Gentleness
Last time we started looking at the fruit of the Spirit. I am actually starting to dread working on these sermons; every time I prepare to talk about something, it is almost like God is saying it directly to me. Sometimes I think it's an encouragement, because I can look back on my life and see how God has worked in me. But it's also a challenge to know how much more work needs to be done.
Last time we looked at self-control, and how self-control is most difficult the times it is most necessary. We also said that the fruit of the Spirit is singular; it's one fruit. The fruit of the Spirit means what grows in a person as they walk in step with the Spirit. We don't first get love, then get joy, then get peace... they all grow together. But each of the things that Paul lists in Galatians has a different ``flavour''. They are given to us to help us in different areas of our Christian walk. So this time we want to go on to look at ``gentleness''
Some of you know that I can understand a little bit of Spanish, even though I can't speak any. So I have a Spanish Bible and I checked through to see what word was used for ``gentleness''. The word I found was ``mansedumbre''. Then I went to look on the Internet to see how the word is normally used in Spanish. I found that it was only used for two things: first, it is often used of Christians. And second, it is often used of horses!
So I think it has come to mean being quiet and nice and not causing trouble. In English we sometimes say that someone is like a ``doormat'' - they let everyone walk over them. This is not what the Bible means here!
But I did find out one example of the kind of gentleness that the Bible talks about. General Jose de San Martin was a great fighter. He was not a nice and quiet man. He did cause a lot of trouble! But he left in his will a list of instructions for his daughter. One of them was that she should show ``gentleness with servants, the poor and the elderly.''
This is closer to what the Bible means by gentleness. It is not just being nice and quiet oneself, but it is to do with how we handle relationships with others. In 1 Peter, Peter advises women to show their beauty in the gentle way that they treat others. I don't think that San Martin was particularly thinking about the Bible when he wrote that list, but he came to close to what it means.
It's important to ask why God is giving these fruits to his people. He's giving them for a reason! The fruit of gentleness is God's way of dealing with problems inside the church. He expects us to be able to deal with problems that come up inside the church, and so he gives us tools to help us deal with them. There are two big problems which gentleness helps us deal with; the first is the problem with sin inside the church, and the second is the problem is disagreements inside the church.
One of the things I am always impressed by the Bible about is how practical it is. The Bible doesn't pretend that now that we have the Spirit of God in us, everything is going to be all right. The witness of the Church is that it is the living body of Christ. As the body of Christ everything should be going to be all right. But the Bible doesn't just leave us with how things ``should'' be. It deals with how things are. Most of the letters in the Bible are written because things are going wrong in the Church. Paul doesn't just say ``You're the Body of Christ, you shouldn't have any problems.'' Paul shows how Christians should sort out problems in a godly way.
The Church was never a perfect society. It always had problems. It still has problems. The witness of the Church is not that it has no problems. The witness of the Church is that it can sort of problems in a godly way. And gentleness is a big part of how God wants us to do this.
Let's look at Galatians 5:24-6:5; this tells us how to deal with sin inside the church.
First Paul tells us how things should be; we should be behaving in accordance with the Spirit. But then he tells us what to do if we are not! If someone is having problems, people from the Church have a responsibility to help that person. And this is where gentleness comes in; the gentleness in this case is a reminder that we are all human; we are all tempted; we are all vulnerable to sin.
When I was preparing with my mission agency to come here, we had a seminar about staying faithful in marriage. The most important thing we learned from that seminar is that unfaithfulness could happen to anyone. It's a human temptation and we are all human. If we start to think ``that could never happen to me'' then we are actually more vulnerable, because we don't see the temptation coming. We don't see the danger and we don't get out of the danger zone when we need to.
But worse than that, if we think ``that could never happen to me'', it makes it hard to help out other people who are in danger. It takes away the gentleness, and makes us more likely to judge. If we are going to help out others who are struggling with sin, we need to do so with gentleness and humility. That's what Paul's saying in verse 3: if you think that you're a better person because someone else is struggling and you are not, then you've lost that gentleness.
And again, Paul is very practical. If you're helping out someone who is having problems, you need to make sure you don't become vulnerable yourself. That's why Paul suggests that a number of people go to restore someone who is having problems. They can look out for each other. Paul makes it clear that Christians have a responsibility to each other. They have a responsibility to bear each others' burdens. This is both for those correcting people in sin, and generally. The body of Christ is a body that looks out for its members. If any part of the body is hurting, then the whole body hurts. We are responsible one to another. We carry one another's burdens.
