Category Archives: Christian Life

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Christian Life, Special Topics

The Necessity of Meekness

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“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” – Jesus (Matthew 5:5)

“I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the Lord.” – Zephaniah 3:12

“…the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.” – Psalm 37:11

The lexicon definition for meek is something like lowly, gentle, humble, considerate, kind, mild and friendly of disposition, “the older sense of strong but accommodating.” In the book of Numbers, Moses is described as the meekest man on earth. This is a man who had led battles, presided over divine judgment, stood up to the most powerful emperor of his time, and had done many other things that most people would not consider meek. Jesus also, the Messiah, as he came into Jerusalem rode on a donkey. The book of Zechariah prophesied this, and showed that it meant to demonstrate that our king would come to us meekly. That even in his triumphant entry while here on earth the first time, Jesus was meek. And yet, there are numerous places where Jesus is bold. He turns over tables in the temple. He asks the Pharisees how they think they can escape the damnation of hell. He confronts people that seek to manipulate him or silenced him.

So what should we make of meekness? How important is it in a culture that sees assertiveness as critical to health and maturity? I believe that meekness actually represents a family of virtues we are meant to pursue by faith, and that meekness is the opposite of a family of vices that destroy faith, dishonor God, and greatly harm people.

Take the Beatitudes of Jesus in Matthew 5:5. The first question studying Scripture is, “What is the immediate context?”. The Beatitudes begins a section referred to as the Sermon on the Mount which covers Matthew 5-7. Jesus also gives a similar set of teachings in Luke 6:21-26, which includes four Beatitudes and four woes. In Matthew’s Gospel, he says that those that are blessed are “the poor in spirit,” “those who mourn,” “the meek,” “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” “the merciful,” “the pure in heart,” “the peacemakers,” and “those who are persecuted because of righteousness.” He says that you are blessed “when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” In this context, none of these descriptions require us to interpret the state of the listener as financial poverty. In some ways, it would be strange to interpret these characteristics as particularly characteristics of financial poverty. It is important to remember that class is not of nearly as much interest in the Bible as in the minds of people who lived after Karl Marx, and other writers during and since the Industrial Revolution.

These can all be seen as characteristics of spiritual character. Yet, what holds them all together? They are not all passive. They are not all weak. They’re not particularly subject to circumstance. It may seem too simple a description, but one could say that these are people who “love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and love their neighbors as themselves.” Then you would add something like a strong dose of humility, as well as being on Jesus’ mission of reconciliation.

“Meekness” here then doesn’t primarily mean “of too low a status to own land.” And it doesn’t seem to mean the opposite parallel of “will inherit the earth.” There seems to be a different reason why these people would inherit the earth. In fact, there could be a warning to the poor here. If your poverty of spirit, or meekness, is only a product of your station—the necessary fact of your financial poverty—it may not be part of your character, it may only be part of your situation. If your environment forces a behavior on you, you may find if that environment changes, the behavior changes also; it may, in fact, reverse. If you were powerful, would you still be meek? If everybody had to move on your command, would you still be “poor in spirit”? If you didn’t need people to show you mercy, would you still be merciful? Are you really like Jesus?

Is meekness “low position”?

There is a way in which meekness is a kind of “behaving as though you are of low position.” In Luke 14:7, Jesus comments on people sitting in more and less important places at a dinner party. He says in verse 10: “When you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when the host comes, he will say to you, ‘friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests.” Here, Jesus explains the natural consequences of self promotion versus assuming a lower position for yourself. It is reminiscent of Philippians 2:3, which says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Fundamental to humility (which is part of meekness) is behaving as though others are more important than yourself.  This treats them with honor and sacrificial love—while attacking the flesh that is brewing our selfish ambition and is how our vanity easily becomes conceit. However, this would not mean that meekness is to be in a low position, but that meekness chooses a low position in the humble service of others.

If not “low position,” is meekness being a pushover?

Besides being poor, the next most common American fear related to meekness is that we will have to be unassertive. Among many modern Americans, especially in the middle and upper classes, being assertive is seen as fundamentally necessary for good health and keeping oneself from being taken advantage of by others. However, this is the common fallacy of presuming that a virtue is a vice. Fundamental to knowing virtue and vice is having the wisdom to apply them to a particular situation. Meekness includes the virtue of knowing when to be deferential. Being a “pushover” is a vice of being deferential when we shouldn’t. One version of this is sycophancy, defined as “being obsequious, fawning or differential toward someone important in order to gain an advantage.”

In the lexicon definition above, the old English definition defined meekness as “strong but deferential.” Meekness, by this definition, is deference that does not come from weakness but is chosen in the presence of strength. This is consistent with the biblical usage.

