts God’s providence but also his commands. He is good in what he does and in what he requires.

Such is meekness toward God. That meekness then overflows in our relationships with others, which we’ll explore next.

Because of Christ,
Pieter

In the Beatitudes, Jesus explains the way to true blessedness. True blessedness refers to that happy state in which the believer is at rest in his God. It implies a peace with God and an experience of God’s gracious favour. By now you have probably noticed that the path of true blessedness is surprising, different, and varied.
 
As the Holy Spirit guides us on the path of true blessedness, he helps us understand our lack and our desperate need (Matt. 5:3). Realizing just how poor in spirit we truly are, we mourn (v. 4). This might not sound all that pleasant, but the same Spirit assures us of the Father’s precious promises: a heavenly kingdom and divine comfort.

The third work of grace in the life of a true child of God is meekness. The third beatitude reads: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (v. 5). What is meekness? The term that Jesus used is translated in several ways. The NASB translates it as “gentle”. The Good News Bible translates it as “humble”. The Amplified explains meek as “mild, patient, long-suffering”.

Translators struggle with the word, because like so many other concepts, it is something that we recognize but we find difficult to describe. In 1964 someone asked United States supreme court justice Potter Stewart to describe his test for obscenity. He simply answered: “I know it when I see it.” In much the same way, we know meekness when we see it. 

However, sometimes it is helpful to state what it isn’t, which might help us more clearly understand what it is. For starters, meekness is not being too submissive. Someone told the story of a domineering wife who shouted at her hen-pecked husband: “Are you a man or a mouse? Come on, squeak up!” Jesus is not commending that kind of attitude. Even as Jesus was being led to the cross, he was meek but not defeated.
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Meekness is also not being spineless. There seems to be a serious spine shortage in modern society, but don’t mistake spinelessness for meekness. Jesus was meek, yet we find him standing up to the Pharisees, clearing out the temple, and meeting his would-be captors with great bravery. It shouldn’t surprise us, because meekness is not weakness. Being so timid that a light breeze can blow you over, is not a sign of Christian virtue.
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Finally, meekness is not niceness. Modern society seems to have added an eleventh commandment: “Thou shalt be nice.” While we would not encourage meanness, we should be careful not to confuse niceness with meekness. Some people are more agreeable, pleasant, or easy-going than others. That does not mean that they are meek.

Meekness is more than a personality trait. I trust that you are familiar with the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Gal. 5:22-23: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”. The word for gentleness is very similar to the one that Jesus used in Matt. 5:5. The KJV even translates it as “meekness”.

In other words, this is not a natural timidity or niceness, but a Spirit-wrought part of godly character in the life of the believer. This also means that it isn’t an optional trait. This is something that should be present and growing in every believer’s life.

Now that we know what meekness isn’t, we are better positioned to explore what meekness truly is. But more on that next week.

Because of Christ,
Pieter

In the second beatitude Jesus again subverts our expectations. He said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4). Jesus reminds us that even his disciples mourn. Following Jesus does not spare us the pain of living in a fallen world. Yet Jesus assures us that there is comfort.

This promise of comfort, it should be noted, is not given indiscriminately to anyone who mourns. Not all grief is godly. Consider Cain, who lamented the severity of God’s punishment for his sin (Gen. 4:13-14). He was more concerned about the pain that his sin caused him than the pain it caused his parents, not to mention his brother!

King Ahab is another example of ungodly grief. In 1 Kings 21:1-4 Ahab sulked because he could not get Naboth’s vineyard. He was angry and sullen because he could not have his way. He mourned, but it was motivated by greed and selfishness.

The most striking example of ungodly grief has to be Judas, Christ’s betrayer. According to Matt. 27:3-5 he acknowledged his sin and even tried to give back the money he was paid. Yet he never confessed his sin to God or sought his forgiveness. Overwhelmed by his guilt, he sought to rid himself of his accusing conscience by taking his own life. JC Ryle explains that it “is possible for a man to feel his sins, and be sorry for them, pricked in conscience, and exhibit much distress of mind, and yet, for all this, not repent with his heart. Present danger, or the fear of death, may account for his feelings, and the Holy Ghost may have done no work whatever in his soul.”

