The Meek

Jesus said "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

We discussed this in our Revelation Bible study group but I have to be honest: I am not really sure how to take that, maybe because it is hard to be meek in today's world. We see that the world values boldness, success, ambition, being "out there" ... the meek are more hidden by the proud and the loud. So I looked at what the word means.

Among its more "positive" meanings are gentle, courteous, kind, humbly patient, long-suffering ... but among its more "negative" meanings are docile, spiritless, tame and submissive. That makes me think that God meant the former ... perhaps "long-suffering" even gives us a clue, as the early followers of Christ were so often persecuted. We may understand meek as a negative because of our society, but in the eyes of Jesus, it was a true virtue to be rewarded. Inheriting the earth is no small thing, after all.

The challenge then is to be meek in a positive way, while still being all that we can be. I don't believe God wants us to be "spiritless" ... he would have us be filled with the Spirit and proud of it. What this says to me is that every word counts, every phrase in the Word has deeper meaning ... we only need to look, and find it.