What is the opposite vice to the virtue of meekness?

If being a pushover, or sycophant, isn’t the opposite of meekness, then what is? In traditional moral theology, the opposite of meekness is wrath. Wrath can be defined as “consisting and exciting oneself about something at which one is displeased.” It assumes a kind of self-centered view, and a selfishness of spirit. It leads to a lack of restraint and an outflow of rage. The selfishness of wrath is also displayed in disrespect and irritability. Wrath is distinguished from “zeal” when the exercise of emotion is truly focused on the purposes of God and true virtue. The expression of zeal is called “just anger,” and it is displayed in Scripture when Jesus cleared the temple, or when Moses returned from Mount Sinai to see the people worshiping the golden calf. Rightly conceived, just anger flows from true charity and love informed by a zeal for the glory of God, and comes forth in a desire to set things right and to reconcile people to God and each other—which is the end goal of love and worship. Read here for more.

So what is the real meaning of biblical meekness?

Throughout Scripture, meekness is used in a range of contexts. In a couple of passages, as in Psalm 34:2, the emphasis seems to be on being in a low station. In others, as 1 Peter 3:4, it means something more like proper modesty. In contexts like Zephaniah 3, it is either parallel with or a close synonym to humility.

Psalm 37 is perhaps the most important text, because the beatitude in Matthew 5:5 is nearly a direct quotation of Psalm 37:11. The only difference is that the translators use the word “land” instead of “earth.” However, in Hebrew, it is the same word. In Psalm 37, there are also two other verses that claim that people will inherit the land. Verse 9 says, “those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.” Verse 22 says, “those the Lord blesses will inherit the land…” Verse 29 says, “the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.” And verse 34 says, “he will exalt you to inherit the land…” “You” in this context refers to “the righteous” from a couple verses earlier. So, in the Old Testament parallel passage that contains five references to “inheriting the earth/land,” the universal parallel of “meek” is a kind of righteousness willing to trust God and wait for him. In fact, if one goes through the first 10 or 12 verses of the Psalm, it is easy to come up with a profile of those who are referred to as “the meek.”

There are those who are meek because they are: trusting the Lord, doing good, delighting themselves in the Lord, committing their way to the Lord, hoping in the Lord, seeking righteousness, waiting patiently for the Lord, etc.

And there are those who are not meek, because they are: envious of evil, fretting at evil even if it succeeds, wickedly scheming, releasing their anger and wrath, plotting, gnashing their teeth, etc.

So how should we define meekness? First, I believe that meekness is something like a family of virtues. Meekness is closely associated in its contexts with the fear of the Lord, spiritual patience, faith, humility, gentleness, deference, temperance, forbearance, prudence, hopefulness, and more.

If love is something like the center hub of how we conceptualize the virtues, meekness is something like the umbrella under which we express the virtues. It at least must exist in the presence of many other virtues, and seems to be something like their controlling principle. Meekness is motivated by a fear of the Lord, a willingness to wait on the Lord, and a humility before the Lord. It is motivated by a fundamentally God-centered heart. Faith and a love for the glory of God is fundamental to expressing meekness from the heart. Then, it is the application of principle for gentleness, deference, temperance, forbearance, prudence and the other improvisational and situational virtues we express towards others. How do we love others with these virtues? We express them with meekness.

A close relationship with gentleness and humility.

Last, it is important to focus strongly on the relationship of meekness to both humility and gentleness. Meekness, as opposed to wrath, is always humble and self-forgetful in nature. Wrath is always arrogant and self-centered in its perspective. Without a God-glorifying and God-centered view of who and what we are, meekness is impossible because humility will be absent. But even in the presence of that theology, meekness, like humility, is a practice of the heart. It must be continually chosen, and wrath continually put to death. In faith, and by the present power of the Spirit, the virtue must be chosen and the vice shunned. And when we fail, faith demands an open repentance: that we should have chosen the virtue and shunned the vice, that we are ashamed we didn’t, and that we endeavor with the help of God to do differently in the future. And we make, in meekness, whatever restitution we can to build trust again with the person we harmed.

So when should we be hard, strong and unyielding?

As said above, charity and love, motivated by a zeal for the Lord, may demand from us responses that do not seem “meek.” The Bible confirms that both Jesus and Moses, as well as people like Nehemiah and others, rose up and did ferocious acts and marshaled strong defiance and resistance among God’s people. John and Peter in Acts 4, for example, are not obviously “meek” when they tell the ruling authorities of Israel that they will not obey them, because they must obey God, nor is the apostle Paul when he confronts military men and rulers.

