God uses different criteria and evidence for his involvement with mankind than we use for his involvement in society. Society appears to admire tough persons. The tough, in this meaning, are the ones who have self-strength to express themselves to gain followers and solutions. They push for agendas that appear substantive, perhaps dramatic; control resources for purpose; and, command others to do their bidding sometimes for the common good and sometimes for private purposes. They may be the ones who hire and fire people, compel others to justify themselves, make judgments based on their own standards and searches, and the like. The Apostle Paul recognized this approach, noting that he had once held to a standard of worth that he now, as a Christian, presumed to be nothing, less than nothing, for another standard. One feature of the new standard is gentleness. He listed other factors in one of the most magnificent verses in all of Scripture or literature in all: whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about these things. (Philippians 4:8 – NIV) The word whatever implies that each factor has subdivisions to be included.
There is something in us that makes us want to be great, great whether earned or, by some ruse, it finds opportunity. We feel like ciphers in our thoughtful moments. We know we are not important to the large scheme of the natural world. Where do we find our worth? We ought to find it where it really counts, and where it will be registered in immortality. That personal worth lies in what God thinks of us. Have we become what He meant for creation? On our own we feel, in the end, with Solomon, Vanity, vanity, all is vanity [vapor]. How may we escape the dead end? Most persons seem to be rushing, or sauntering, down dead-end paths. Even whole nations and societies argued historian, Arnold Toynbee, travel to dead ends. One supposes that we do that because we miss the values, both large and small, that God commends to us. One of these is gentleness. Can’t be measured, but we can feel it. Sometimes we see it.
God, able to command universes into existence, regards gentleness. He is capable of blessing and remembering the small things in our lives. Capable of judging creation, he smiles on the features of love that include unselfishness, acceptance, patience, gentleness, and the like. Jesus could be patient and gentle with persons who acted and talked like idiots, when they should have been acting and talking with humility and compassion. Leaders, like Saul of Tarsus, saw themselves as controllers (demigods) more than persons bearing the fruit of the Spirit. As Paul the Apostle, he spent much of his personal search for godliness in shucking off old ways for new. When life was concluded for him, there was little of Saul left, and much of the Christ-like Paul. We have his map of values to follow. We have seen Christians too who slam their way through life. They are stern, sometimes intractable perhaps barking at family members and others, in the belief they are strong (always right). They may only imagine what is life and success under God. They missed something and scrambled their lives with the world’s ideals. We need to be gentle on our minds. This magnificent Epistle from God offers melody for that. It really takes some doing, but it can be achieved. Try it, you’ll like it – and feel it. We were meant to be strong in the Lord, which is to be helpful, useful, kind, and practice a spate of other virtues that take energy, selflessness, love and patience – in short the accent on the affirmatives of life and of God. It may be shown in a word, in the giving of a cup of water, in sitting with a friend, in the attention to children and certainly in prayer for the matters, large and small, that God has in plan for us. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020