If we want to be comforted, we must grieve in a godly way. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 describes godly grief. It produces “a repentance that leads to salvation without regret”. It leads to earnest change, a hatred of sin, the fear of the Lord, and a longing and zeal for godliness.

Ungodly sorrow produces death. Godly sorrow, by contrast, is life-giving. John Blanchard put it well: “Nobody ever regrets godly, spiritual sorrow; instead, he rejoices at God’s gracious dealings with him and at the blessings he receives by his hand.” In the words of Psalm 34:18, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

In the previous beatitude we were told that the “poor in spirit” are blessed. We saw that their poverty is not material or intellectual, but spiritual – they know their spiritual need. This leads naturally into the next beatitude: “those who mourn”. We cannot separate the two, or any of the beatitudes, because they aren’t electives that we can opt out of, but describe the whole tapestry of Christian character. These are the characteristics of those who belong to the kingdom of Jesus Christ
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Christians will experience godly grief, not just once but often. John Stott rejected the giddy faux-spirituality that fills so many of our churches today. He warned: “Some Christians seem to imagine that, especially if they are filled with the Spirit, they must wear a perpetual grin on their face and be continually boisterous and bubbly. How unbiblical can one become?”

A Christian knows how to mourn over sin, brokenness, and how far we fall short of the perfection of Christ. “For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me… I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.” (Psalm 38:4, 18). Yet it is for such people that the Lord reserves his comfort.
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When the believer runs to the Father, instead of from him, he finds Him to be “the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3). He finds Jesus Christ the righteous, standing beside him as his advocate (1 John 2:1-2). And he will find that the Spirit truly is a help and comfort to God’s children.

No wonder Jesus calls them blessed.

Because of Christ,
Pieter

The Beatitudes are among the most well-known passages of Scripture. The name, the Beatitudes, is borrowed from Latin. It means “blessedness” or “happiness”. Who doesn’t want to be happy? Yet Jesus turns our usual picture of happiness on its head with the second beatitude: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matt. 5:4).

It sounds like a contradiction. The Good News translation was translated for English speakers who have had little to no exposure to Christianity. The contradiction sounds even more stark in their rendering: “Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them.” How do we make sense of this?

Much of the Western world pursue happiness as the greatest good. The United States Declaration of Independence claims that all men have been endowed with unalienable rights: “among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Some African countries have followed suit and enshrined the right to happiness as a core value in their constitutions (like Liberia, Namibia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Egypt). Our own country, South Africa, did not.
 
Do we have a right to be happy? Some would argue that we can’t be happy while there is so much suffering in the world. Thousands die in wars across the globe. Millions are suffering because of malnutrition. Dictators rule with an iron fist. Yet even if we acknowledge that, we aren’t keen on walking around in sackcloth and ashes.

We mostly try to avoid mourning or people who mourn. It makes us uncomfortable. We want to be surrounded by people who are upbeat, happy, and enthusiastic. As DA Carson points out, “The world does not like mourners; mourners are wet blankets.” Yet Jesus says that those who mourn are truly blessed. He even warns those who are happy: “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:25).

What does it mean to mourn? Jesus used a weighty word to describe mourning. It was used for the desolation we experience when we lose a loved one. It was used in Greek translation of Genesis 37:32-34 to describe Jacob’s mourning when he thought he had lost Joseph. It is also the word that Mark used to describe the disciples mourning after the death and burial of Jesus in Mark 16:10. The mourning that Jesus referred to was deep, heartbreaking grief.

This beatitude is wonderfully comforting when we suffer, and its message is consistent with the rest of the New Testament. We find comfort knowing that God can sanctify us through our suffering, “knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Rom. 5:3-4). We are comforted when we remember that we are God’s children and therefore fellow heirs with Christ, who will not only share in his suffering but in his glory too (Rom. 8:17-18).

There is also the promise of the resurrection (John 11:25-26) and the hope that God himself will comfort us in glory: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:4). These heavenly truths comfort us in our earthly suffering. “A moment is long if we look at the things round us; but once we have raised our minds to heaven, a thousand years begin to be like a moment.” (John Calvin).

These comforts do not spare us the mourning, but they help us endure. There is much to hope in and to look forward to, provided we mourn for the right things and in the right way. More on that next week.
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Because of Christ,
Pieter