said about him, that he was indeed the meekest ("gentle" or "humble") man in all the Earth.
5. No wonder Jesus said in the beatitudes, Mat 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
a. Meekness or gentleness is a quality that cannot be absent from a Spirit filled Christian.
b. It is what allows us to conquer the world … for it is strength under control - God's control!
c. The next quality "self-control" is what allows us to conquer ourselves, but this quality of "gentleness" lets us conquer the world!
6. Are you truly a "gentleman" or a "gentlewoman"!
a. The term "gentleman" no doubt came from the idea of a strong controlled male who is humble and gentle, a biblical foundation for such a term.
b. God give us Christians whose lives demonstrate the quality of gentleness! Be filled with the Spirit!

CONCLUSION: "Gentleness" in our culture suggests "soft, easy going, almost weak!" This quality however is anything but weak! The Greek word translated "Meek" or "Gentleness" is found also in the beatitudes, "Blessed are the meek" and Jesus said that such "meek" people will "inherit the Earth" … and in the passage of the fruit of the Spirit the same word is used and translated "gentleness." It literally meant a wild horse that had become obedient to the bit and bridle. In other words, strength under control!

Stories Of Gentleness

The Fishtank

At their school carnival, our kids won four free goldfish (lucky us!), so out I went Saturday morning to find an aquarium. The first few I priced ranged from $40 to $70. Then I spotted it--right in the aisle: a discarded 10-gallon display tank, complete with gravel and filter--for a mere five bucks. Sold! Of course, it was nasty dirty, but the savings made the two hours of clean-up a breeze.

Those four new fish looked great in their new home, at least for the first day. But by Sunday one had died. Too bad, but three remained. Monday morning revealed a second casualty, and by Monday night a third goldfish had gone belly up. We called in an expert, a member of our church who has a 30-gallon tank. It didn't take him long to discover the problem: I had washed the tank with soap, an absolute no-no. My uninformed efforts had destroyed the very lives I was trying to protect. Sometimes in our zeal to clean up our own lives or the lives of others, we unfortunately use "killer soaps"--condemnation, criticism, nagging, fits of temper. We think we're doing right, but our harsh, self-righteous treatment is more than they can bear.

This is a good story to illustrate that we need to be careful to always be gentle in our dealings with people.  This does not mean that we do not stand up for the truth, or even separate ourselves from false teacher warning others to stay away.  But we treat people with gentleness keeping in mind that God is looking for repentance from them.  Sometimes this involves being careful not to offend someone because it may push them further away from the truth.  Sometimes it means being pretty blunt with them, not in a harsh way, but in a way that will challenge them to return to the Lord.  John the Baptist called the Pharisees "snakes" as they were coming to be baptized by John, but he did so to challenge them to repent instead of doing it for a show to look holy.  We think what he did was not loving but he knew what kind of people they were and realized that they needed to know who they were, which was hypocrites.  What he said did not hurt them but I believe the because he challenged them to truly repent a few of them did later on.  We must always balance two things in our walk with Christ … telling the truth and doing it with gentleness.  James S. Hewett said: "Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy."  As we study the character and teaching of the apostles we can see good examples of how this plays out in real life. Lao-Tse said: "I have three precious things which I hold fast and