August 23 Daily Devotional

August 23

Serious, simple of intent,
Teachably intelligent

[Meekness] must then go on and express itself in our whole demeanour and in our behaviour with respect to others.... A person who is of the type that I have been describing must of necessity be mild ... think again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mild, gentle, lowly—those are the terms. Quiet, of a quiet spirit ... ‘meek and lowly’ ... the most approachable Person this world has ever seen was the Lord Jesus Christ. But it also means that there will be a complete absence of the spirit of retaliation, having our own back or seeing that the other person pays for it. It also means, therefore, that we shall be patient and long-suffering, especially when we suffer unjustly [1 Peter 2:19–23].... There is no credit, Peter argues in that chapter, if, when we are buffeted for our faults, we take it patiently; but if we do well and suffer for it and take it patiently, then that is the thing that is praiseworthy in the sight of God. That is meekness. But it also means that we are ready to listen and to learn; that we have such a poor idea of ourselves and our own capabilities that we are ready to listen to others. Above all we must be ready to be taught by the Spirit, and led by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Meekness always implies a teachable Spirit. It is what we see again in the case of our Lord Himself. Though He was the Second Person in the blessed Holy Trinity, He became man, He deliberately humbled Himself to the extent that He was dependent entirely upon what God gave Him, what God taught Him and what God told Him to do. He humbled Himself to that, and that is what is meant by being meek. We must be ready to learn and listen and especially must we surrender ourselves to the Spirit.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, pp. 69–70