I have a story to tell about what it means to be a man. Here it goes.
Some years ago, while sitting in a diner in Media, Pennsylvania at a weekly Bible study with a dozen or so older men, I heard one of the guys – a true son of Delaware County – expressing justified frustration over the state of the world around us. When he paused to take a breath, another one of the guys spoke up and said something along the lines of, “I’m right there with you, but you want to know what bothers me even more? The sinner I see in the mirror every morning when I wake up.”
The rejoinder was crystal clear, but it was not at all combative. In fact, it was quite meek (by Delco standards, anyway). Being meek, it expressed well an all-too-neglected virtue at the heart of what it means to be a Christian man.
As suggested by the order of Christ’s first three beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-5, meekness or gentleness directly and necessarily attends poverty of spirit and mourning over sin. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”1
The meek man stands before God and the perfect mirror of God’s Law clear-eyed about his sin, the sin in the world around him, and the abundance of grace that he nonetheless receives from his heavenly Father’s hand. Such a man is anything but a complainer, a crank, a conspiratorialist, a sensationalist, or an entitled jerk. Rather, he is one who has forsaken all his rights before God and man. By way of a sanctified meekness, he is in submission to God and gracious to other men, impervious to the winds of confusion that sweep across the spiritual barrens of this world. Along these lines, Sinclair Ferguson observes that meekness “enhances manliness.”2
Such meekness is undervalued today. The Bible is full of great men of meekness who underwent attack, ostracization, and even martyrdom. In each case, divine honors attended their suffering for righteousness’ sake. We shall consider a few examples from among many.
In the middle of Israel’s great deliverance and migration out of Pharaoh’s house of bondage and into the Lord’s land of promise, Aaron and Miriam grumbled against Moses for marrying “an Ethiopian woman” (Num. 12:1). In the passage in-question, Scripture honors Moses as “very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3). God immediately vindicated His servant.
After undergoing interrogation and verbal assault from his three friends, righteous Job submitted himself to the grace of God in repentance (Job 42:6). On that occasion, God immediately honored His servant (Job 42:7-9) and restored his fortunes (42:10ff).
We often refer to the prophet Jeremiah as the “weeping prophet” for the notes of lament and sorrow that permeate his contributions to Scripture’s canon. But in his meekness, he might just as well be called “the reluctant prophet” (e.g., Jer. 1:6). In his meekness, Jeremiah followed the call of God to proclaim judgment against faithless Judah, and he suffered much at the hands of wicked men (e.g., Jer. 26:7-11). Yet God preserved His servant, and he could prophesy through tears, “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him” (Lam. 3:22-25).
Stephen the Deacon was one “full of faith and power” who “did great wonders and miracles among the people” (Acts 6:8). And yet, leaders in what was “called the synagogue of the Libertines” or Freedmen (Acts 6:9) handed him over to martyrdom. In his death, he saw “the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). With his dying breath, “he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:60). Stephen was a great man of meekness.
The Apostle Paul grounded his pleading with the difficult church in Corinth on “the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1). He likewise directed Timothy to be meek, directing him to “follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness” (1 Tim. 6:11). He further commanded that “the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves” (2 Tim. 2:24f). The Apostle was meek insofar as he imitated Christ Himself.
Isaiah prophesied of Christ, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth” (Isa. 53:7). Christ described Himself, “I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29). It was by meekness that Christ accomplished the greatest of all deeds: the redemption of sinful men. By Christ’s meekness, He paid the penalty for sin, took away guilt and shame, and clothed us in His righteousness.
It was by meekness that Christ conquered sin and death, and it is by meekness that He rides forth to conquer men and nations today. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said rightly, “Meekness is compatible with great strength. Meekness is compatible with great authority and power… the martyrs were meek, but they were never weak; strong men, yet meek men.”3
Central to God’s plan for redeemed and sanctified men is a Christlike meekness that must not be scorned. There shall be no power, no delight in life, and no masculinity without the sanctified meekness of the Savior shaping hearts and lives. God designs to make His people meek in spirit for communion with Him, apart from which is only death and despair.
What progress has God made in your life? Look at what He has promised to all those who are meek in spirit: an inheritance of communion with Him now and for eternity. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). This is not a command, but a promise.
Our Father intends to endow His adopted sons with all the virtues of godliness in union with Christ our elder brother, that we might dwell with Him in everlasting blessedness, beholding Him face-to-face. And He shall not fail. We serve a God of conquest over sin: the sin around us and the sin within us. Surely, He shall do it. By meekness, He will make men out of us.
1 Note that all references to Scripture will be to the King James Version in this post, as the KJV is most consistent among English Bible translations in using the word “meek” and its cognates.
2 Sinclair Ferguson, The Sermon on the Mount (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), p. 23
3 D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: One-Volume Edition (Eerdmans, 1971, 1976), p. 56.
Zachary Groff is the pastor of Antioch Presbyterian Church in Woodruff, South Carolina.