Reading the Sermon on the Mount With John StottSample

The Meek

We don’t relate very well to the idea of meekness. Meekness is weakness—or at least it seems that way. So what is this meekness or gentleness that brings God’s blessing upon us? Meek people have a true view of themselves. They understand their spiritual poverty before God and the amazing grace that gave them a right standing with God, and because of God’s mercy and blessing to them they are gentle, humble, sensitive and patient with other people.

These meek people, Jesus added, “will inherit the earth.” You would expect the opposite—that meek people would get nowhere because everybody ignores them or tramples them down. It’s the tough, the overbearing who succeed in the struggle in the world or the workplace; weaklings go to the wall. That’s how we usually think, but in Christ’s kingdom the principles that govern this world are reversed. The inheritance we receive from Jesus is not obtained by might but by meekness.

This spiritual reality has always been grasped by holy and humble people of God. In Psalm 37 (which Jesus seems to quote in this beatitude) we read:

The meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity. (v. 11)

Those the Lord blesses will inherit the land. (v. 22)

Hope in the Lord and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land. (v. 34)

The same principle operates today. The ungodly may boast and throw their weight around, but real joy and satisfaction elude them. On the other hand, those who follow Christ, even if they are deprived of much of the world’s things, can enjoy and possess the earth. We live and reign with Christ even in a fallen world. Then on the day of the regeneration of all things there will be a new heaven and a new earth for us to inherit. The way of Christ is different from the way of the world, and every Christian, even if we—like the apostle Paul—have “nothing,” can describe ourselves as “possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:10).

From Reading the Sermon on the Mount with John Stott by John Stott with Douglas Connelly.