Meekness, Gentleness and Kindness

Now, every now and then, you turn on the news, you hear something on the radio about a person or a group of people doing what usually sounds like something ridiculous, some type of crazy outstanding stunt, so that they can get in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Am I right? Have you heard stories like that? It's somebody trying to see how many coffee cups they can stack high, or how many pairs of underwear they can wear at one time, or something... I'm just making this up on the fly, so I didn't have that in my notes. But, you know, something ridiculous. But for some reason, we pay attention to these things.

I know when I was in elementary school was when I first discovered I and the other kids, the Guinness Book of World Records. I'm not sure how long it's been around, but in my memory, it was invented when I was in the third grade, and we were just fascinated with it. Wow, look at all these things listed in there.

It told you who was the oldest person in the world, and it had a picture of the person with the longest fingernails in the world. And if you remember that, because I didn't know that they would curl under when they grow real long. It's one of those kind of things that, you know, boys that age get into because they're gross.

And I was still kidding... Well, I don't want to be insulting any of you guys, but I've often said there's nothing more disgusting than a 14 or 15-year-old boy. And fortunately, we usually grow out of it. Anyways, getting back to the Guinness Book, I think this edition had a picture of the tallest man in the world standing next to the shortest man in the world. And we're just interested in that stuff. When somebody is the most of something in the whole world, that gets our attention. We think, wow, how unique! It's not to be taken lightly. So if the Bible tells us that somebody is the most of something in the whole world, that would be especially important, wouldn't it?

And it does that at least one time. If you'll turn with me to Numbers 12. Numbers 12 beginning in... Well, we're going to read just verse 3. I'm not going to read the whole story around this. I'll refer to it later. I know many of you might be with me on this, but I want to look at some words here.

I think it's important. This is speaking of Moses. Now, the man Moses, I'm reading the New King James, was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth. It was the most in the whole earth. Now, being humble is good. Being the most humble person in the whole world must be really good. But I had to hold on a moment. When I read that, I said, wait a minute, something doesn't ring right. I remember something about this passage, learning about it in my memory when I was younger. And a rhyme came to mind. I didn't mean from mind and rhyme.

They don't exactly rhyme, but... I thought of being taught something when I was younger, and I know it pertained to this. It was a rhyme where a minister would say, weak does not... No, he said, meek does not mean weak. Meek does not necessarily mean weak. And I said, who said anything about being meek? That's where I remembered... How many of you have the original King James, the old 1611 version? When I read that, what you saw was where it says, Moses was very meek above all men that were on the earth, or above all others that were on the earth.

Moses was the most meek. He was the most humble in all the world. So he certainly seemed to have qualified for the Guinness Book of World Records if it had been around then. But did he qualify in two categories, or only one? Or perhaps more? I pulled out my handy 26 translations of the Bible and checked some others. The modern language Bible says, Moses was very gentle more than any other person. The emphasized Bible translation says, Moses was patient exceedingly. Exceedingly is a more fancy way of saying more than anyone else.

And the New English Bible... I wanted to try to do this with an English accent, but I couldn't pull it off. But imagine an Englishman saying, Moses was in fact a man of great humility. I don't know if he was the most, but he was a man of great humility. Now some people might say, well, see? Bible contradicts itself. You can't trust it. Why can you believe anything it says? Now, that's a distraction. Of course, none of that's true.

And we should take into notice all these different English words that apply to Moses are very closely related. And they're all different translations from the one Hebrew word that's used. The Hebrew word was anaw, and I'll talk about that later. But what it tells us about Moses was something good and something worthy of our attention. So as much as Moses was a good role model...

I want to come back and look at him as a role model later. But I also want to think about what these words mean. We can go beyond this particular scripture to some others and look at these different words that were applied to Moses, where he excelled, and think about the source of that and how that relates to us.

I'll mention this. Matter of fact, I want to turn to Galatians 5, because we'll see a similar intermixing of words. And I was going to say, this is one of those cases where you know God's inspiration must be taken in a hand, because I think the sermonette and the sermon fit together very well as we're discussing similar traits. Galatians 5, 22, and 23 is a listing of what Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit.

Now, I want to read the original King James Version first. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and temperance. And ah, that King James said Moses was the most meek person on earth. And that same King James says that meekness is a fruit of the Spirit. But my new King James, which is what I have up here with me, says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control.

If I go to Numbers 12 in my new King James, it says Moses was the most humble man on earth. But then it doesn't list humility as one of the fruits of the Spirit. But it does list gentleness. And as I read the modern language, tri... bleh. So many words, I can't get them out. The modern language translation said Moses was the most gentle on earth. And every translation I looked at includes gentleness as one of the fruits of the Spirit.

Now, the big question you're probably getting to in your mind, why in the world is he talking about all these different words? All these definitions, now they're all about the same. They're good traits. Just read through and get on with it. Well, one of the reasons I want to talk about it is the characteristics do go together. So it's good for us to have them in their mind, or our minds, and we'll see the Apostle Paul put them together a number of times. Since we're here, let's go a few pages forward to Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4, the first couple of verses. Paul writes, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness. Now, lowliness, that word could have been translated humility or humbleness. With lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love. Go forward a few more pages to Colossians 3, if you will. Colossians 3 will begin in verse 12.

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering. No surprise, this was written by the same person that listed the fruit of the Spirit. Bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

Aside from the fact that we should strive to have all of these traits, I want to give another more selfish reason why I want to talk about them. Maybe it's not selfish, but it's more based on just me. That's the fact that one of my long-term goals, speaking of church, has been to address all of the fruit of the Spirit.

I always stumble over, should I say, fruits of the Spirit or fruit. But they're results of having God's Spirit. I've been making progress on it. I've spoken on love more than one time. I've spoken on joy, and peace, and patience. But there are others. Some time ago I was saying, I want to have a sermon ready. I didn't have a subject pressing aside. I'll speak on the fruit of the Spirit. So I turned and I looked, and that's where I started realizing it struck me the different terms that seemed to be interchangeable between the two translations that I used the most.

