Fruit of the Spirit Gentleness

Isaiah 42: 1-4

This week we continue our study of the “Fruit of the Holy Spirit,” found in Galatians 5: 22-23. They are love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. These nine qualities are characteristics of Christ’s personality that the Holy Spirit reproduces in us as we yield ourselves to Him. This week, we discuss the fifth one, which is “kindness” or “gentleness.”

English translations of this quality vary, some say “kindness”, “gentleness” or even “goodness”. But the best translation of this quality I can offer is that it means helping other people thrive. Often, it is simply seen as an aspect of love.  

When God created the world, He wanted all creatures He made to reach their highest potential. He didn’t just make forests, trees, and herds of cattle, but He created animals and plants, and told them to grow up and scatter themselves across the world. He didn’t create vast populations of humans, but he created two and told them to thrive and reproduce. Like a farmer, He planted the seeds of creation and expected it to grow. He would have been pleased with creation if He had built it like a man makes a statue, but He did more than that. He gave it life, and was absolutely delighted to see it grow up before Him. He isn’t just a Great Architect--He’s the Father of a living world. He delights to see His creation grow.

In the same way, God has placed inside each one of us the potential to thrive. He delights to see His children achieving great things In His name. He is absolutely ecstatic with joy when any of us are able to survive hardships, overcome resistance, and do more than we think we can. Like a parent with a child, or a teacher with a student, God’s greatest joy is seeing us do more than we thought we could. 

Jesus didn’t create the church out of nothing, either. He took twelve men of questionable ability, with moral flaws and intellectual limitations. He trained those men and put the Holy Spirit in their hearts. So they could become something no one else believed they ever could. He did not dictate to them exactly what they would be doing, but allowed them to grow into beautiful, powerful, Spirit-filled individuals. The church is the instrument God created on earth to enable human beings to thrive under Him. This thriving can only happen when we surrender our lives to Him. Only in Jesus and under Jesus can we achieve our greatest potential.   

We do not impose our will upon others, either. Instead we help them. People become their true selves, becoming all they can be with and for God.

Isaiah describes this quality of Jesus in Isaiah 42: 1-3:

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him;

He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.”

This little passage offers us two powerful metaphors of what it means to be gentle. The first is “a bruised reed he will not break.”  There are reeds that grow along the Nile that are tough, like bamboo. Egyptians and Israelites used them for a great many things including boat constructions, tent poles, musical instruments, and walking sticks. But if it became mangled or bruised, then it was worthless. You would throw it away and make another. After all, it was just a worthless reed. Reeds are as plentiful as grass. There’s no real value in fixing a broken reed.

I had a friend who was a very successful pastor.  He once told me that his favorite book on being a pastor was The Godfather. He confided in me that the reason he was so successful was that he used people up in the church. He would work with people to build the institution until they were of no more use, and then he would go find someone else. He isn’t the only person in the church who has that kind of attitude to people. It’s all too common among leaders of all kinds that we use people like reeds to build our dreams, then we discard them from our lives. 

But God doesn’t treat people like reeds. He doesn’t throw away people He loves just because they lose their usefulness. 

 “A smoldering flax he will not put out.”  Flax was used for lamp wicks. But if the wick of your lamp wouldn’t light, you didn’t waste your time trying to light it. You throw it in the trash! But Jesus doesn’t throw out broken people. He restores them in gentleness. God sees potential in people where we see only failure.

The reason we are not gentle and kind with others is because we are sinners. Our sin has caused two conditions that cause us to be unkind or cruel. Those two conditions are anger and indifference.

Christians are angry today—angrier now than at any time I can remember. We see our country descending into immorality, Muslim extremists torturing and murdering Christians, and our nation, which we used to think of as a Christian nation losing its religion. We have a right to be angry.

But the real question is this--why isn’t Jesus as angry as we are?  If we had His power, then we’d have fixed everything. Yet Jesus restrains Himself—why? 

God is angry with sin, but He’s also gentle. When it comes to punishment God says, “Not yet.” We don’t assign people to Hell, He does. We are not free to strike out in anger at those who offend us. Instead, we must learn to restrain that anger, as God does, and instead look for ways of reconciling and restoring relationships with those who make us angry.  Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 5: 38-48

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'  But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also . . .

 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Jesus is telling us something that is against human nature. It’s human nature when we are angry to hurt those who make us angry.  But it is the will of the Holy Spirit, that we treat our enemies with mercy and kindness. So that some of them may be restored and redeemed.

And what about indifference?

Gregory Peck always played the hero in the movies. Only once, in the movie The Boys from Brazil, did he play a villain. Someone asked him what was the difference between playing a hero and a villain in a movie? He said that the only difference was that the villain was someone who wanted to do something that he considered good, but was willing to do anything, including hurting innocent people to do it. The difference between hero and villain was not their goals, but their willingness to treat everything else as disposable.

If Peck was right, then there are a lot of people acting like villains in the church. When we are willing to cast out the bruised reeds and smoldering wicks in our church, or ignore the people who are struggling, because accommodating them would slow us down, then we are not heroes, but we are villains. 

Let me ask you do you see the church as more of an army or a hospital?  It’s a little of both, actually. In an army only the strong survive. The wounded are taken out of the action. But in a hospital, our goal is that all patients survive. 

The modern church in their desire to be bigger and better, often abandons the wounded. Old people don’t contribute to the mission to the church, so we abandon them. Poor people are not as valuable as rich people, so we ignore them. When I was a youth director, I attended seminars telling me how to start a youth group, and was told that it was the popular kids who were the most important. If you got the jocks and the cheerleaders, the rest would follow. But this attitude is so far from the spirit of Christ! God considers every one important!  We can’t be indifferent to those who are struggling, because we want the whole to succeed. Everyone is valuable in the Body of Christ.

What does a gentle person look like?  A gentle person looks like everyone else. It’s his actions that set them apart. 

A gentle husband, doesn’t ignore his wife. He pays attention to her feelings, and encourages her to reach her best potential.

A gentle wife doesn’t nag her husband. She encourages him by honoring and valuing his contributions to their relationship.

A gentle parent doesn’t regard their children as appendages to his or her own ego, but encourages them to be their own person. They are not indifferent to their needs, even their need to figure things out for themselves. When they disobey, they notice and punish when necessary, but they do not punish so hard that they break or abuse them.

A gentle employer gives his employees dignity and honor. He recognizes their contribution. He doesn’t overwork them or underpay them. When they make mistakes, he helps them get better, and doesn’t berate them.

A gentle employee doesn’t idly gripe about his boss, either. Instead he helps this boss do the best job he can, and realizes that he is a human being who deserves his respect.

A gentle competitor works hard to win, but he also realizes that life isn’t one big game. It’s people that are important. He is a gracious loser and a generous winner, recognizing the humanity of his opponents. We compete in business or politics, but we can still be friends. He doesn’t get polarized by competitions, but values cooperation. Don’t let your rivalry over politics or religion dictate the way you treat others, but follow the path of Christ who prayed even for the soldiers who crucified Him. Pray that God will give us that same spirit of gentleness to others.