Transforming Grace

Last week I posted Thomas Watson’s eleven reasons to attain a peaceable disposition, but this is easier said than done. Here’s Watson’s biblical advice for becoming a peacemaker.

It’s hard to read this without thinking about the Lambeth conference. At the last conference in 1998, hot tempers were on display for the whole world to see. As much of the furore was fuelled by biased and inaccurate media reportage, points 1(i) and 2(iv) give wise advice for how to handle the media.

Additional reasons I’ve heard given for the anger at the last conference include: lack of air conditioning in the main hall, long queues for food, language barriers, arrogant American pioneering and African/Asian post-colonial liberation confidence. All of these might have contributed, but Watson gets to the heart of the matter, the heart:

How shall we attain to peaceableness?

1 Take heed of those things which will hinder it. There are several impediments of peace which we must beware of, and they are either outward or inward.

(i) Outward: as whisperers (Romans 1: 29). There are some who will be buzzing things in our ears purposely to exasperate and provoke.

2 Take heed of inward lets to peace; for example:

(i) Self-love: ‘Men shall be lovers of themselves’ (2 Timothy 3: 2). And it follows they shall be ‘fierce’ (verse 3). The setting up of this idol of self has caused so many lawsuits, plunders, massacres in the world. ‘All seek their own’ (Philippians 2: 21).

(ii) Pride: ‘He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife’ (Proverbs 28: 25). Pride and contention, like Hippocrates’ twins, are both born at once. A proud man thinks himself better than others and will contend for superiority. …Let us shake off this viper of pride. Humility solders Christians together in peace.

(iii) Envy; envy stirreth up strife. The apostle has linked them together. ‘Envy, strife’ (1 Timothy 6: 4). Envy cannot endure a superior.

(iv) Credulity. ‘The simple believeth every word’ (Proverbs 14: 15). A credulous man is akin to a fool. He believes all that is told him and this often creates differences. As it is a sin to be a talebearer, so it is a folly to be a tale-believer. A wise man will not take a report at the first bound, but will sift and examine it before he gives credit to it.

2 Let us labour for those things which will maintain and cherish peace.

(i) As faith; faith and peace keep house together. Faith believes the Word of God. The Word says, ‘Live in peace’ (2 Corinthians 13: 11).

(ii) Christian communion. There should not be too much strangeness among Christians.

(iii) Do not look upon the failings of others, but upon their graces. There is no perfection here.

(iv) Pray to God that he will send down the Spirit of peace into our hearts.

All good Christians ought to be peacemakers; they should not only be peaceable themselves, but make others to be at peace. As in the body when a joint is out we set it again, so it should be in the body politic. When a garment is rent we sew it together again. When others are rent asunder in their affections we should with a spirit of meekness sew them together again. Had we this excellent skill we might glue and unite dissenting spirits. I confess it is often a thankless office to go about to reconcile differences (Acts 7: 27). Handle a briar never so gently, it will go near to scratch. He that goes to interpose between two fencers many times receives the blow. But this duty, though it may lack success as from men, yet it shall not want a blessing from God. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ O how happy were England if it had more peacemakers! Abraham was a peacemaker (Genesis 13:8). Moses was a peacemaker (Exodus 2: 13), and that ever-to-be-honoured emperor Constantine, when he called the bishops together at that first Council of Nicaea to end church controversies, they having instead of that prepared bitter invectives and accusations one against another, Constantine took their papers and rent them, gravely exhorting them to peace and unanimity.

It’s not long until the Anglican Lambeth Conference. The last conference in 1998 will be remembered for flared tempers, angry disputes and a media circus which fed on the strife like famished piranhas. Most Christians know of those who have left church or been put off faith in Christ because of strife between church members. In my case, people have been scared away from Christ because I have been grumpy and short tempered with them or around them.

Thomas Watson’s exposition of “blessed are the peacemakers” should be compulsory reading for all Christians, especially delegates at Lambeth. Here’s an abridged excerpt:

If Christians must be peaceable-minded, what shall we say to those who are given to strife and contention? To those who, like flax or gunpowder, if they be but touched, are all on fire? How far is this from the spirit of the gospel! It is made the note of the wicked. ‘They are like the troubled sea’ (Isaiah 57: 20). There is no rest or quietness in their spirits, but they are continually casting forth the foam of passion and fury. …The lustful man is brutish; the wrathful man is devilish. Everyone is afraid to dwell in an house which is haunted with evil spirits, yet how little afraid are men of their own hearts, which are haunted with the evil spirit of wrath and implacableness.