Most often I use the New King James, and I'm also familiar with the Old. And I noticed that where they switched some of these words. Where the 1611 King James Version says, meekness, my New King James says gentleness. Same Greek word, but they're translated as two different English words. And where the 1611 King James says gentleness, the New King James says kindness. Are they all the same?

Well, they are all similar. They're all produced by God's Spirit. And they are interrelated. They all represent traits that Christians should have. So it made sense to me that I should, or I could, address them in one sermon. So if we're looking for a title, I call it meekness, gentleness, and kindness. That's not very imaginative, but it did sum up what the sermon's about. And you might wonder, as I said, why do the words vary? Now, the Hebrew and Greek didn't change. But one of the things that struck me is, over time, like over the course of 400 years, some of these words have changed their meaning slightly.

And that's part of the reason why we used to make a big case, when we'd read Numbers 12, too, where it says, Moses was the most meek person on earth, we'd stop and say, wait a minute, meek does not mean weak. Why did we feel like we had to say that? The Hebrew word applied to Moses, as I said, was anaw. It can mean low in mind, it can mean humble, meek, or poor.

Similarly, the Greek word that translated meek in Galatians 5.23 is prau. And I'm not giving Hebrew and Greek lessons, because I don't know them that well. But I can give you the strongest numbers later, if you want them. But it means meek or mild.

Same meaning. It's closely related to the Greek word prautes. There's one word I did want to communicate, it'd be prautes. That's almost always translated in the New Testament as humble. We sort of know what humble means, but I wanted to share the definition that Dr. Ward gave us as students, 20-some years ago when I was in college, and I've heard many times since then. But he said, when someone is truly humble, they have a truly teachable spirit.

That's good for us to know. A humble person has a truly teachable spirit. That's the opposite of being a know-it-all or full of yourself. Truly teachable is somebody who's more ready to listen than to speak. And when I say that, I'm telling it to myself really more than you, because when you get to a position where your job is to teach and speak to people, it's easy to forget that you have to listen.

But it's interesting. I found... I learned something about the word meek. One of the reasons we don't see it used often in the newer translations is because its definition has altered slightly over the last 400 years, or at least it's gained a secondary definition. It means to be humbly patient or submissive. Humbly patient or submissive or humble, but its secondary meaning has come in modern usage to mean overly submissive or being too humble. In other words, someone who's a pushover, someone who is weak.

A lot of times when someone says meek, that's what they mean. So that's why we're compelled to say, no, Moses was not weak. He was meek.

Why not just say he was humble? That word seems to fit. And it does, and that's why the New King James put the word humble there. But then I thought of another subtle difference. Now, you might have got to realize I like to look at words and analyze their meanings. I'm going to get to some concrete examples in a little bit. But I find it interesting that humble can be not only an adjective, but humble can be a verb. In other words, you can humble yourself, but you can also be humbled by another person. Somebody else with greater power and strength and force of will can humble a person.

Now, meek doesn't have that usage. You can't meek another person. Now, you might say, yeah, so what? Well, an important difference is you are meek voluntarily because you choose to be, whereas humbleness can be forced on you even if you didn't want to be.

So that connection with meekness we can attach to gentleness, because that also has a similar meaning. A definition of gentleness could be to be mild, not severe or rough, but rather polite. And I picked up a lot of this came from my Webster's and a Bridge dictionary. I always like to do this when I talk about it, because when you've got a book that's this big on your shelf, when you pull it down, it better be worth looking at. But it said something else about being gentle I liked.

It said, gentle has a reference to disposition and behavior and often suggests a deliberate or voluntary kindness or forbearing in dealing with others. Now that's connected to the word kindness, which I also want to address. But I like this. Being gentle or meek suggests that you don't have to be gentle or meek. You could use strength and power, but you choose to be gentle.

I think that's an important distinction. We can see that demonstrated in the Apostle Paul himself. Actually, if you'll turn with me to Acts 9, we'll see a case of Paul being humbled by someone much more powerful than him. And it's actually, it's not the first place we meet him in the New Testament, but it's very near.

It's actually before he was going by the name Paul, he was still known as Saul. And Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee trained at the feet of Gamaliel. He was smart, and he knew he was smart. And he was vigorous and energetic. He was renowned above those of his own age group. And he was so devoted to his type of religion, which is the Judaism of the Pharisees, that he was going to squash out this upstart Christianity thing. They didn't even use the term Christianity. They were just calling it followers of Jesus or that way.

So we'll meet him when he's still full of himself and pretty feeling strong. Acts 9, it says, Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from them to the synagogues of Damascus, so that he found any that were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. I'm going to go get those guys, tie them up and drag them back here.

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and something happened. And we know this story, most of us. He had a light showing around him from heaven, and he fell to the ground. I don't think he fell because he was lacking grace. This light was overpowering and just knocked him down.

And he heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? Now the word translated Lord, curios, it's referred to Jesus Christ, but it also can be translated as sir. It's like he's knocked down. Someone says, why are you doing this to me? Sir, who are you? Now he's not feeling so strong or powerful or full of himself. And then he gets an answer that really surprises him. Who are you, Lord? The Lord said, I'm Jesus, who you are persecuting.

It's hard for you to kick against the goats. In other words, this is kind of tough. I don't like you doing this. So he trembled, he trembling and astonished. He said, Lord, what do you want me to do? He's taking a very different approach now. Before he was saying, I know what I'm going to do. I went to the high priest and got letters and authority to go do it.

Now he's laying on the ground saying, what do you want me to do? Probably in a very humble voice. The Lord said, get up or arise. Go to the city and you'll be told what you must do. The men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice and seeing no one. A later account says they heard a noise, but they didn't understand the actual words.