But Paul also says that each one will carry his own burden. How do these two things fit together?
There are two pictures we can use for the Church. They're both pictures of climbing a mountain. The first picture is that of a cliff; we are on the top, and everyone else is down the bottom. If someone falls off the cliff, we have to try to pull them up again. But until then, there is a big separation between us and them. We are on top; they are on the bottom.
Paul tells us not to think of the church like this. In verse 4, we are to look at our own work, and not compare ourselves with other people. If we are on the top, we can feel judgmental about those on the bottom. If we are on the bottom, we can feel hopeless when we look at those on the top. This is a wrong view of our responsibility to each other. We are responsible for caring for each other; but we are responsible to God for our actions.
Here's another picture of a church. We are all climbing a mountain together. Some people are further on, some are at the back. But we are all following Christ. We carry each other's burdens. We are responsible to each other for keeping the Church connected together. But whether we are at the front or at the back is between us and God.
If we recognise this we will be gentle. If we recognise that God has put some people at the front and some at the back, and we are not jealous of each other, we will be able to help others out. And we will be able to be helped when we need it.
I have been recently trying to help out a situation in my church back home. One of the leaders of a house group has been struggling with the church. Let's call them Peter. That's not their real name. Now Peter is a great Christian, and a good leader. But Peter has been feeling uncomfortable with what some of the pastors have been saying. I need to say now that I don't think this is wrong. Sometimes we pastors make mistakes! We don't hear God properly, or we get the wrong idea. I think I do this all the time. But if we make mistakes, we often don't know it. We will only know about when someone is uncomfortable and they tell us about it. Then hopefully we will have the grace to think about it and maybe change our minds. This is another example of how we are responsible to each other.
So the other house group leaders went to encourage Peter to talk to the pastors. But Peter felt like the other house group leaders were condemning him. Peter thought of the church like a cliff; the other house group leaders thought of it like a slope.
This bring us onto the next need for gentleness; for gentleness when persuading people. Let's look at 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 24 to 26. I've already said that I don't think it is a sin to oppose the pastor. Sometimes the pastor is wrong. But how you do it, and how the pastor deals with it, is part of the Church's witness. We need to be a people who can deal with differences. The key to dealing with differences is gentleness. Part of that comes from knowing that we all stand before God. ``The same Lord is Lord of all.'' Part of it is seeing the same Spirit in your brother and sister. If we recognise that the same God has brought our brothers and sisters out of the same sin and given them the same Spirit, we will treat them with more respect and gentleness.
But part of gentleness is giving up the right to be right. We can often hold onto our rights more than our relationships. We want to be correct. But we can insist on being correct at the cost of our relationships. 1 Corinthians 6:7 is a huge challenge to me. ``Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?'' Paul says it is better to be wrong and cheated than to break fellowship with another Christian. Why do we have to be right when we might lose our relationships? When we argue with others, we have to be careful not to win the argument, but lose the relationship.
When there are problems within the church, and when Christians disagree, Paul's recipe is gentleness. Not getting into arguments. Not losing the person. But at the same time not being a doormat. Not letting everyone walk over them. Gently instructing others. But at the same time leaving the result to God. Maybe, says Paul, God will give them repentance. (v.25) But maybe he won't. Maybe he will convict us and bring us to repentance. But that is not our responsibility. That is God's responsibility. Our responsibility to maintain fellowship with each other. And that is where we need gentleness.
The way we handle differences, and the way we correct and encourage others, is part of our witness. We do not expect a church without problems. That has never been the case. But we do expect a church to deal with problems by the gentleness the Spirit gives. When the world solves problems between people, it often uses one of two ways. First, it often uses violence. Second, it ends up in separation. The church is called to more than this. The church is called to demonstrate a third way; the way of gentleness.
I want this to be a challenge. There are many Latin American churches in Nagahama. I don't know the history, but from what I hear, a lot of these started because Christians could not solve problems using gentleness. So they chose violence or separation. Those are the ways of the world. They are not the ways of the Spirit. We have a responsibility towards our brothers and sisters. We have to carry one another's burdens. We do need to challenge each other when brother and sisters are going astray. We do need to work out differences between us and correct those who are teaching anything other than God's truth. Even the pastors - maybe especially the pastors! But we are called to it with the gentleness that the Spirit brings. We cannot work these things out in our own strength. We need what the Spirit grows in us. God is at work in us so far. But we always need more.