And then, which is much to be laid to heart, there are the divisions of God’s people. God’s own tribes go to war. In Tertullian’s time it was said, See how the Christians love one another. But now it may be said, See how the Christians snarl one at another, ‘They are comparable to ferocious bears’. Wicked men agree together, when those who pretend to be led by higher principles are full of animosities and heart-burnings.

Be of a peaceable disposition. ‘If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men’ (Romans 12: 18).

1 A peaceable spirit seems to be agreeable to the natural frame and constitution. Man by nature seems to be a peaceable creature, fitter to handle the plough than the sword.

2 A peaceable spirit is honourable. ‘It is an honour for a man to cease from strife’ (Proverbs 20: 3). We think it a brave thing to give way to strife and let loose the reins to our passions. Oh no, ‘it is an honour to cease from strife’.

3 To be of a peaceable spirit is highly prudential. ‘The wisdom from above is peaceable’ (James 3: 17). A wise man will not meddle with strife. It is like putting one’s finger into a hornets, nest;

4 To be of a peaceable spirit brings peace along with it. A contentious person vexes himself and eclipses his own comfort. He is like the bird that beats itself against the cage.

5 A peaceable disposition is a Godlike disposition.

6 Christ’s earnest prayer was for peace. He prayed that his people might be one (John 17: 11, 21, 23), that they might be of one mind and heart.

7 Christ not only prayed for peace, but bled for it. ‘Having made peace through the blood of his cross’ (Colossians 1: 20).

8 Strife and contention hinder the growth of grace. Can good seed grow in a ground where there is nothing but thorns and briars to be seen?

9 Peaceableness among Christians is a powerful loadstone to draw the world to receive Christ.

10 Unpeaceableness of spirit is to make Christians turn heathens.

11 To add yet more weight to the exhortation, it is the mind of Christ that we should live in peace.

I’ve blogged several abridged extracts from Thomas Watson’s Exposition of the Beatitudes. This section on how to attain a pure heart is so good I’ve quoted it without editing or cropping. If you long for a pure heart, here’s how to get it:

But how shall we attain to heart-purity?

1 Often look into the Word of God. ‘Now ye are clean through the word’ (John 15:3). ‘Thy word is very pure’ (Psalm 119:140). God’s Word is pure, not only for the matter of it, but the effect, because it makes us pure. ‘Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth’ (John 17: 17). By looking into this pure crystal we are changed into the image of it. The Word is both a glass to show us the spots of our souls and a laver to wash them away. The Word breathes nothing but purity; it irradiates the mind; it consecrates the heart.

2 Go to the bath. There are two baths Christians should wash in.

(i) The bath of tears. Go into this bath. Peter had sullied and defiled himself with sin and he washed himself with penitential tears. Mary Magdalene, who was an impure sinner, ’stood at Jesus’ feet weeping’ (Luke 7: 38). Mary’s tears washed her heart as well as Christ’s feet. Oh sinners, let your eyes be a fountain of tears! Weep for those sins which are so many as have passed all arithmetic. This water of contrition is healing and purifying.

(ii) The bath of Christ’s blood. This is that ‘fountain opened for sin and uncleanness’ (Zechariah 13: 1). A soul steeped in the brinish tears of repentance and bathed in the blood of Christ is made pure. This is that ’spiritual washing’. All the legal washings and purifications were but types and emblems representing Christ’s blood. This blood lays the soul a-whitening.

3 Get faith. It is a soul-cleansing grace. ‘Having purified their hearts by faith’ (Acts 15: 9). The woman in the gospel that but touched the hem of Christ’s garment was healed. A touch of faith heals. If I believe Christ and all his merits are mine, how can I sin against him? We do not willingly injure those friends who, we believe, love us. Nothing can have a greater force and efficacy upon the heart to make it pure than faith. Faith will remove mountains, the mountains of pride, lust, envy. Faith and the love of sin are inconsistent.

4 Breathe after the Spirit. He is called the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1: 13). It purgeth the heart as lightning purgeth the air. That we may see what a purifying virtue the Spirit has, it is compared:

(i) To fire (Acts 2: 3). Fire is of a purifying nature. It refines and cleans metals. It separates the dross from the gold. The Spirit of God in the heart refines and sanctifies it. It burns up the dross of sin.

