Take My Hand Inspirations
Fruit of the Spirit Series
GENTLENESS: The Fruit of Righteousness
- Part 1
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek,
turn the other to him also.” (Matthew 5:38-39).
Most
of us wouldn’t know what LOVE looked like even if it wrapped itself around us
and kissed us on the cheek. We’re so
busy using our eyes looking for love, that we forgot that LOVE
lives in the heart of a person whose soul bears the Fruit of Gentleness.
Read
Blog #16 About the first fruit, LOVE,
to recall how we are born from that fruit and give forth its offspring—the
other fruits, of which one is the Fruit of Gentleness, our conversation for
today.
A
person who bears the Fruit of Gentleness can be defined as someone who behaves
in a calm, quiet, non-violent way that does not upset or hurt people. And to behave means to act (or react) in
a particular way to a given outside stimuli—that is, how we respond to and in
any given situation, good or bad.
Did
Jesus display the Fruit of Gentleness when He made a whip of
cords, drove out those who sold merchandise inside the temple, poured out the
changers money and overturned the their tables? (John 2:15). He reacted immediately to an act which would
bring His Father’s wrath upon innocent souls by their participation in a sinful
act (buying and selling inside the
temple) which the leaders introduced out of greed, instead of keeping God’s
will intact by making the temple a house of prayer for all nations (Mark
11:17).
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which
indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and
all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27). In this situation, Jesus was rebuking the
spirit of evil (satanic spirit) residing in the heart of man (For He is the
Father of spirits—Hebrews 12:9). His
intent was to make us see our ugliness (uncleanness) and to clean ourselves up
to be fit (holy) for His Kingdom.
Jesus’
behavior in these situations shows how any Father would behave if he saw his
children going contrary to what he knows is right. Furthermore, we
have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. . . . For
they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our
profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the
present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Read
Hebrews 12:5-11).
What
does it mean to chasten? And how does this produce the Fruit of Gentleness? To
chasten is to make someone aware that they have failed or done something
wrong and make them to want to improve.
This kind of action is done through the portal of LOVE. And after Jesus had driven out the buyers and
sellers from inside the temple and rebuked the scribes and Pharisees, He healed
the sick and continued to teach His disciples how to be right with God, the
Father. And the disciples eagerly wanted
to improve—to do what was right to enter into the Kingdom.
Do
you chasten your children this way?
Husbands and wives, do you bear this Fruit of Gentleness in your
relationship with each other? Bosses of
workplaces, how do you treat your employees or staff over which you
supervise? Leaders of nations, are your
citizens inspired by you or do they live in fear and frustration under you? Do you behave in ways that make others want
to do right or to improve? Or do your
actions speak volumes of retaliation and abuse so much so that you make others
feel cheap, unworthy and never capable of being or doing right?
In
order to bear this Fruit of Gentleness, you first must be pruned
unto righteousness. You must allow God
to cut off anything unclean (not right) in you—murderous thoughts, words and
violent, destructive actions that cannot be undone once executed; and could
turn your heaven bound destiny toward hell.
He may do this through “slappings”.
A
slap from God could be done by using your closest friends to talk evilly against
you behind your back (backbiting). A
slap could be your workers rising up against the policies you implement in the
workplace and making it into a war of personal attacks. A slap could be the most shocking betrayal by
the one(s) you most deeply love. A slap
could be by that evil person who hates you and devises all kinds of ways to
provoke and hurt you simply because you want to improve and do what is right in
the sight of God.
When
you are slapped, what is your first course of action? How do you react?
Oh
Jesus! You have said a hard thing for us
to do.
© 2018 by Take My Hand Inspirations, a
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