It just sounded like thunder to them. So Saul arose from the ground. When his eyes were opened, he saw no one. He was blind. They led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. He was there three days without sight and neither ate nor drank. Remember how you felt after a day of fasting not that long ago at Atonement?

You felt pretty humbled in. He went three days. But the humbling started before the fast. That humbling was pushed on him by someone much more powerful. And Saul was a strong person. Perhaps he needed that. He wasn't being humbled by his own choice at this point, but he then continued fasting probably because he saw he needed to become humble. And maybe Saul, if we make that distinction between being humbled and choosing to be meek, he saw that he wanted to make that choice.

And later on, let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 4. Later on, he developed the ability to do both, to exercise strength, but also to act humbly. He mentions that as he's writing to the Church of Corinth. Remember, the first epistle to the Corinthians is very corrective. They were a very good congregation with a lot of talents and a lot of enthusiasm, but with some problems. And Paul wrote and very directly corrected them because he knew we could deal with them that way.

And he's getting ready to come visit him. Basically, he's telling him, look, I'm coming there. I'll come there and straighten things out if I need to, but I'd rather not. So we see this in verse 21 of 1 Corinthians 4. He says, what do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod? You want me to come there and straighten things out, clean house? Or in love, in a spirit of gentleness? Saul, or now Paul, had the choice.

He could be meek by choice, but not because he was weak. He wasn't weak. He had the strength, but he wanted to be meek. He also instructed younger ministers to do the same. If you'll turn with me to 2 Timothy 2. Remember, there are two... Well, we don't know how many ministers Paul trained, but we do know Timothy and Titus were sort of his proteges.

And he writes to Timothy, 2 Timothy 2. And he's talking about some of the traits he wants to see in a minister. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 24 says, Now, there's some indication in other passages that this might have been Timothy's natural way of acting.

In the end of 1 Corinthians, Paul, writing this, says, In other words, Timothy was naturally mild and meek, and Paul sort of watched out for him. But he would encourage you to say, that's good. It's good that you're meek. He might have at times said, look, Timothy, don't forget, you can be strong. You have a feeling with Titus. Maybe Titus had a different disposition. Titus might have been naturally a little more tough-minded, and so Paul used him to deal with some tougher customers.

Let's look over to Titus chapter 3. Titus 3, starting with verse 1 and 2.

He says, Now, I like this. My new King James here says, If you look at the original King James, it says, I like that a brawler is someone that wades in there and is like, I'll straighten this up. He said, no, teach him to not be that way. Peaceable, gentle, showing all humility. In other words, he's telling Titus to teach these people, when you might go in and crack some skulls, be peaceful and humble. Not that you have to be. The strength is there. But, you know, be peaceable. I found a quote. I was looking up some quotes on some of these traits. St. Francis DeSales, who was a Catholic theologian in the Middle Ages, now we know him primarily by having several Catholic schools named after him. But he wrote this. He said, I don't care for a lot of the other things that he wrote about theology, but I like this one. Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing so gentle as real strength. Speaking of which, I'm going to look at some quotes as I address that third of the traits of the three I'm putting together. Humility or humbleness, gentleness and kindness. Kindness is how many of the translations of the Bible render the Greek word in 1 Corinthians 5 of Christotes. And that's hard to spell, so it's just Christotes. That's the only time that word appears in the Greek, but it appears many times in the Old Testament from the Hebrew ch-esed. I'm saying ch-esed because it's spelled, they render it English with a C-H, but you pronounce it like an H, so it's that trying to clear the throat type sound. And that means kindness. It could also be translated as favor or doing good deeds. And it's also accurate in the right context to translate it in English as beautiful. Keep that in the back of your mind. That's important. And the word hasced, as soon as I looked it up in the Hebrew, it was like, oh, of course I know that. It came to mind, one of my teachers when I was an ambassador taught us that very well because he was going over the concepts, and he said, if you're not sure what hasced means, go mow a widow's lawn. And he said, basically, some of the kids were stressing out over whether we're going to get an A on a test and memorize these scriptures. He said, I want you to learn this stuff, but if your mind fails, you know, he had a policy once on an exam, if we wrote the word hasced for a question we didn't know, he'd give us partial credit because he was exercising hased. But he said, keep in your mind what that means. And with all these other things, sometimes you're stressing about who's the boss or who knows this or that. He said, go do something for one of the widows in the congregation, and that'll get your mind a little straight. In English, the word kind means to be good or benevolent, to be considerate or helpful, even indulgent, gentle and mild, a lot of synonyms there. And this is one word where I found some of the quotes that I was able to dig up to be as useful as the dictionary.

So let me share some of them. Mark Twain said that, Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. I like that. In other words, it's not about what you say, it's the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see. Oscar Wilde said that the smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.

Because the smallest act of kindness is an act. The grandest intention is just, you know, as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Oscar Wilde didn't say that. I'm not sure who said that. Actually, lots of people have said it. I don't know who said it first. Let me move on. But it's important to know, similar to meekness and gentleness, kindness is done usually by choice rather than necessity. Samuel Johnson summed that up. He said, Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not. Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not. In other words, if there's somebody that you just can't be fond of, you can still be kind to that person. And let me give you one more quote. This is from Franklin Roosevelt. He made a statement that I think applies to all three words that we're considering. And it's worth remembering that when Franklin Roosevelt said this in a speech, it was at a time when the United States was facing Nazism and fascism and the threat of world domination by totalitarian regimes. But he said, Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. Kindness doesn't make you soft or weak. And he said, A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. Don't have to be cruel in order to be tough. Which fits with what we said. Meek does not mean weak.

So with that in mind, I've been talking about these words a lot. Enough so that probably some of your eyes are glazing over. It sounds like an English class. So these are concepts I think that are easier to grasp from examples. So I want to look at a couple of examples with the rest of the time and see them in action.