(ii) The Spirit is compared to wind. ‘There came a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost’ (Acts 2: 24). The wind purifies the air. When the air by reason of foggy vapours is unwholesome, the wind is a fan to winnow and purify it. Thus when the vapours of sin arise in the heart, vapours of pride and covetousness, earthly vapours, the Spirit of God arises and blows upon the soul and so purges away these impure vapours. The spouse in the Canticles prays for a gale of the Spirit, that she might be made pure (4: 16).

(iii) The Spirit is compared to water. ‘He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; but this spake he of the Spirit’ (John 7:38, 39). The Spirit is like water, not only to make the soul fruitful, for it causes the desert to blossom as the rose (Isaiah 32:15; 35: 1), but the Spirit is like water to purify. Whereas, before, the heart of a sinner was unclean and whatever he touched had a tincture of impurity (Numbers 19: 22), when once the Spirit comes into the heart, it does with its continual showers wash off the filthiness of it, making it pure and fit for the God of spirits to dwell in.

5 Take heed of familiar converse and intercourse with the wicked. One vain mind makes another. One hard heart makes another. The stone in the body is not infectious, but the stone in the heart is. One profane spirit poisons another. Beware of the society of the wicked.

Some may object: But what hurt is in this? Did not Jesus converse with sinners? (Luke 5: 29).

(i) There was a necessity for that. If Jesus had not come among sinners, how could any have been saved? He went among sinners, not to join with them in their sins. He was not a companion of sinners but a physician of sinners.

(ii) Though Christ did converse with sinners, he could not be polluted with their sin. His divine nature was a sufficient antidote to preserve him from infection. Christ could be no more defiled with their sin than the sun is defiled by shining on a dunghill. Sin could no more stick on Christ than a burr on a glass of crystal. The soil of his heart was so pure that no viper of sin could breed there. But the case is altered with us. We have a stock of corruption within and the least thing will increase this stock. Therefore it is dangerous mingling ourselves among the wicked. If we would be pure in heart let us shun their society. He that would preserve his garment clean avoids the dirt. The wicked are as the mire (Isaiah 57:20). The fresh waters running among the salt taste brackish.

6 If you would be pure, walk with them that are pure. As the communion of the saints is in our Creed, so it should be in our company. ‘He that walketh with the wise shall be wise’ (Proverbs 13: 20), and he that walketh with the pure shall be pure. The saints are like a bed of spices. By intermixing ourselves with them we shall partake of their savouriness. Association begets assimilation. Sometimes God blesses good society to the conversion of others.

7 Wait at the posts of wisdom’s doors. Reverence the word preached. The Word of God sucked in by faith (Hebrews 4: 2) transforms the heart into the likeness of it (Romans 6: 17). The word is an holy seed (James 1: 18), which being cast into the heart makes it partake of the divine nature (2 Peter 1: 4).

8 Pray for heart purity. Job propounds the question, ‘Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?‘ (Job 14:4; 15:14). God can do it. Out of an impure heart he can produce grace. Pray that prayer of David, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God’ (Psalm 51: 10). Most men pray more for full purses than pure hearts. We should pray for heart-purity fervently. It is a matter we are most nearly concerned in. ‘Without holiness no man shall see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12: 14). Our prayer must be with sighs and groans (Romans 8: 23-26). There must not only be elocution but affection. Jacob wrestled in prayer (Genesis 32: 24). Hannah poured out her soul (1 Samuel 1: 15). We often pray so coldly (our petitions even freezing between our lips), as if we would teach God to deny. We pray as if we cared not whether God heard us or no. Oh Christian, be earnest with God for a pure heart. Lay your heart before the Lord and say, Lord, Thou who hast given me a heart, give me a pure heart. My heart is good for nothing as it is. It defiles everything it touches. Lord, I am not fit to live with this heart, for I cannot honour thee; nor to die with it, for I cannot see thee. Oh purge me with hyssop. Let Christ’s blood be sprinkled upon me. Let the Holy Ghost descend upon me. ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God’. Thou who biddest me give thee my heart, Lord, make my heart pure and thou shalt have it.

During lent this year, we used C.J. Mahaney’s The Cross Centered Life in our growth groups. The book is brilliantly simple at uncovering legalism, condemnation and a subjective faith. It then takes those who suffer such things (like me) back to the cross and gives helpful ways of keeping the cross central.

