Gentle Strength

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: Gentle Strength ------------------- Date: 7/5/2003
Keywords: “gentle”
Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.

The Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount will be the basis for the next several days’ worth of eXXit studies. The Lord preached the Sermon on the Mount to both serious disciples and to curious onlookers. Regardless of which camp you are in right now, you will find help in your struggle for purity in Jesus’ words.

Passage: Matthew 5:3-8*

3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (see eXXit study for June 30)

7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Questions

1. Look at verse 5 and you will see a blessing on the man or woman who is "gentle." Have you ever known a person you thought of as "gentle"?

2. Do you associate weakness or strength with gentleness?

 

Practical help

Many people associate gentleness with weakness, not with strength. And, if gentleness is all about not being able to do anyone harm, then it is weak to be gentle. However, that is not how we usually use the word.

When describing a horse that is gentle with children, we don’t mean for a second that the horse couldn’t do serious damage to a child. We mean that the horse’s temperament is such that he uses his strength for the child’s benefit. The 50 pound boy or girl is completely safe riding this particular 1,000 pound horse because it is gentle. The gentle horse uses its strength to protect, not harm.

Jesus says that gentle people are blessed/happy. He means that people who use their resources to benefit others rather than using their resources to cause harm are blessed.

Think about it. You have resources at your disposal. Those resources could be used for great benefit or to do great harm. If you utilize the resources of time, money, energy, etc… to benefit those in your world, Jesus calls you "blessed" and promises blessing to you (In a typically paradoxical statement, Jesus promises that gentle people will end up inheriting the earth, not the "run roughshod over the competition," "use people and then throw them away," "hurt rather than help" people, as we might have thought!)

What a great thought to bring to the porn battle. The gentle person - the strong and loving person — wouldn’t dream of watching another person who is engaged in sexual behavior. That would be to take advantage of someone. The gentle person uses his (or her) strength to bless.

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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."