Gentleness

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Gal. 5:22-23)
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The only occurrence where Jesus offers a description of his own personality or character is in Matthew 11:29 where he says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  Jesus describes himself as gentle and humble.  In a previous post, I wrote about the humility of Christ and what that means, what that looked like for him, and what that should look like for us (The Mind of Christ), but here we need to understand what it means for Jesus to be gentle.  When citing from Isaiah 42 to describe himself and the kind of ministry he would undertake, there he says, “He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; and in his name the Gentiles will hope” (Matt. 12:19-21).  He will not quarrel or cry aloud,…a bruised reed he will not break...a smoldering wick he will not quench.  Jesus describes himself as not being quarrelsome and of not taking a battered reed that is on the verge of snapping and not breaking it, and not taking a smoldering wick that is on the verge of being snuffed out and not quenching it.  In other words, both with his words and with his treatment, Jesus will be gentle with those who have been battered by life (a bruised reed) and with those who are on the verge of giving up on life (a smoldering wick).  In his book, The Practice of Godliness, Jerry Bridges correctly states, “Gentleness is illustrated by the way we would handle a carton of exquisite crystal glasses; it is the recognition that the human personality is valuable but fragile, and must be handled with care.”  We should ever strive to be gentle with all people with our words and by our actions.