And imagine how we could put these to practice in our own life. So first I want to turn to the story of someone who's known for being unusually kind. And that's what we find in the story of Ruth. If we'll turn there. This is one of my favorite books in the Bible. For one thing, you could sit and read it all in one sitting if you wanted to.

And it demonstrates many important things. It's a type of God's calling and salvation. It's a beautiful love story. And it's an example of finding hope when all hope seems lost. And it also provides outstanding examples of kindness. Ruth herself was a person whose words and actions showed kindness. And I think by doing so, she inspired kindness in the people around her, as we'll see. Pick it up in the first chapter. Now, this came to pass, and these days when judges ruled, that is, judges ruled in Israel, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to dwell in the country of Moab.

He and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Olimilek. The name of his wife was Naomi. Now, Olimilek won't be with us long, but Naomi will. And he had two sons. They were Malon and Kileon, if for theites of Bethlehem Judah. They went to the country of Moab and remained there. So, there's a famine, no land, no, not enough rain to not be able to produce good crops. So, like a lot of people, when there's no jobs or no food, you travel to where there are.

In Olimilek, Naomi's husband died, and she was left there with her two sons. So, we don't know what happened. Perhaps he was in an accident or came down sick. But, of course, Naomi's there and her two, we now know, grown sons were there with her to take care of her. And they took wives of the women of Moab. The name of one was Orpah, the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years.

So, we don't know, we don't have all the chronology, but at some point they married these ladies, and we have a family. You know, these two families, or two married couples, probably living either in the same large house or close proximity, and the elderly mother, we'll find out she's probably somewhat elderly, and they're taking care of her. But then, yeah, in verse 5, both Malon and Killian also died. So the woman survived her two sons and her husband. No wonder, later on, at one point she says people, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara.

Because Mara in Hebrew means bitter. She'd had a rough life. But, you know, now it's these three women, they're bound together by marriage, but they're still acting as a family. Which is a good thing.

I'm looking to see what I meant. Oh, yeah. And it's important for us to realize that Orpah and Ruth, they consider Naomi, their mother-in-law, to be family. They stay with her, even though we'll see that they have some other options. In verse 6 it says, she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab. For she'd heard in the country of Moab that the Eternal had visited his people, giving them bread.

That probably means he sent rain, not that he showed up in a limousine and said, here, have a piece of bread. But, you know, things are getting back to normal back in the land of Israel, and Naomi says, oh, we can provide for our family there. Let's go. So she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her. They went on the way to return to the land of Judah. They look at Naomi as the head of the household. But Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, go, return each to her mother's house. In other words, you had families before you got hooked up with me. Go back there.

And the eternal deal kindly with you, as you've dealt with the dead and with me. She's saying, you've been kind to my sons who are no longer with us and my husband. You're dealing kindly with me. And she prays that God will be kind to her. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband. Now, you might say, husband? Well, their husbands died. Well, Naomi is saying, you're young enough to marry again. If you go with me, I don't know what the chances are of that.

You'll be going to a foreign country where you might be looked down on. You'll be occupied with me. So she's putting their needs ahead of hers. She's showing kindness, saying, don't worry about me. Go back to your other family and you can marry again. And I'm not going to keep reading because it gets, well, not that complicated. But she tells them, look, they're aware there's a custom in the Middle East at that time.

That if a man dies childless, a family member should marry that woman and the first child born would carry on his name. But Naomi tells them, look, I don't have a husband. If I married today and got pregnant tonight, are you going to wait around 20-some years to marry my kids? No, you know, go look after yourselves. And Orpah is convinced. So Orpah, okay, I'll go do that. But Ruth has chosen something differently. Now, like I said, Orpah and Ruth both had these different options.

Perhaps a better option, but Ruth not only is devoted to Naomi, but we'll see she has chosen to worship the God of Israel. Somehow she's come to realize that this is the true God. None of these other gods are real. And what she tells Naomi is one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible. So I certainly want to read it starting in verse 16.

Ruth said, So she's devoted. And as I said, you can see it starts with a devotion to Naomi. But she's come to know that this is the true God, and she wants to follow this. And in verse 18, I like what it says, it says, Sometimes it sounds like Naomi's given her the silent treatment.

Fine. But I think what it meant is she stopped trying to convince her. So, okay. And I suspect Naomi was secretly pretty glad. Naomi was showing kindness to the young women, or younger than her women, by saying, Hey, go take care of yourselves. But I'll bet she was awful glad when Ruth said, No, I'm going to go with you. Because how much would you want to make that journey on your own? An older woman with no prospects, no one to take care of you. So they returned back to the land that had belonged to a limo-lek, near Bethlehem.

It turns out there's a wealthy landowner there that we'll meet named Boaz. Here's where we see, once they settle in, get the house straightened up, Ruth determines that she needs to do what she can to support herself and her mother-in-law. This is part of the reason I keep saying Naomi was probably elderly, because Ruth determined she has to go out and work to support them, not Naomi. Probably Naomi would have gone if she could, but apparently she's not able to.

So we'll pick it up in Ruth 2. Ruth said to Naomi, Please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him and whose side I may found in favor. And she said, Go, my daughter. So she left and she went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. She happened to come to part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of a limo-lek. Gleaning was what you might call the welfare system of that time. They didn't get a check every month in the mail, but if you didn't have land or you didn't have a way of supporting yourself, by the way, this is recorded in Leviticus 19. I'm not going to turn there, but the children of Israel were commanded. When you harvest your field, leave parts of it. Don't do the corners. Leave the corners alone. And back then, they're swinging a side and cutting down grain and binding it, and some would fall on the ground. So gleaning was where you go and you pick up what was left behind. There could be many bushels, but the law in Israel was you don't go back and glean. You leave that for the poor, for the strangers, for people sojourning. So you won't have to give them a handout, but anybody can go and pick up food. And that's what Ruth wants to do. She said, I'm going to go glean. I'm going to get some food for us. And as I said, I'm guessing if Naomi were young enough and strong enough or healthy enough, she'd be out there with her, but she just can't, so she's very thankful to have Ruth doing that.

