PERSONAL NOTE: I would like to share with you the God Love, Meekness and Gentleness in (2Cor. 10:1 & 1John 4:8 &16) for a few paragraphs. If God permits this writer to live until Sept. 19, 2023, I will have been a Christian 47 years and I still don’t understand the magnitude of God’s love nor the sweet gentleness with which He extended His nail pierced hands of love to me, a sin drenched, worthless, useless Mr. Nobody in the middle of Nowhere, Kentucky.
(Isa. 53:4-9 & Col. 2:13-14) I am a murderer because my sins killed the beautiful Prince of heaven, Jesus, the Son of the living God. I was an ex-Marine, underground coal miner living in an 85 year old, falling down, wreck of a shack-house that people laughed at, felt sorry for, or looked away from in shame when they went by on the road, (John 12:32) yet the resurrected Son of God came down our rutted, rocky driveway in His Holy Spirit form and knocked with tender gentleness on the sin darkened door of my cold heart and offered me salvation.
A few weeks ago my wife was driving us home from another state. I was looking at the bare earth ditch line that paralleled beside the highway. All those billions of grains of sand were like the people of the earth and I was only one grain, indistinguishable from the multitudes. Yet, God had singled me out all those years ago. My tiny, insignificant, useless magnitude of my ability to love is lost among the innumerable people of the world.
(1John 4:8 &16) There, I turned my gaze out the windshield to look upward at the endless, boundless expanse of the sky and that unfathomable depth could not compare to the richness and depth of the magnitude of God’s love, grace, mercy and His unfathomable gentleness. No, I do not understand the magnitude of God’s love; I can only revel in it, bathe my soul in it, cry about it, appreciate it and wonder about it.
When, as a Christian, I was hurt and battered and it seemed as if every hand was against me and sharp tongues speared me with awful, hurtful words the God of Eden, the Almighty God, (Psa. 145:8) the Lord God of compassion, (James 5:11) the Lord of pity, tender mercy and immeasurable gentleness (Psa. 18:2 & 28:7) stood before me and was my shield.
(Eph. 6:11-18) When my helmet of salvation was battered and bent, my reeking armor was torn, cut to pieces, fiery dart scarred and embering, my sword of the Spirit was broken and I staggered wounded and hurt from the assault of hell (Heb.13:5-6) Jesus came to my rescue, gave me a renewing spiritual transfusion of His blood, gave me a refreshing drink from His cup of blessing, gave me better armor there under His cross and with precious gentleness and His amazing God love He armored me to fight for Him again.
(Psa. 34:17-19) And too, I wonder why God would go to all the trouble to put me back together again when I was torn apart by unutterable tragedy and sorrow? Why would He lift me up out of the wreckage of my spectacular, glaring failures? (Prov. 6:16-17) Why would God put out the flames and extract me from the wreckage when I crashed and burned after flying too high on the wings of pride. (1John 1:7 thru 2:2) Why would God apply His Son’s precious, cleansing blood again and again to my awful sins I committed as a Christian. (Heb. 12:2-11) Why is my beautiful, loving Lord God of Glory so filled with incomprehensible gentleness to me as He patiently chastises me and teaches me to be a better Christian.
Bottom line; God does it because He loves me and I don’t understand it because to me I’m not worth His trouble but His God love and amazing gentleness thinks I am.
No, I have not defined gentleness because, like the scholars, I can’t. In my finite little world there is no finite definition for the infinite impossibility of reason. We can never reason our way to Jesus’ gentleness. We can only live in it, rejoice because of it, glorify God for it (Phil. 2:5-8) and pray that Jesus will bestow some of it within us so we may be more like Him.
Gentleness; Greek scholars generally form a consensus that gentleness does not have a satisfactory Greek definition and upon investigation neither do various English dictionaries. Go ahead and look, they are wordy but somehow one senses they are not conveying what the scripture is saying.
(2Cor. 10:1 keywords: the meekness and gentleness of Christ) The obvious answer is gentleness is a single finite word that attempts to describe an infinite Jesus character trait, a soul part, an activity, that springs from the infinite love, grace, mercy, longsuffering, tender pity, and kindness that characterizes Jesus, (1Tim. 3:16) Who is the embodiment of God. (Matt. 28:18) Jesus has all power in heaven and earth. (John 5:22) All judgment belongs to Jesus. (John 11:25) Jesus is the resurrection (Gen. 2:7 & John 14:6) and Jesus is the embodiment of life itself.
Yet: (John 11:33-38 esp. V.35 & 37-38) Jesus wept (silent inward groaning as tears stream down the cheeks) because of His friends weeping misery in the suffering of their loss and that His friends still had not recognized Him for who and what He is. How many Christians today still don’t? (Luke 19:41-44) Jesus wept (a tearful wailing) over Jerusalem because the Jews had refused to recognize Him as their Messiah, their hedge would be removed and their rebellion would bring the Roman sword, fire and fury. The gentleness of Jesus had wept because of their lack of faith in Him.
Yet: (Isa 52:14 the prophesy, #1: Matt. 26:63-68 the Jewish temple guard & #2: John 19:2-3 the Roman soldiers) At the Jews behest Jesus was twice slapped and fist beaten until His face was marred more than any man and He was battered, swollen and bruised until He was nearly unrecognizable. I still remember the burning of a tiny, limber, willow switch with which I, as a child, was corrected. And I cannot comprehend (John 19:1 keyword: scourged) the pure fire of 9 plaited leather lashes woven with tiny pieces of steel and bits bone embedded in them that cut and savaged the skin and flesh of Jesus’ back, shoulders, neck, sides and upper arms all the way to the bone in some places (Psa. 129:3) until His back was like a plowed field.
I have experienced the pain of a simple briar that scratched my head and/or hands while picking berries (John 19:2) and I cannot comprehend the gentleness that endured a cruel crown of thorns that were jammed upon Jesus’ head by the sarcastic Roman soldiers. But I do comprehend the meaning of the (Matt. 27:27-28) scarlet (denoting blood) robe (Mark 15:17) lined with purple (denoting royalty) on the inside they sarcastically and unknowingly placed upon Jesus who was gentleness personified. Gentleness was a King on the inside bleeding on the outside for His people.
No, I cannot comprehend the shrieking, agonizing, burning pain (Isa. 53:5) produced by His stripes by which I am healed. Nor can I imagine the shrieking, blinding pain as the nails were driven into His hands and feet (Col. 2:13-14) that nailed my sins to His cross. (2Cor. 5:21) I cannot imagine sinless Jesus’ horrid, suffocating sickness when He became the filthy, disgusting, sickening embodiment of my sins. Jesus had all the power and authority (Matt. 26:53) to call down the legions of heaven to rescue Him and I cannot comprehend the courage and strength of His gentleness (Luke 23:34) that said; “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
ME?? NO! No, I wasn’t worth it but gentleness thought differently and I was worth it to Jesus.
YOU?? YES! (1John 1:7 – 2:2) You are the same as me if you are a Christian.
If you are not a Christian YOU can plainly see that Jesus gave it all, everything He had, (Rev. 20:11 thru 21:4) for YOU to be able to come and live with Him in paradise forever (Rom. 8:15-17) and be a member of Jesus’ forever family.