The faithful Christian exudes gentleness. Gentleness flows from a heart of love for others which flows from a heart filled with love for God. The person who lacks a gentle spirit is self-absorbed, in love with himself. His wants are more important to him than other's needs. And though gentleness is to be shown to all men, it begins--as Jesus clearly states in John 17--with the Christian's love for other Christians. How we respond to other Christians is the evidence that Jesus is who He claimed to be.
Gentleness is simply the humble call to bend down to lovingly lift up other believers in times of difficulty--to lend your strength to the strengthless. It is the spontaneous, Spirit-empowered response to the hurting and to the fallen all around us. And it comes, not from a heart of pity, but a heart of empathy. We all know what it is like to fail, to have fallen down, to be hurting. We have all needed the gentle to lift us up. The Christian community is to be committed to bearing one another's burdens. We are all in this together, as one body that is broken-hearted for the fallen--for each other in the bonds of Christ. Helping the fallen is essential to the unity of the body, to its effective witness as the example of Christ's love. The Christian who looks down on the fallen without bending down to help up, with an attitude of contempt or indifference, with a "well, that's their problem not mine" heart is arrogant, self-righteous, useless to the cause of Christ. In fact, they are exclaiming to the world that Jesus life and sacrifice on the cross and His love for mankind is fraudulent. May we, in all humility, recognizing how many times we ourselves have needed the helping, uplifting hands of our fellow Christians after we have fallen, be living demonstrations of a gentle spirit, eager to stoop down and lovingly help another bear his burden.
Gentleness is simply the humble call to bend down to lovingly lift up other believers in times of difficulty--to lend your strength to the strengthless. It is the spontaneous, Spirit-empowered response to the hurting and to the fallen all around us. And it comes, not from a heart of pity, but a heart of empathy. We all know what it is like to fail, to have fallen down, to be hurting. We have all needed the gentle to lift us up. The Christian community is to be committed to bearing one another's burdens. We are all in this together, as one body that is broken-hearted for the fallen--for each other in the bonds of Christ. Helping the fallen is essential to the unity of the body, to its effective witness as the example of Christ's love. The Christian who looks down on the fallen without bending down to help up, with an attitude of contempt or indifference, with a "well, that's their problem not mine" heart is arrogant, self-righteous, useless to the cause of Christ. In fact, they are exclaiming to the world that Jesus life and sacrifice on the cross and His love for mankind is fraudulent. May we, in all humility, recognizing how many times we ourselves have needed the helping, uplifting hands of our fellow Christians after we have fallen, be living demonstrations of a gentle spirit, eager to stoop down and lovingly help another bear his burden.
"Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a man in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself, less you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone things that he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."
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