However, these actions are still chosen with meekness, and even expressed with meekness. That is, they are chosen by men who consider whether virtue allows them any other choice. If you read the most defiant moments of God’s holiest men, you will often still find palpable meekness. David will not raise his hand against Saul. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (their Babylonian names) answer directly to the king, but not with taunts. They, and Daniel, do not show more disrespect than is necessary through their disobedience to the Eastern Kings. The apostles are very direct with the rulers that they face, but not overly bold.

Jesus seems to have no love for aggressive confrontation, and is always seeking a meek and peaceful interchange. He only turns up the heat when the obstinance of his adversary leaves him no other choice, if the truth is going to come down upon them. And he brings that truth down upon them so that the wrath that would otherwise descend can be escaped.

Even Moses, who came down very hard on the people for worshiping the golden calf can be defended in this way. All that he makes the Israelites do can be seen as a meek deference to the glory of God and a necessary medicine to their orgy-filled idolatries. Even more, when God tells Moses that he plans to destroy the people, Moses intercedes for them and begs for their survival. He even begs for God not to send them up out of the desert if he will not go with them himself, and so, Moses begs for the presence of God among the people. He is their true and perfect advocate, even in their worst sins. He is meek. He is never thinking about his own position in himself. None of these men seem to be doing that. They are all concerned with God’s glory, what is good, the truth, what love demands. Doing nothing out of selfish ambition and the conceits of vanity, in meek humility, they consider all others better than themselves, and the glory of God the greatest pursuit of all humanity. May we submit to this same work of God in our own hearts and actions, becoming like Jesus in his ferocious meekness.

For further study

A list of verses that contain the Greek word translated “meek”: Numbers 12:3; Psalm 24:9, 33:3, 36:11, 75:10, 146:6, 149:4; Job 24:4, 36:15; Joel 4:11; Zephaniah 3:12; Zechariah 9:9; Isaiah 26:6; Daniel 4:19; Matthew 5:5, 11:29, 21:5; 1 Peter 3:4

A very close cognate word for “meekness” or “humility/gentleness”: Esther 5:1; Psalm 44:5, 89:10, 131:1; 1 Corinthians 4:21; 2 Corinthians 10:1; Galatians 5:23, 6:1; Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 3:12; 2 Timothy 2:25; Titus 3:2; James 1:21, 3:13; 1 Peter 3:16

Christian Life, Culture and Society

The Origins and Ironies of Thanksgiving

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Imagine someone from a galaxy far, far away coming to America in late November and thinking we worship the turkey goddess—or the football gods. When strangers do cross our path—that is, refugees or immigrants, international students, the homeless—would we invite them to a Thanksgiving meal and explain its meaning?

For Thanksgiving two years ago, my wife Sue and I invited a family of seven Iraqi refugees to share our Thanksgiving meal. Their big question, as Muslims and newcomers to America, was this: “Is Thanksgiving a Christian holiday?” I answer, “No, it is not uniquely Christian; all grateful hearts may participate.”

However, there’s a rub as we thank God for the grub: Some may not be feeling so thankful this year. To get in the right mood, a gratitude journal helps. This accords with the research of Michael McCullough and Robert Emmons, who conducted a psychological study with three control groups: One group journaled weekly about things they were “grateful” for, one about things that were “hassles,” and a third group about “events” that were unremarkable. After just nine weeks, the gratitude group reported better well-being, better health, and increased optimism than the other two control groups.

For another take, I invite you to consider the origins and ironies of our Thanksgiving holiday. Centuries ago, the Pilgrims faced squalor and hunger in Europe, along with the fear of being assimilated into the Dutch culture of the day. Hence, they came to America, “the land of opportunity,” to build a better life.

Most immigrants at our southern border, as well as those in Spain and North Africa coming from sub-Saharan Africa, and those in Germany fleeing from the Middle East, tell similar stories of hope for opportunity and a better life.  (I personally heard many of those Spanish, North African and German stories in 2016, 2017 and just a few weeks ago.)

But in making this 400-year-old cross-continent parallel, I sloughed over a crucial difference. The Pilgrims of 1620 were met by the local Indians, who moved from hostility to hospitality. During their first New England winter, being short of food to start with, nearly half the immigrants—indeed, 14 of the 18 wives—died!  Nevertheless, they set aside a day of thanksgiving out of human resilience and undaunted hope. Wow! I want that, don’t you? Persevering in prayer and assisted by helpful Indians, those Pilgrims reaped a bountiful harvest the following summer.

