Meekness

If you have been to multiple churches in your life, you have probably run across very passionate and intense pastors. The kind that have to have a handkerchief on the podium because they work up a sweat with how exuberant they perform. This style of preaching may be exciting and cause responses within the congregation, but I would venture to say it is not biblical. This is not the type of character that the leaders of our churches should be portraying. Have these pastors ever studied what it means to be meek?

The King James Bible Dictionary defines meek as; mild of temper, soft, gentle, not easily provoked or irritated, yielding, and given to forbearance under injuries. Meekness is the character trait called out for both Moses (Num. 12:3) and Jesus (Matt. 11:29). Not only that, but it is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). This is the character trait that we should look for in our church leaders.

It doesn’t stop there though. This word is rarely discussed in Christian teachings, as far as I have seen. Why is that when there are many verses showing that this word is linked to salvation? Below are a few of them.

Psalm 22:26

The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.

Psalm 149:4

For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

If meekness is the spirit that we should have for salvation, then it should be something that we focus on as a church. It should be a type of character that we see in the whole body, but it should start with the leadership. When we have pastors on stage, acting the exact opposite of meek, there is a problem. We should hold these leaders accountable for their behavior. If they were going against the Bible in other ways, like adultery (extreme example), then we would act. Why do we sit idly by when they go against the character the Bible demands us to have.

This is not to say that there isn’t a time and place for passion, but every Sunday in sermons is not it. We come together as the church on Sundays and when we are interacting with the brethren, meekness is the spirit we are told to have. Paul in Galatians 6:1-3 speaks of restoring someone overtaken in a fault in the spirit of meekness. This is one reason we go to church, to hear the Word of God preached for correction (2 Tim. 3:16) and when we do, it should be with a mild temper, soft, and gentle. Also, in verse 3, if you think that you are something, you deceive yourself. To be meek is to be humble. Paul describes himself in 2 Corinthians 12:11 as being behind the chiefest of apostles in nothing, but he is still nothing. Where is this humility, this recognition of lowliness, this meekness in our leaders? I do not see it on stage when they are being examples unto all that attend their churches or watch them online.