Welcome back to the A United Front course. I pray your heart is being encouraged as you study and that you are experiencing healing in your heart and marriage.
In our previous lesson, we considered what it meant to put on cross-focused humility. We learned about “having the mind of Christ” by actively pursuing humility in our relationship with God and others, especially our spouse. We do this by lowering ourselves to serve those who are dirty and undeserving.
Christ humbled Himself by emptying Himself of His glory, taking on the form of a man, living as a servant and then dying on the cross as a criminal. Jesus lived the life we should have lived and then died the death that we deserved. He lowered Himself to the point of death on a criminal’s cross so that we, dirty and undeserving, might be cleansed and made righteous.
Christ gave us an example of humility to follow by taking on the form of a servant and washing the filthy feet of His disciples. We follow Him when we humbly serve others and meet their needs, helping them to live in Light and love of Jesus.
Let’s read Colossians 3:12-13 again and continue in our study:
“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Colossians 3:12-13
So far, we have discussed putting on compassionate hearts, kindness, and humility. Today, we will discuss what it means to put on meekness.
Meekness is similar to humility, gentleness, and submission, but it is distinct from these. Meekness is restrained power; it is yielding and suffers injury without resentment or bitterness. It is best understood when looking at Christ.
Indeed, the beautiful thing about all the qualities mentioned in Colossians 3 is that we learn them all from Jesus. We only need to keep our eyes on Christ to be transformed little by little into His image. We don’t have to try and figure out what Jesus would do; instead, we look to and consider what Christ has done on our behalf and this informs our response to others and our circumstances. As we behold and rest in Jesus, He will work in and through us. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)
So, let’s do that now, let’s sit at the feet of Jesus, learn about meekness from Him, and find rest for our souls. Please read with me Luke 9:51-56 NASB:
When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village.
Question 1. In Luke 9, we see that Jesus was traveling with His disciples to Jerusalem where He would die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. On the way, Jesus was rejected by a town of Samaritans. According to Luke 9:54, what did James and John ask Jesus?
James and John were greatly offended by these Samaritans who rejected Jesus. The disciples were so upset they asked Jesus if He wanted them to call down fire from heaven and consume the sinners! Destroying our offender might sound extreme, but we spouses might be tempted to respond aggressively, too, when faced with a spouse who has rejected us. Nevertheless, we can see in Luke 9:55 that Jesus rebukes the disciples for reacting in the flesh and forgetting Him and His mission.