Now Boaz, who owns this land, notices Ruth, and apparently he asks around to find out what her story is. And he relates that, and we see in verse 8. Boaz said to Ruth, You'll listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in any other field, nor go from here. Stay close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men to not touch you? So he's saying, You're going to be safe here. I've got these men under my control, and I'm telling them not to hurt you. And it's not saying that they're going to jump you as soon as you go to another field. But he said, I know you'll be safe here. I want you to stay here. So she fell on her face and bowed down to the ground, not in worship, but she's showing proper honor. And she said, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I'm a foreigner? Ruth was very aware that she was a foreigner in Israel.

Now, I like to point out sometimes, remember Moab was one of the sons of Lot, Abraham's nephew. So ethnically, they weren't very different. So it wasn't that she was a different color or very different, but she was a different enough... She was a Moabite. She wasn't an Israelite, and perhaps spoke a different language. Maybe when she talked to Boaz, she had quite a different accent or something. I'd say maybe it's like if one of the young men here determines he meets a girl from France and brought her in here, and we'd be looking at her and thinking, What's going on with this? She'd be very aware that she wasn't from around here, and not necessarily subject to all the same laws. Ruth is thinking, I'm a Moabite. She wasn't expecting...well, we'll get into it later. But I don't want to skip ahead, but later on, Boaz would mention that Ruth showed more kindness later than she showed earlier. Well, what we just read is the earlier. Early on, Ruth was showing great kindness to Naomi and taking care of her. And people noticed, and that inspired other people to want to be kind. Let's read in verse 20. Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he that is Boaz of the Eternal, who has not forsaken his kindness to the dead. So the Lord has not forsaken his kindness. Naomi said to her, This man is a relative of ours, one of our close relatives. In other words, Boaz was close enough to serve in the role of what's called a Redeemer, which we'll discuss in a little bit. But getting back to the narrative, Ruth worked hard gleaning in Boaz's field. She went back day after day and all through, from the barley through the wheat, you know, it goes on for quite a while. Following Naomi's advice, Naomi said, Don't let him find you anywhere else. He said, Glean here, he's an honorable man. Stick with him. Let's go to verse 22. Naomi said, Oh, I got ahead of myself. She said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It's good that you go out with the young women, with his young women, that people don't meet you in another field. So she stayed close by the young women to Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest and wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law. Now is when Naomi decides, Hey, I think there's something I can do for Ruth. Because she's probably been sitting there thinking, Boy, this woman followed me all the way back from her homeland. She's living here in this house, happened to work and take care of me. So she says in chapter 3, verse 1, Naomi, her mother-in-law said, My daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you? Now Boaz, whose young women you were with, isn't he one of our relatives? In fact, he's winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Therefore, wash yourself and anoint yourself. So take a bath, put on some deodorant, put on your best garment, go down to the threshing floor. Don't make yourself known to the man until he's finished eating and drinking. And it'll be when he lies down, notice the place where he lies, go in and uncover his feet and lie down. He'll tell you what you should do. So lying down to his feet is a mark of humility. Basically saying, I'll be your servant, whatever you say. Now, one of the things Naomi is appealing to, and actually if you want to keep your hand here, we can go to Deuteronomy chapter 25, to show what was, I mentioned, accustomed throughout the Middle East, but was actually part of the civil law in ancient Israel. Deuteronomy 25 beginning in verse 5.

That is to marry her.

I wanted to read that because we'll see that scenario played out in the story of Ruth, but apparently it had become somewhat formalized, because we don't read of any spitting in the face, but the removing of the shoe, as it says, was done to show business transactions or legal work. And it shows that for some reason, if a man does not want to carry out this duty, or perhaps doesn't feel obligated, I'm getting ahead of myself here. But what I'm saying is, Naomi realizes that Boaz is a close enough relative to do this if he's willing to overlook the fact that Ruth is a Moabite. All those scriptures we read in Deuteronomy referred to Israel. These laws were part of, as I said, the civil code in Israel, but Ruth was a foreigner. And I think some Israelites would interpret the law saying, I don't have to do this for her. But I should note, when Naomi suggested that Ruth do this, she was putting at risk her own security. What would happen if Boaz said, yeah, I'll take Ruth. She goes and moves in with him and see you, Naomi. Hope everything goes well. Naomi might have been risking being left all on her own, and she doesn't seem to have been able to work. Now, we know it didn't happen that way. Ruth wasn't like that.

And what we do know, as I said, Ruth has already mentioned to Boaz, she's very aware that she's a Moabite. You know, she's not from Israel, and she doesn't find herself particularly desirable. She's surprised he's even letting her glean in the fields. She doesn't think he's going to want to come and marry her. As it turns out, Boaz likewise didn't see himself as particularly desirable.

One of the things we see, perhaps he was significantly older than Ruth. He might have thought, you know, there's the idea that she was physically attractive enough. He figured she'd go for some young guy, maybe a young lawyer driving a hot car, not this old farmer guy. That line got me a lot of laughs in Athens this morning. I've put you guys to sleep already. Now, I'm sure Boaz's car was just fine. But we have Boaz and Ruth both not seeing themselves as particularly desirable.

And that made me think of Philippians 2 and 3. I'm not going to turn there, but that's where it says, In lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Ruth and Boaz each esteemed the other as better than themselves. We'll see in Ruth 3 and verse 7, carrying on the story. After Boaz had eaten and drunk, his heart was cheerful. He went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. He lies down, he's eaten and drunk, he's been working hard, he probably had some wine with dinner, and he's out.

