GENTLENESS – Fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 5:22-23 AMP
But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is Gentleness (meekness, humility)
Gentleness in the Greek, “prautes”, commonly known as meekness or humility is a virtue of God. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that is available in our lives through the Holy Spirit.
Gentleness is not about being a “soft” person whom people can push around, bully and exploit.
The fruit of Gentleness means the following:
- You are submissive and obedient to the will of God
- You are meek and humble. Therefore you are not governed by pride in your attitude towards life and towards other people.
- You have a balanced and modest opinion of yourself. You see yourself through God’s eyes. You do not see yourself as being “better” than somebody else.
- You are always conscious that God must be glorified in all that you do. You are not boastful, but you realize that every good thing in your life is because of God and not because of your own effort alone.
Titus 3:1-2 NKJV
Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.
Paul writes that we are to show “ALL humility to ALL men”. Gentleness / Humility is therefore is an important attribute to have in our relationships. It is very easy in our different interactions with people to be very boastful and conceited. Therefore whenever we are not humble, we give room to pride, which will then lead us to have a wrong and ungodly opinion of ourselves and of others.
1 Peter 5:5 says “…and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
Therefore put on humility as a virtue wherever you go and with whomever you interact with.
Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and remind you and instill in you the virtue of gentleness / humility.
Philippians 2:8-9
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
Even Jesus humbled Himself. While He was in human form, He had great power, great authority, great influence and yet He showed great humility in His relationships and in the way He behaved.
God wants us to show humility even when we have power and authority. God wants us to use our influence and authority to His glory and to submit to His will.
TODAY. Show gentleness; show humility.