One obvious symptom of legalism, condemnation or a subjective faith is a corrupt and impure heart (conscience). Thomas Watson provides some great tools for diagnosing whether our heart is pure or not. I found the third point particularly helpful. Watson shows that the avoidance of sin can stem from motives other than the pure heart which results from a proper grasp of Christ’s imputed righteousness.

Watson’s work needs to be set in the light of the work of Christ, so:

Since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:21-22). To the pure all things are pure (Titus 1:15).

I shall next show you the signs of a pure heart.

1 A sincere heart is a pure heart: ‘In whose spirit there is no guile’ (Psalm 32:2). There are four characters of a sincere-hearted Christian.

(i) A sincere heart serves God with the whole heart.

(ii) A sincere heart is willing to come under a trial. ‘Search me, O God, and try me’ (Psalm 139: 23).

(iii) a man of sincere heart dares not act in the least against his conscience.

(iv) a sincere heart is a suspicious heart. The hypocrite suspects others and has charitable thoughts of himself. The sincere Christian has charitable thoughts of others and suspects himself.

2 A pure heart breathes after purity. A gracious soul is so in love with purity that he prizes a pure heart above all blessings.

(i) Above riches.

(ii) Above gifts.

3 A pure heart abhors all sin. A man may forbear and forsake sin, yet not have a pure heart.

(i) He may forbear sin as one may hold his breath while he dives under water, and then take breath again.

(ii) He may forbear sin for fear of the penalty.

(iii) He may forbear sin out of a design. He has a plot in hand and his sin might spoil his plot.

4. Again, a man may forsake sin yet not have a pure heart. Sin may be forsaken upon wrong principles.

(i) From morality: moral arguments may suppress sin.

(ii) From policy: a man may forsake sin, not out of respect to God’s glory, but his own credit.

(iii) From necessity. Perhaps he can now follow the trade of sin no longer. The adulterer is grown old, the drunkard poor.

5. But he is pure in God’s eye who abhors sin. ‘I hate every false way’ (Psalm 119: 104).

Having been to the Children Desiring God conference at Oak Hill on 5th April (I had meant to blog my notes but my Palm crashed!) we have started memorising their Fighter Verses starting with the foundation verses. We’ve just learnt No one can serve two masters (Matt 6:24a). Here’s Thomas Watson on why serving God and money doesn’t work, it’s all about the purity of the heart:

A covetous heart is an impure heart. The earth is the most impure element. The purity of the heart lies in the spirituality of it, and what more opposite to spiritualness than earthiness? Covetousness is ‘the root of all evil’ (1 Timothy 6: 10).

(i) Covetousness is the root of discontent.

(ii) Covetousness is the root of theft.

(iii) Covetousness is the root of treason. It made Judas betray Christ.

(iv) Covetousness is the root of murder.

(v) Covetousness is the root of perjury.

(vi) Covetousness is the root of necromancy (connecting with the dead). Why do persons indent with the devil, but for money? They study the black art for yellow gold.

(vii) It is the root of fraud in dealings.

(viii) Covetousness is the root of bribery and injustice.

(ix) It is the cause of uncleanness.

(x) Covetousness is the root of idolatry: ‘Covetousness which is idolatry’ (Colossians 3: 5).

(xi) Covetousness is the cause of unprofitableness under the means [of preaching, reading, praying, the sacraments etc].

(xii) Covetousness is the root of penuriousness and baseness. It hinders hospitality.

The Christian circumcision party in Crete would not take the gospel to liars, evil brutes and lazy gluttons because they were afraid of being defiled (Titus 1:12-15). They were afraid of being defiled because they were unbelieving (Titus 1:15). But to the pure all things are pure (Titus 1:15). The purity of the believer, through faith in Christ’s atoning work on the cross, enables believers to go into the hard areas. Work with drug addicts and prostitutes is possible because we know nothing can defile us. What is hard when ministering in such areas is remaining pure in heart. How many well intentioned ministers go off the rails when working with liars, evil brutes and lazy gluttons?

Thanks again to Thomas Watson, whose section on “blessed are the pure in heart” provides motivation to remain practically pure in heart as well as by grace:

(i) Because if the heart be not pure, we differ nothing from a Pharisaic purity. The Pharisees’ holiness consisted chiefly in externals. Theirs was an outside purity. They never minded the inside of the heart.