So Ruth comes and she lays down softly, uncovers his feet, and he doesn't know anything about it. It's not until midnight. Perhaps he rolls over and he's startled and he looks down and there's a woman lying at his feet. I think in the Basil Wolframton Bible stories, it shows him like that, and it suggests that maybe he thought a badger or something had come in there. It's not an animal, it's a woman. And he says, well, who are you?

In modern language, he says, who is that? And he says, well, I'm Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing for you're a close relative, meaning you can redeem. You have the right to carry on what we just read about in Deuteronomy 25. And he's surprised to hear that. He says, blessed are you of the eternal, my daughter. Notice the daughter.

Like I said, he might be quite a bit older than her. You've shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning. Remember, she'd shown a lot of kindness already. But you didn't go after young men, whether poor or rich, or driving hot cars. But he goes on, he says, now, daughter, I am a close relative, but there's someone closer than me. And if he wants to redeem you, then he can. But Boaz, you get the feeling, he's secretly hoping that won't be the case. And so he goes and rounds up the elders. Here's where, if you have the old King James, he's got one of my favorite lines in the Bible.

When he sees one of the elders of the city, he says, ho, such a one! Which means, hey you, come over here and sit down. But I love the old, like I said, 1611. Ho, such a one! And he gathers them up, and then he talks to the relative who's closer. And that fella, he says, basically, Boaz sets him up so he makes it, probably makes it appear as uninviting as possible for the guy to be the Redeemer.

And he says, I can't do this, it might mar my own inheritance. We don't know if the guy, you know, maybe he doesn't have any children yet. Maybe he doesn't want to marry a foreigner. I don't want to marry some mole bite. Whatever the case, Boaz gets to take off his shoe and says, I've redeemed Naomi's land, and I'm taking Ruth the mole bite to be my wife. And without us reading all of it, I'll leave it for you later.

As the saying goes, they live happily ever after. Things work out well. As I said, it's a beautiful story. Partly because, you know, it's a story about people acting beautifully. Acting in kindness. Ruth is kind to Naomi. Naomi's kind to Ruth. They act kindly to Boaz and so on.

And back and forth. It's just, what a great example. I'm pausing because I think I should have come up with a better conclusion to wrap that up. But what can you say better than they got married and lived happily ever after? Well, of course, the end of the book also says they had a son, and he had a son whose son became King David.

Things play out pretty well in the long run for the nation of Israel, too. In fact, eventually, it leads all the way to Jesus Christ being born. Ruth and Boaz are both some of his ancestors. But if that addresses kindness, let's turn to the example that we started with to address our other traits. Meekness and gentleness. I want to go back to Moses. After all, he was the meekest man and the most humble in the whole earth. But Moses had one thing in common with the Apostle Paul. Maybe he had a lot of things in common.

But the one I want to point out is that Moses, before he became the meekest man on earth, he went through the experience of someone of greater power humbling him. That's where, instead of turning to Exodus, let's first go to Acts. Acts 7. Acts 7. We'll read in verse 22. This is part of Stephen's long sermon before he was stoned. But we're not going to get into Stephen's story, but we're going to see what he says about Moses. Acts 7, verse 22. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. He had been brought up as Pharaoh's daughter's son.

Now, when he was 40 years old, it came to his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him, who was oppressed. He struck down the Egyptian. The Exodus version shows that he killed him and hid him. He supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. Now, Moses had one thing right. He still saw it as God doing the delivering, but of course God would use him. After all, he was so talented and educated and so capable. Why wouldn't they see that? Well, we'll see that they didn't. Now, I want to go back to Exodus 2. Exodus 2, and we'll begin in verse 15.

Let's carry on where we were. Basically, when Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh. He went and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. So Moses flees, he goes out to Midian, and basically he's out somewhat in wilderness. He sits down by a well, and the story goes on. Some women brought up some sheep they were herding, and other shepherds tried to run him off.

So Moses defends him and waters the flock. So they say, well, let's take him home to meet our dad. In verse 21, Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses. As I said, Moses basically ended up there because he had no place else to go. He fled, he went all the way from being in Pharaoh's household to moving in with the first family that was willing to have him.

And he goes from skilled and educated in Egypt, the most powerful nation in the world, to living out in the back wilderness, working as a shepherd for his father-in-law. And for 40 years, it wasn't, I'm going to do this for a few years and then build up and I'll start out on my own business. No, it's, he had no place to go, no prospects.

Moses, really, his attitude about himself changed quite a bit. And we'll see that when God does decide to call him. It's only the next chapter, but remember, this is 40 years later. Exodus 3 and verse 10, of course, there's the burning bush. Moses stopped to see what's happening.

God speaks to him. And in verse 10, he says, Come now, therefore, I'll send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Now, this is what Moses was expecting 40 years earlier, but now what does Moses say? Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring out the children of Israel out of Egypt?

Moses, as I said, he's humbled now. Now, it might have been pushed on him. I don't think when he went down to see how the children of Israel were doing, and he expected they'd know that God would use him to free them, he wasn't humble yet then. Now, he's humble. As I said, not necessarily by choice, but over the course of this 40 years, he has become the meekest man on the face of the planet.

It goes from being forced on him to him being able to do it by choice. We'll see that demonstrated if we go to chapter 15, one of the first times that there's a serious problem the children of Israel face and complain about. Exodus 15, verse 23, When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah. Here's a connection back to the book of Ruth. Remember, Marah means bitter. Naomi was going to take that for a name. They couldn't drink the waters because they said they're bitter.

Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And what did Moses do? Did he say, I'm skilled in all the wisdom of Egypt. I'll figure something out. No, he didn't. He cried out to the eternal. He didn't trust in himself at all. Not that he had lost the education he had, but he knew where the power was.

So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree which he cast in the waters, and the waters were made sweet. So he's not thinking about his own education and all the things that he can do. He's thinking, let's go see what solution God has. Let's go to chapter 16. They journeyed from Elam, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Zinn, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month, after they departed from the land of Egypt.

