The Inheritance of the Gentle Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: The Inheritance of the Gentle-------------------------- Date: 10/4/2001 Keyword: "gentleness" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. This is the third in a series of studies on the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5. Jesus spoke these words to a mixed group of disciples and nondisciples. Passage: Matthew 5:5* "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth." Question Gentleness doesn’t seems to be the way to "get ahead" in life. But what does Jesus promise that the gentle have in their future?   Practical help To be gentle is to not fight tooth and nail to get your own way. To be gentle is to be more concerned for others than for yourself. It might seem to us that gentleness is the route to travel if we want to get stomped on and squashed. But Jesus says that it is the way to "inherit the earth" — the most outrageous inheritance imaginable! Is your porn habit a manifestation of gentleness? On the one hand, is it "gentle" to lustfully view people made in the image and likeness of God in states of undress and engaged in sexually explicit behavior? In contrast to gentleness, viewing porn is an act of violently taking advantage of someone else’s vulnerability. Pornography violates the gentleness standard in another way. A porn habit is an attempt to feast on a banquet of our own making now rather than wait for God to give an even greater feast later, namely, the inheritance of "the earth." This is not to suggest that the inheritance we have to look forward to is a sexual experience. It is to suggest that waiting on God to provide for us will bring a blessing far greater than anything we can provide for ourselves. Your choice: A cheap diet of junk food and empty calories that doesn’t really satisfy now, or a banquet of the whole earth provided by God later? eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2001 by eXXit *"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."