The surviving Pilgrims then declared a three-day feast in November of 1621, to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends. We traditionally celebrate this event as the first Thanksgiving in America.  But rival claims for “first Thanksgiving service” are made by Virginians as early as 1619, by the Spanish in Texas as early as 1565, and by French Huguenots in Florida—all before the Pilgrims arrived. Never mind that the Indians had such fall festivals long before. How ironic.

At Thanksgiving in the Gruen household, or in phone calls made that day, I ask, “What are you particularly thankful for this year?” Eight shares later, I conclude we have much to be thankful for—good health, good jobs, good friends, good kids, three wonderful grandkids. I take mental notes, gather pics that fit, and prepare my “dear-all, what-a-wonderful-year-it’s-been, count-your-blessings” annual newsletter. Some of you get that. Many of you do the same thing—focus on the positive, and not just in newsletters.

But for families grieving the loss of a loved one this season or suffering through a bad year, your letter—if you send one at all—will differ. You better acknowledge the giant “turkey” in the room. Don’t let some yahoo like me force you to share one thing you’re grateful this coming Thanksgiving. Don’t dance at the office Christmas party or sing joyous carols all night just to please other people. In acknowledging your grief or apathy, go ahead stuff the turkey and enjoy all the trimmings—it is comfort food, after all—but don’t stuff your feelings.

You can grieve and be grateful. In 1863, amidst our bloody Civil War, President Lincoln saw fit to issue the proclamation creating the day we now celebrate. Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation came at a time of spiritual crisis for him personally and for a divided nation. Personally, he’d just buried his 11-year-old son, Willie. “The severest trial of my life,” said Lincoln. Now, as we are again polarized and losing loved ones to health crises and acts of violence, it will help to turn to the first Pilgrims and Lincoln for enduring reasons to be grateful. Our forebears invite you to give thanks in word and deed, in all circumstances—that is, in life and death, in abundance and want, in sickness and health, amidst great adversity and diversity, remembering both wrath and mercy, victors and victims, grieving family and joyful friends alike.

Rev. Dietrich Gruen is Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Columbus and Bethany Presbyterian of Randolph. He is also the Benevolence Coordinator at High Point Church and former member of the Global Missions Team at High Point Church.

Christian Life, Culture and Society

When your table hosts a divided America

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by Dietrich Gruen, Bridge Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Columbus

Engaging controversial issues from the pulpit is difficult for me, but so is the dilemma faced by many at the dinner table, post-election.  Our problem and opportunity are how to talk politics with family and friends who disagree on today’s political flash points.  To help in that regard, I shall share wisdom gleaned from several bloggers, family, and holy scripture.

First, to graciously discuss hot topics, get permission to go deeper.  When friends & family gather at the table for Thanksgiving or Christmas, keep the food hot and the rhetoric cool.  IF more heat than light is being generated, that’s time to back up, read the body language, and get permission to go further.  Once you have permission, agree on rules of engagement.  You could start with these: Continue reading When your table hosts a divided America →

Christian Life, Learn and Grow

Fighting for Joy through Devotional Time

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Isaiah 55:1-3a
“Why spend money on what is not bread,
    and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
    and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
    listen, that you may live.”

This year as a church, we’ve been focusing on joy. So I am a little embarrassed to admit that also this year, I’ve struggled to feel joyful. Instead, the circumstances in my life in the last few months have brought out more shame, insecurity, and sin that needs to be weeded out. And anxiety and depression feel like deep waters always on the brink of bursting through a weary, old dam. Continue reading Fighting for Joy through Devotional Time →

At High Point, Christian Life, Learn and Grow

Embracing your lot and toil

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In the sermon on Sunday, February 4, I attempted to explain that as humans we crave meaning, and that Ecclesiastes teaches we must learn meaning from the bottom up like creatures, rather than from the top down like gods. Hopefully the reason for this is self-evident: we are creatures, not gods. Recognizing and embracing this reality is essential in our pursuit of virtuous freedom, which is a key element in our fight for joy.

One of the main themes of Ecclesiastes is that human life is “meaningless.” Yet it doesn’t mean meaningless in the way we normally use that word. When we say meaningless, we usually mean “without any meaning,” but that is not what Solomon means. The Hebrew word translated “meaninglessness” is a word that literally means “vapor.” If everything is vaporous, that means that it is insubstantial and temporary.  Consequently, if life is insubstantial and temporary, then pursuing it as though it was ultimate and eternal is foolishness. It is to pretend life is something that it isn’t. The word we used to use for this was “vanity.” And if you look at an older translation of the Bible, that is precisely how the word is translated.