And the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The children of Israel said to him, Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full. You brought us out in this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger.

And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I'll reign bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota. So this is when manna is given. But what I want to point out is, Moses keeps himself in perspective, because they come to him and say, Oh, better we should have stayed in Egypt. We're starving to death. And verse 8, Moses explains this to him. This is Exodus 16, verse 8. Moses said, This shall be seen, when the eternal gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full. For the eternal hears your complaints, which you've made against him. What are we? Remember already at the burning bush, he said, God, who am I that I should go? He said, What are we? Your complaints are not against us, but against the eternal. So he said, You're talking to me, but the complaints aren't against me. Now you might say he's just passing the buck. Or we could say, He's learned who he belongs to, and if we had that attitude, think of how we'd look at various trials. We think of the fact that we belong to God. Each of us we've been bought and paid for by Christ's blood. So when we have a trial, when someone's giving us a hard time, who are we? It's not against us. It's against God, our master. And if we'll trust him to take care of it in his own time, that in his own time is always the toughest part. We want to say, God, take care of this right now. This guy is hassling me. Sometimes God's saying, No, he's not hassling you. He's hassling me because you belong to me. And I'll deal with it. And I say, God says that. Unfortunately, he doesn't call us up on our cell phone and tell us that at the time. We're wondering, when's he going to deal with this? But we have to trust that. I want to move ahead. We'll see a pattern of how the meekest person on the whole earth handles adversity. The Book of Numbers has several times when Moses has to do that. Numbers has most of the narrative. So I want to go to the Book of Numbers. I guess instead of just saying it, we can turn there. And actually, there's one stretch starting in Numbers 12, where every other chapter, Moses has to deal with some type of rebellion. It's one of the reasons it sticks in my mind. It's on the even-numbered chapters. We already looked, actually, at Numbers 12. The first scripture we went to is when Aaron and Miriam got a little bent out of shape because Moses married an Ethiopian woman. And they're saying, who does he think he is? And Moses was the meekest person on earth, so he didn't want to argue with him about it. And God stepped in immediately and made Miriam have leprosy for a week. And that sort of settled things down. So I'm not going to deal with that any longer. We'll skip ahead two chapters to Numbers 14.

This is the time when the Israelites, they sent spies into the land of Canaan, or scouts, to check it out. And ten of them brought a bad report. Oh, there's giants there! They're going to kill us and our children! Only Jacob and Caleb brought a good report. And there are Numbers 14 in verse 3. Why has the eternal brought us to this land a fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?

So they said to one another, let's select a leader and return to Egypt. How did Moses react to this? In verse 5, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. Now, if you weren't familiar with the practice, you might think, Moses and Aaron were pretty clumsy, weren't they? They're standing in front and they fall down on their face. But no, they didn't trip and fall. They prostrated themselves in prayer. I said it right that time. This morning it came out prostrated, which is a different kind of thing.

But they went down. They immediately, without regard to who saw it, they humbled themselves in prayer right there in front of everybody. Now, is that our reaction when we have a problem? To immediately pray to God? Now, I should caution, it's not that often that we do pray in public.

There are certain settings, but, you know, Jesus Christ said, Go into your closet to pray, and the Father which sees you in secret will reward you openly. So our prayer is normally in private, but are we willing to be humble enough to in public pray when necessary?

The story of Moses brought to mind, I thought that I'd read this in Herbert Armstrong's autobiography, and I found the story, and I want to share it with you. It's from the first volume, and I didn't bring the book, so I just copied it here, to save me carrying more things in my briefcase. But this is the case, you remember, Herbert Armstrong was a successful, well-to-do person in his early career. Then, as he related, God swept these businesses out from under him, made him live in poverty so that God could open his mind.

God humbled him, similar to the way he did Paul and probably Moses, so that he could later choose to be meek. There was a case when early in Mr. Armstrong's association with the church, he wasn't an ordained minister. He wasn't even sure if he was a member of the church yet.

But he was meeting with the Sabbath-keeping group in Oregon, and they were discussing some matters, and tempers flared. They started arguing with each other. So let me begin reading from page 410. And if you can't imagine this being Mr. Armstrong's voice, I'm not good at impersonations, but I know a lot of you know the voice. And if you imagine in his voice, he says, At that instant I arose, and in a loud but calm voice I asked if I might say a word, since I was a guest they didn't refuse.

Brethren, I said, you all know how, as recorded in the first chapter of Job, when the sons of God came together, Satan came also. You also know how, in the 12th chapter of Revelation, we are told that the people Satan is most angry with are those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. That means Satan is here. He is stirring up rage and anger in your hearts. I am going to drop to my knees right now and ask God Almighty to cast Satan out of this house. All of you who wish may kneel with me and pray silently. Without another word, I quickly dropped to my knees beside my chair and began asking God to rebuke Satan and this controversial spirit that was rousing these men to anger, and to drive Satan from our presence and to give us peace and love.

When I rose, there were some wet eyes, but there were no angry voices. These people were sincere. They simply believed what they believed and had allowed themselves to be caught off guard and roused to anger. I like that because, you know, it's easy. I picture Moses out in the desert surrounded by rocks and whatever, and it's easy.

Okay, he fell on his face, but that was Moses. Mr. Armstrong was a guy like us. Well, some of us aren't guys, but he was relatively young. He was trying to think at this point. I think he was in his 40s. He wasn't a minister, hadn't been in the church very long, but he saw something that he thought needed God's attention.

And he said, look, I'm going to pray right now and you guys can join me if you want. I see that as the equivalent to Moses falling on his face, and it was effective. You know, he acted in meekness, turning to God, and that moved people to do likewise. Let's look at one more example in chapter 16 of Numbers. As I said, there's a rebellion every other chapter here, and this is the biggest one of all, I think.

