Blessed Are the Meek

When Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount, He began with the Beatitudes. These are the ‘blessed are the’…verses found in the fifth chapter of Matthew. These describe the Christ-like attributes that I imagine He is asking us to develop—He being perhaps the perfect example of each.

When I read “blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth’, I feel a bit confused as it appears to be somewhat of an oxymoron. I am confused because I don’t think of Christ as being meek—at least in the sense that I understand it today.

We have a tendency to link the word meek with the work weak. In fact, an ‘official’ definition of meek is given as “too submissive; easily imposed on; spineless; spiritless.”

That certainly can’t be what He is talking about—is it? Doubtful. So, is meekness really a Christ-like attribute?

Christ was humble, yet bold and courageous. He was anything but weak, yet we know he was meek. He invites us to “…learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)

I like how king Benjamin described meekness. He plainly taught that we can put off the natural man and be more Christ-like by becoming… “as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father.” (Mosiah 3:29)

Did you catch it? Being meek, in this sense means we are willing to submit to the will of the Lord. We are being spiritually submissive. This is certainly something we can do without being weak or timid. In fact, I would contend that this takes real strength of character, courage and boldness—just like Him.

Time and again, we see that Jesus submitted to the will of His father and in this way He was perfectly meek. He was spiritually submissive, not to be weak or spineless. To be meek like Jesus then would require us to submit our will to the will of the God.

So, how then can we develop this Christ-like meekness? We can strive to submit ourselves to the will of God—as He did and make that a priority in our lives.

The next time we come across any situation, we can ask ourselves what God would have us do and then do it. In this simple way we will undoubtedly become meeker.

I bet you can find other ways to become meek as well. May God bless us in our righteous endeavors as we seek to emulate Him in our own lives whenever possible.