Are you meek?

What does it mean to be meek and why did this particular characteristic make it to #3 of Jesus' "Top 8" list of the characteristics of kingdom citizens? Today, while preparing my message for Sunday on the third beatitude, I came across the following helpful quotes:

D.A. Carson says,

"Poverty in spirit has to do with a person's assessment of himself, especially with respect to God, while meekness has more to do with his relationship with God and with men." (Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World, p. 20)

Martyn Lloyd-Jones agrees.

"Meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others. . . . The man who is truly meek is the one who is amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do." (quoted by John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 43).

So how will this affect our relationship with other people?

We are to leave everything—our rights, our cause, our whole future—in the hands of God, and especially if we feel we are suffering unjustly." (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, quoted by Carson, p. 21)

According to Stott, "this makes him [the meek man] gentle, humble, sensitive, patient in all his dealings with others."

So Sinclair Ferguson defines meekness as follows:

"It is humble strength that belongs to the man who has learned to submit to difficulties (difficult experiences and difficult people), knowing that in everything God is working for his Good. The meek man is the one who as stood before God's judgment and abdicated all his supposed 'rights'. He has learned, in gratitude for God's grace, to submit himself to the Lord and to be gentle with others." (The Sermon on the Mount, p. 21)

So how does one become meek? It seems that meekness grows out of the first two beatitudes: those who recognize their absolute spiritual poverty and bankruptcy before God ("blessed are the poor in spirit", v. 3) and who are characterized by a humble, broken repentance because of their own sinfulness ("blessed are those who mourn", v. 4) will, in turn, be characterized by a humble, patient, gentle, sensitive meekness in their dealings with other people. So if this third beatitude is missing, it is likely that we need to grow in the first two. I don't make myself meek. Rather, as I am exposed to the white-hot holiness of God in his Word and to the gospel's assessment of my own sinfulness and depravity, the Holy Spirit will form in me poverty in spirit and repentance and, as a consequence, meekness in my attitudes and dealings with others.