(ii) The heart must especially be kept pure, because the heart is the chief seat or place of God’s residence. God dwells in the heart. He takes up the heart for his own lodging (Isaiah 57: 15; Ephesians 3: 17), therefore it must be pure and holy. …Let that room be washed with holy tears.

(iii) The heart must especially be pure, because it is the heart that sanctifies all we do. If the heart be holy, all is holy – our affections holy, our duties holy.

See here what is the beauty that sets off a soul in God’s eye, namely, purity of heart. You who are never so beautiful are but a spiritual leper till you are pure in heart. God is in love with the pure heart for he sees his own picture drawn there. …How may this raise the esteem of purity! This is a beauty that never fades and which makes God himself fall in love with us.

If we must be pure in heart then we must not rest in outward purity. Civility is not sufficient. A swine may be washed, yet a swine still. Civility does but wash a man, grace changes him.

The BBC reports today that Children’s author Dame Jacqueline Wilson has expressed concern that youngsters are growing up too quickly.

There is a general lawlessness in British trash culture which deprives children of an extended period of innocence. I grew up in a sheltered rural Scottish village and was then thrust illprepared into Glasgow student culture where my peers were two or three years “ahead” of me. I thought they were street-wise and I hated being innocent. Drunkenness, promiscuity and moral lawlessness resulted as I raced to catch up.

But good moral behaviour and laws are necessary for civil society to function. The problem British culture faces is how high to set the bar. If we set the bar too high by insisting on high moral values, people will fail. When we set ourselves up for failure we produce a climate of massive corporate guilt. So what should we do?

The answer this country has given to that question for the past 40 years or so has been to steadily lower the bar. When we fail we lay “let’s change the standard” because this takes away our guilt and we feel better. The problem is, even as we lower the bar, there’s still inevitable failure and where there is failure there is guilt and so we must lower the bar again.

For example, there has been a steady erosion of sexual morality in the last 40 years which went in stages like this:

1. Sex before marriage is wrong
2. You can have a little sex before marriage, just make sure you don’t get pregnant.
3. If you get pregnant, get an abortion or get married quickly, before people realise your mistake
4. Just get married when you can, but make sure you do.
5. At least try and wait until you meet someone you want to marry before you have reproductive sex.
6. At least wait until you are 16.

Now, many don’t wait. The BBC report shows that 45% of under 16s sleepover at their boyfriends or girlfriends and another recent survey shown around 22% of children have sex before their 15th birthday, which is before the legal age of consent.

That is how far we have come in 40 years since the beginning of the sexual revolution and knowing the history of human behaviour the worst is probably still to come.

Given our corporate tendency towards lawlessness, what reason can we give people for keeping the highest possible moral standards? If we are setting ourselves up for failure, and guilt, what reason does God give us for being good? If being godly and moral is so hard, which it is, and so often results in shameful failure, then why bother?

Paul writes, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people…redeeming us us from all lawlessness. (Titus 2:11-13).

The desire for a moral society in Britain is perhaps strong but we can’t raise the bar without en masse failure and guilt. The grace of God in the death of Christ for sin is the only way for our guilt to be removed and for us to be freed from all lawlessness. If we want high moral standards we need a higher level of grace for the times we fail. Christ’s substitutionary death alone provides the way.

Valentines Day! When our thoughts turn to…righteousness.

Looking back to my time at Oak Hill, I think I found it hard to hunger and thirst after righteousness whilst I was studying.

Thomas Watson points out seven reasons why I don’t hunger for righteousness like I should. Point 7 helps shed some light on my particular struggle whilst in academia:

Those who are soul-sick and ‘in the gall of bitterness’, find no sweetness in God or religion. Sin tastes sweeter to them; they have no spiritual hunger. That men do not have this ‘hunger after righteousness’ appears by these seven demonstrations:

1 They never felt any emptiness. They are full of their own righteousness (Romans 10:3).

2 That men do not hunger after righteousness appears because they can make a shift well enough to be without it. If they have oil in the cruse, the world coming in, they are well content. Grace is a commodity that is least missed. You shall hear men complain they lack health, they lack trading, but never complain they lack righteousness.

3 It is a sign they have none of this spiritual hunger, who desire rather sleep than food. They are more drowsy than hungry.