Numbers 16, verse 1. Now, Korah, the son of Ishar and the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliyev, and on the son of Peleth, the sons of Reuben. These are impressive names if you lived in Israel at the time. They rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, with some children of Israel, 250 leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown. These are the bigwigs, the impressive, powerful, and influential men. They gathered together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the eternal is among them.

Why then do you exalt yourself above the assembly of the eternal? What did Moses do? So when Moses heard it, he fell on his face.

And think of the reaction, a meek person, a humble person, doesn't feel like he has to protect his reputation. How many of us would say, I'll show you if I'm taking too much on me, I'm going to make the earth open up and swallow you? Now, God later did that, and God killed off most of these men, but Moses didn't say, I'm going to show you who I am, what do you mean I'm taking too much on myself? He just fell on his face, and he was willing to let God move him out of the way if necessary. And as I said, a person that's meek, and remember, meek is not weak. Moses wasn't weak, he was choosing to act this way. He chose to not have to defend himself in front of these men. That fits with Jesus. Remember, he said, if someone smite you on one cheek, turn the other. He didn't mean, well, because you're afraid and you just got to let him hit you and make yourself a punching bag. But he meant, stifle your own pride. Don't feel like you've got to stand up to defend yourself. Be willing to let someone put you down if necessary. A person who's meek and humble and gentle and kind is not on the lookout for his own advantage. Not out to get promotion or be considered esteemed in front of others. And that's a tough example to follow. Even though you don't have to be the meekest person on earth, we all do need to strive to become meek.

Fortunately, we don't have to do it on our own. We can draw on a greater source of power to do that. And that's the thing I want to address before we wrap up. To remind us of this very important point, we're talking about fruit of the Spirit, of God's Holy Spirit. As I said, that's what I, you know, the sermon came about me wanting to talk about the fruit of the Spirit. And I've laid out some examples that are hard examples to follow.

Matter of fact, too hard for any of us really to do on our own. No matter how much we might want to be as kind as Ruth or as meek as Paul or Moses, we can't just, I'm going to be meek today and expect it to always happen. We can only develop the fruit of the Spirit when we have God's Holy Spirit dwelling in us. And if that's not that to happen, a person has to repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And we want to remember receiving the Holy Spirit isn't a one-time thing. Now, there is a moment, as I said, we're baptized, we come out of the water representing coming out of the grave with our sins behind us, and an elder lays hands on us and asks God to put in the Holy Spirit. And I always say, it's not the elder, it's not his hands, it's God doing the work. But we need a continual connection with God. I talked last week about having the Spirit stirred up. We need to have that continually happen. Let's go to John, Chapter 15. You see, Jesus Christ reminded the apostles. Well, he reminded them of it before they even really understood what the Spirit was. But he knew the Holy Spirit would draw these minds back to their, these words back to their memories. John 15, beginning in verse 4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I'm the vine, you're the branches. In other words, keep in mind how this relationship works. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. What fruit? The fruit of the Spirit. For without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's cast out as a branch and withered. They gather them and throw them in the fire and they're burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you'll ask what you desire and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so you'll be my disciples. So developing the fruit of the Spirit requires the Holy Spirit. As I said, that connection with God. We can do nothing on our own. Nothing is beyond the power of God to do. Now the good news is, we can look for fruit of the Spirit to start manifesting itself in us. It'll ripen and come to maturity just by us living God's way. If we allow ourselves to be led by it. Now I do want to remind us that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is given on baptism and repentance. But Acts 5.32 reminds us that God gives the Spirit to those who obey Him. We can quench the Spirit if we refuse to obey. But who would want to do that? But there is something else we have to expect. I started off in verse 4, but in John 15 we should also go back and read verse 2. John 15 and verse 2. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. Every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes it. So it might bear more fruit. You can't win. You're going to get cut either way. Well, actually I shouldn't say that. Yes, you can win. Being pruned isn't so bad because it helps you bear more fruit. That fits with Hebrews 12. Let's turn over there. Hebrews 12 and verse 11. As I said, I'm reviewing some of what we've covered fairly recently. I guess that's what happened when you get something in your mind. But it certainly is worth reading it again. Hebrews 12 verse 11.

Now, no chastening, such as being pruned, seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Of course it's painful. But afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Peaceable fruit of righteousness. Fruit of righteousness, we could say, is fruit of the Spirit, for those who have been trained by it. Going through trials is effective at building compassion in us, helping us to appreciate the value of being gentle and kind. Remember, Paul and Moses were both humbled by a much powerful and greater power than them. God had a hand in humbling both of them. Then they were prepared to exercise gentleness. They were ready to be meek with others. Ruth suffered. She lost her husband, had her father-in-law die, journeyed into this strange land, and had to work out in the fields just to support herself and her mother-in-law. And through it all, apparently she became a more kind person than ever. So when we're chastened, we should be softened a little bit, able to be more kind towards others. And of course, as I said, that's possible by the Holy Spirit working in us. God's Spirit will not force us to be meek, gentle, and kind, but it will lead us that direction if we choose to follow that lead. That's one of the most wonderful things. The Holy Spirit doesn't drive us. It doesn't force us. It'll lead us like a shepherd leads his sheep, and we can choose to follow. So as I said, let's make that choice in our lives. Now, I don't think I'll ever get into the Guinness Book of World Records as being the meekest or kindest person in the whole world, but I'd like to be remembered by people as someone who was kind when I had a chance, someone who was gentle, or as I like to say, a plain old nice guy. I used to tell people that about myself. I think it came from my early dating experiences where girls say, well, he's a nice guy, but I always got the butt. But I'm such a nice guy! Well, aside from the sarcasm, now I'd hope people would think of me and I hope we're all thinking, I want to be a nice guy. I want people to think of me as being gentle, meek. With God's Spirit leading us, we can be that way. No matter what word the different translations put on us, God's Spirit can help us develop the fruits of His Spirit, including meekness, gentleness, and kindness.