Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness, Self-Control

James Pleudeman at NEGST. Gentle, but when interrupted, controlled.

Lessons from Bible: Gentleness

The word for gentle here is the same word for meek in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” We have made the point several times from this pulpit that this work was also used for gentle, meek horses in the days of Jesus. Gentle as in “doesn’t take much to get them to obey.” I like to think that the control of a meek person at DaySpring means someone who has given control over to the Spirit of Jesus… it doesn’t take much for that person to be prodded one way or another for the Kingdom…just a gentle nudge.

1. Gentleness in Jesus (Mt. 5:5)

Scripture: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Meaning: We sometimes say here at DaySpring that those beatitudes are the self-portrait of Jesus. Jesus was under control of the Father and Spirit and wanted His followers to be controlled by God, too.

2. Gentleness in Paul (1 Cor. 10:1)

Scripture: “I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—l who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!”
Meaning: Gentleness/meekness seem to, in Paul, ride together with humility and boldness. Kind of like a great, trained horse! Not milquetoast, but strong and useful.

3. Gentleness in Speech (Proverbs 15:1)

Scripture: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Meaning: We seem to be told by the media and talk show hosts that the loudest, most brash, most irritating win the cultural debate and the current political war. But gentleness diffuses. Anger escalates. Gentleness tends to lead better toward peace.

Biblical Lessons on Self-Control

The Greek word used here means strength within-the ability to govern one’s own behavior or mastery of self-control over the strength within.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul uses self-control to describe an athlete who masters his assets to run a race. “I beat my body and make it my slave.” Every great athlete knows that the body must come under submission to the demands of excellence.

We all know the multiple things we need to get some self-control over in a culture that wants to excuse any and everything with “You do you.” So, Paul also uses the word in 1 Corinthians 7 regarding sexuality. No casual approach to sex. Get control of your passions, get control of your lust, get control of your immorality, get control of your porn.

But notice one more thing: self-control isn’t an end in itself; it’s always for some greater purpose. The athlete masters his body and mind in order to win the race. A single person restrains their sexual desires in order to enjoy sexuality fully in marriage. Self-control is the ability to say “No” to yourself in order to say “Yes” to something else. (Bryan Wilkerson, preachingtoday.com

An example from Jesus:

Let us study how Jesus got His message through to an exceedingly difficult case, the Samaritan woman with the twin virtues of gentleness and self-control. (E. Stanley Jones)

First, the account says, “He must needs go through Samaria.” He needs to go because He is an evangelist and there was the unevangelized. He needs to go because Samaria is the hated land, and He loves enemies. He needs to go because He is guided by the Spirit, and the Spirit says GO.

There were a great many reasons why He should not have spoken to this woman – He was tired and hungry; to talk to a woman in public was to risk His reputation; she was a woman of loose character;

Some scholarship suggests that “Sychar” means “drunken” as derived from the Hebrew and perhaps taken from the character of the inhabitants – nothing could be done with such a lot…

These were the reasons against His speaking to her. There was one reason in favor – she needed it!

That one reason outweighed all the others…

Jesus began at the place of her dominant interest – water. He began at water and then went from water to living water, and then to fountains of living water in the heart. Try to find out the dominant interest in people and lead them along the line of that dominant interest…

The woman threw up a barrier: “How is it that thou, being a Jew, asks drink of me, which am a Samaritan woman?” The first tendency of the human heart is to close up at the approach of an intruder. It is the instinct of self-preservation. We do not easily let people into our lives. So many would-be evangelists stop right here,

How did Jesus get rid of the issue between Jew and Samaritan? He got rid of the lesser issue by raising a higher one – He talked about “living water,” and as He did so she forgot about the issue she had raised. That is the principle: When people raise lesser issues, get rid of them by fastening their attention on higher issues. Don’t get tangled up in irrelevancies; drive on the main business in hand.

Jesus showed an amazing confidence in the woman: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink; you would’ve have asked” – if you see the good you will want it! That was an amazing assumption to make in regard to such a woman. Everybody else had probably suggested the opposite. To influence people you must believe in people in spite of what they are….Nag people and they sag, believe in people and they bloom.

But the woman was not yet through with barriers. She said, “Are You greater than our father Jacob?” She was ready for a comparison. Now, Jesus might have said “Woman, your father Jacob was a scheming liar who stole his brother’s birthright.” And it would have been perfectly true! She would have gone away angry and hurt. You and I must not strive to win arguments, but to win people. To win the argument you need only to be clever, but to win the person you need to be Christian.

But Jesus did get rid of Jacob. He slides out of the picture so gently that we scarcely notice that he is gone. How did He get rid of him? Again, by raising a higher issue. He replied…”Whoever drinks any of the water that I shall give him will never, never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become a fountain within him of water springing up for the Life of the Ages.” As the woman’s thought became fastened on that fountain of water in the heart she forgot Jacob and the controversy.

The higher issue pushed out the lower. The higher issue causes her to Jesus for Who He was run into town to tell the others to come and see as well.

These verses, some of the most beautiful in Scripture, were given to an outcaste woman. He did not hesitate to give His best to the worst…