Gentleness – 8th Fruit of the Holy Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22).
Many people take back a little of the fruit that follows, which is the quality of gentleness. Like it or not, Jesus has changed into a human body – but this incarnation was done as a human being – fully and fully God. She did not turn into a woman – no matter how many liberals try to distort this basic fact, and many try to make God gender-neutral.
Since Jesus walked our earth as a man – the Son of man – study His actions very carefully when you read the gospels and how He handled different types of people. There were times that He would engage and set people straight as He did with some of the Scribes and Pharisees. However, there were other times that He dealt with people very gently – with kindness and gentleness. His gentle way of handling some of these people is what jumps out at you when you study how He managed different types of people.
Again, Jesus is the perfect role model for us to study and learn from – especially with how He handled people while He was walking down here on our earth. For men, in particular, His actions and behavior towards others should be a significant study, and we should seek to pattern our walk after Him. Also, one of the qualities that He had operating in Him with great abundance was the quality of gentleness.
The quality of gentleness is another essential quality needed in our world today. Many people hurt in their relationships with others – only the gentle touch of the Holy Spirit can open the door for that person to receive Jesus from healing, the greed that frees their lives.
Once you start walking in the Holy Spirit with His fruits operating and flowing through you – you’ll be able to feel and sense when you should handle a specific person or a particular type of situation with more of a touch of gentleness rather than with any stern rebuke or condemnation. There is a time for tough love – but there are also times that just a gentle and loving touch is all that is needed to handle a specific situation properly.
The Holy Spirit will lead you in all of this. Realize that the quality of gentleness is one of the nine fruits of the Spirit, and this is one of the fruits that He wants to apply to your personality – especially to be able to use it when dealing with and to help others.
Parents need this fruit operating through them, as it is effortless to get out of balance with the way you are correcting your children. Sometimes more of a robust love approach is needed, but at other times, more of a gentle approach will be better suited for the situation.
If all your children ever hear from you are stern words of rebuke and criticism, and it is never correctly balanced out with words and actions of love, kindness, and gentleness – then after a certain period of time your children will start to pull away from you and they will have no more interest or desire in wanting to establish a good, stable, loving and deeply personal relationship with you.
Now here are some of the different definitions on the quality of gentleness:
- Mildness combined with tenderness
- Gracious, kindly disposition, controlled strength
- A disposition that is even hot-tempered, calm, balanced in spirit, unpretentious and who has a passion under control
- Fair, reasonable, patient, moderate, fair and caring character
- Power and strength under control
- Willing to forgive, correct mistakes Someone who rules his spirit well
Not only will others like and lean towards you if you learn how to walk in these qualities – but you will be much more at peace with yourself because you will not always have to fight and fight with others when trying to help them outside.