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Think about it. What is the opposite of spiritual substance? Vanity. To treat what is insubstantial and temporary in life as though it is ultimate and eternal. You might reasonably think that the solution for this is to trust in God, and that is Solomon’s solution—but not in the way we might think. He argues that the ultimate meaning of many of the things in our lives are not revealed by God, nor discernible by science, philosophy, or human reflection. He even goes so far as to say that we long for these ultimate meanings, yet we can’t reach them. He calls this the “burden God has laid on men” (Ecclesiastes 3:10) and he tells us that this frustration is for our healing and maturity. He says that “God does this so that men will revere him” (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

I think that means something like this: if we understood the meaning of everything from beginning to end, we would think that we were part of eternity—that we are ourselves the ultimate meaning. He says at one point when discussing wisdom that “God made man upright, but we have gone after many schemes” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). That is, we are not good enough for ultimate wisdom. We are idolaters who seek to ourselves be gods. Therefore, if we were able to figure out all of ultimate meaning it would destroy and damn us.

So God withholds it. He frustrates our idolatrous desire to understand all things in order to feel good about our lives. He allows us to believe in himself as a person, and then forces us to grapple with our creature-hood by embracing the ordinary. The vocabulary he chooses for this is our “lot” and “toil”: the real situation of our daily lives (lot) and the work of our daily purpose (toil).

We start with faith by believing in the God who holds in himself ultimate meaning. Life may be full of vaporous vanity, but God is substantial and completely worthwhile. Still, our faith in him does not give us access to all of his knowledge and therefore all of the meaning we desire. God calls us to discover our meaning from the bottom up, trusting him to reveal himself in the midst of our lot and toil. This requires enormous faith,  because he is demanding that we find meaning in precisely the thing we wish meaning would allow us to escape.

It is only in embracing our lot and toil that we will find satisfaction and happiness in the things that actually make up our lives as creatures. God claims that it is in this experience that we not only find joyful satisfaction; it is also where we find knowledge and wisdom. The pursuit of anything else is the pursuit of vapor. And the pursuit of vaporous vanity will never produce substance.

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Can I do this work any faster?

You might wonder if that means we can’t study, reflect and learn our way into satisfaction, wisdom and meaning. I think we can, so long as we do it while embracing the toil and lot of our real lives. In fact, this is precisely what the rest of the book of Ecclesiastes is. It is a series of reflections on what makes up our real lives and how we should engage with those things as creatures rather than as gods or idolaters.

There are a number of examples of how to embrace our lot and toil in the book of Ecclesiastes, and in this sermon, I talk about nine of them. I am not saying that there are only nine parts of our lot and toil discussed in the book of Ecclesiastes. These are just nine examples I have pulled out to demonstrate how we can combine study and reflection with the practice of daily embracing our lot and toil with joyful satisfaction.

I encourage you to listen to the sermon for these nine examples. Then, read the passages and reflect on them by journaling about how they specifically relate to you embracing the realities of your own real life. Don’t just think theological and philosophical thoughts. Think intensely personal thoughts focused on daily repetitive application. Some of those thoughts should be hurtful and humiliating. They should reveal how unsophisticated our sin often is. Some will also be a beautiful as we realize how much we have overlooked all that we have to be thankful for. Yet you must also trust that God is with you in every step of finding satisfaction in the lot and toil of your vaporous life under the sun. It is not only he who gives you this life, but is also he who “lengthens your days like a shadow” into eternity (see Ecclesiastes 8:13).

Edited June 1, 2018: Originally, I had promised to write nine blog posts about each of the nine examples of embracing our lot and toil throughout Ecclesiastes, but have yet to be able to get to writing these. Since I cover each of these examples in a sermon and haven’t followed up with the blog posts, I suggest listening to the sermon and reading them in the Bible for yourself.

Christian Life, Global Missions

Mission of the Month: Re-Thinking Generosity

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By Dietrich Gruen, with Mark Finley

When you hear the word “stewardship” or “giving campaign” uttered from the pulpit or other church leaders, what feeling or reaction in you does that prompt? Do you slink lower in your seat, avoid eye contact, hold tight your wallet, and brace for the pitch?

Relax. We at High Point believe that stewardship is about our whole lives, not simply our finances. My career with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (1974-85) and Middleton Outreach Ministry (1997-2008), involved significant fund raising. But I’ve since come to understand generosity and stewardship in a whole new way, which I (with elder Mark Finley) present here as part of High Point’s Generosity Campaign.

If you are eager to know where year-end gifts to High Point are going, you can find that information here. For more information specifically on the Global Missions portion of the High Point Church year-end gift, you can see the end of this blog post.

But before we get into any of that, we need to explore why to give at all—and lay a proper foundation for giving.

josh-boot-177342 Continue reading Mission of the Month: Re-Thinking Generosity →