Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness

Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). Gentleness is true strength. It is living like Jesus and not allowing emotions or stubbornness to get in the way of a surrendered life. Gentleness in the Greek: The Greek word found in Galatians 5:22 is prautēs. It means, “Mildness, gentleness” or “gentle strength which expresses power with reserve.” Prautēs is also found in 1 Corinthians 4:21, 1 Timothy 6:11, 2 Timothy 2:25, and 1 Peter 3:15. Gentleness is shared as gentle strength. When we think about the strongest people we know, many times it is not the most physically tough who come to our minds. It is people who have endured hardship, remained faithful, or endured in character when everyone around them failed. Strength is more than meets the eye. Jesus Modeled Perfect Gentleness: Scripture tells us in Isaiah 53:2, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” This is the description of Jesus, the incarnate God. There was apparently nothing flashy about his looks. People may not have thought of Him as a strong man. However, we know that He was the strongest man to ever live. Jesus is God. He exhibited gentle strength in every sense of the Word. When a Pharisee mocked Him, He could have put him in his place, but Jesus restrained. When He was whipped without cause, Jesus could have broken the whip with one word. When he was dying on the cross and people teased Him, Jesus could have proven them wrong and lived, but He chose to die for our sins. When Jesus knew that He was the Messiah, He could have proved it point-blank when people were harsh and unwilling to listen, but He chose gentleness. He had full power with full reserve. We the church are called the bride of Christ. We are before Him with unveiled faces. This means that when we come to the altar, He sees us for who we truly are – a terrifying moment, however He has come to give us a new name just like a bride takes on the name of her groom. We are His forever in a covenant. Once we accept Him as Savior, we are transformed into His likeness by the work of His Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” Gentleness is not impossible for anyone who is saved by Jesus. Gentleness is not natural to anyone, but by the work of the Spirit in our lives, we will produce more and more of it in our lives.