But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Meekness grows where the Spirit is not being crowded out.
Week 4 of 4
Hand him the reins
Meekness is a fruit, a garment, and a way of appealing — then it is a life.
Walk worthy of the calling, with all humility and gentleness.
Ephesians 4:1-2
A feeling that lasts a retreat is not a virtue. Paul puts meekness in the fruit of the Spirit, beside self-control, which is the tell: this is grown, not performed, and it is never far from mastery of yourself. He tells the church to walk worthy of the calling with humility and gentleness. He tells them to put meekness on, the way a man puts on a coat he intends to wear out of the house. And when he has to correct a proud church, he does not open with his apostleship. He opens with the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Then he is bold. This last week is not a new idea. It is the reins, handed over, on ordinary days.
Scripture
Formal study reading, written for this series
Formal study reading, written for this series
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Calling first. Then the walk. Meekness is part of being worthy of it, not an extra.
I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ — I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away.
Paul’s boldness borrows the character of Christ, it does not replace it.
NASB, the Amplified, and the ESV open on Bible Hub. The Legacy Standard Bible opens on its own reader. Close, Expanded, and Easy on this page are original study readings. WEB is the World English Bible, public domain.
Fruit, not costume
Galatians 5 sets prautes inside the Spirit’s fruit and immediately beside self-control. That pairing is the whole series in two words. Meekness without self-control is mood. Self-control without meekness is a clenched jaw, a man who is disciplined and still harsh. The Spirit grows them together. You cannot manufacture the fruit by trying harder to look humble at breakfast, but you can stop grieving the Spirit who grows it. The works of the flesh listed just above — enmity, strife, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, envy — are what a man’s untamed strength looks like in a church and a house. The fruit is the other crop from the same soil, if the soil is yielded.
Ephesians 4 starts from calling, not from effort. Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. The gospel comes first. Humility of mind and prautes are how a called man walks, along with patience and the willingness to bear a brother. Notice the order in the sister text, Colossians 3:12. Chosen, holy, beloved — then put it on. Meekness is not how you become God’s. It is what the beloved man wears so he will not shred the unity the Spirit already made. Men who lead small groups, teams, or sons should hear that. Authority that cannot bear with someone is not strong. It is brittle.
Gentle, and still a man who speaks
Second Corinthians 10 is the verse that saves meekness from becoming silence. Paul is about to wage war on arguments raised against the knowledge of God. He is not soft on truth. He is careful about the spirit in which he takes the field. He entreats them by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Epieikeia is the reasonableness that does not insist on every right you could press. A father can win every ruling in the house and lose the son. A pastor can win every argument in the foyer and empty the church of brothers. Paul will be bold. He refuses to be brutal.
First Peter 3:15 belongs in the same breath. Set Christ apart as Lord in your heart. Then be ready to answer for the hope in you, with meekness and fear. Apologetics without prautes is a man collecting scalps. The hope is real, and the manner of the answer is part of the hope. Fear, there, is not fear of the opponent. It is fear of the Lord, which is what makes you unwilling to lie, exaggerate, or humiliate in order to score.
So the series ends where Moses and Jesus began. You will still speak. You will still lead. You will still correct a son, tell the truth at work, and refuse a compromise that dishonors God. You will do it as a man whose reins are not in his own fist. Hand him the reins does not mean hand over your mind. It means the strength stays, and the hand on it changes.
A rule for the next thirty days
Do not leave this as a mood. Pick one rein. The tongue. The reputation. The timetable. The right to be right at home. Write it in the notes below in a sentence a brother could check: “For thirty days I will not send the second text.” “For thirty days I will ask her to finish before I answer.” “For thirty days I will not narrate my competence in the meeting.” One rein. Not twelve.
Then put the fruit where someone can see the tree. Tell that brother the sentence. The Spirit grows this. A brother keeps you from calling relapse “a hard week.” And when you fail, you do not renegotiate the virtue. You confess the grab, receive mercy, and put the coat back on. Colossians says “put on,” which assumes it comes off and can be put on again before the day is over.
Seven days
At the table
- 1Which fruit is actually missing around your strength: meekness, or self-control, or both?
- 2Ephesians says walk worthy of the calling. Where is your walk currently embarrassing the calling?
- 3Paul appeals “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” and then gets bold. Where do you need boldness that is not brutality?
- 4What is the one rein you will hand God for thirty days, and who will ask you about it?
Your note
Stays on this device. No account.
A prayer
Father, I do not trust my own hands on the reins. Your Spirit has fruit I cannot fake: a gentle strength, and a real self-control. Clothe me, since I am your chosen, not so I can admire the coat but so I can stop tearing the people you love. Make me bold where Christ would speak, and quiet where only my name is at stake. I hand you the reins. Keep them. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.