4 It appears that men have no spiritual hunger because they refuse their food. Christ and grace are offered, nay, pressed upon them, but they put away salvation from them as the froward child puts away the breast (Psalm 81: 11; Acts 13: 46).

5 It is a sign they have none of this spiritual hunger who delight more in the garnishing of the dish than in food. These are they who look more after elegance and notion in preaching than solid matter. …So when men are for jingling words and like rather gallantry of speech than spirituality of matter, it is a sign they have surfeited stomachs and ‘itching ears’.

6 They evidence little hunger after righteousness that prefer other things before it, namely, their profits and recreations.

7 It is a sign men have no spiritual hunger when they are more for disputes in religion than practice. When men feed only on hard questions and controversies (1 Timothy 6: 3, 4) (like some of the schoolmen’s ‘utrums’ and distinctions), as whether one may partake with him that does not have the work of grace in his heart, whether one ought not to separate from a church in case of mal-administration, what is to be thought of paedobaptism, etc. When these niceties and criticisms in religion take men’s heads, neglecting faith and holiness, these pick bones and do not feed on the meat. Sceptics in religion have hot brains but cold hearts. Did men hunger and thirst after righteousness they would propound to themselves such questions as these, How shall we do to be saved? How shall we make our calling and election sure? How shall we mortify our corruptions? But such as ravel out their time in frothy and litigious disputes, I call heaven to witness, they are strangers to this text. They do not ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’.

Point seven now also helps me to get my priorities straight when facing schismatic doctrinal issues at church.

I live in house where everyone speaks at 90dB, including me. We’re working hard on our indoor voices. When things go pear shaped, through the inevitable times of exhaustion in ministry and chaos of having three small noisy children, tempers flare and the decibels hit at least 120. We don’t like it when it happens, but we put it down to our circumstances as a family and our individual sinful natures.

Once again, Thomas Watson blows my comfortable sinning out of the water. I especially enjoyed the ninth mark below. It’s all about grace…

1 The example of Jesus Christ. ‘Thy king cometh unto thee meek’ (Matthew 21:5). Christ was the sampler and pattern of meekness. ‘When he was reviled, he reviled not again’ (1 Peter 2: 23). His enemies’ words were more bitter than the gall they gave him, but Christ’s words were smoother than oil. He prayed and wept for his enemies. He calls us to learn of him: ‘Learn of me, for I am meek’ (Matthew 11:29).

2 Meekness is a great ornament to a Christian. ‘The ornament of a meek spirit’ (1 Peter 3: 4). A meek spirit brings credit to religion and silences malice. It is the varnish that puts lustre upon holiness, and sets off the gospel with a better gloss.

3 This is the way to be like God. God is meek towards them that provoke him. How many black mouths are opened daily against the Majesty of heaven? How do men tear his Name! vex his Spirit! crucify his Son afresh! They walk up and down the earth as so many devils covered with flesh, yet the Lord is meek, ‘not willing that any should perish’ (2 Peter 3: 9). How easily could God crush sinners, and kick them into hell! But he moderates his anger. Though he be full of majesty, yet full of meekness…

4 Meekness argues a noble and excellent spirit. A meek man is a valorous man. He gets a victory over himself. Passion arises from imbecility and weakness. Therefore we may observe old men and children are more choleric than others…

5 Meekness is the best way to conquer and melt the heart of an enemy. …Roughness hardens men’s hearts; meekness causes them to relent (2 Kings 6: 22).

6 Consider the great promise in the text. ‘The meek shall inherit the earth’.

7 Consider the mischief of an unmeek spirit. There is nothing makes such room for the devil to come into the heart and take possession, as wrath and anger. ‘Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil’ (Ephesians 4: 26, 27). When men let forth passion, they let in Satan. The wrathful man has the devil for his bedfellow. Passion hinders peace…

8 Another argument to cool the intemperate heat of our cursed hearts, is to consider that all the injuries and unkind usages we meet with from the world, do not fall out by chance, but are disposed of by the all-wise God for our good…

9 Want of meekness evidences want of grace. True grace inflames love and moderates anger. Grace is like the file which smoothes the rough iron. It files off the ruggedness of a man’s spirit. Grace says to the heart as Christ did to the angry sea, ‘Peace, be still’ (Mark 4: 39). So where there is grace in the heart, it stills the raging of passion and makes a calm. He who is in a perpetual frenzy, letting loose the reins to wrath and malice, never yet felt the sweet efficacy of grace. It is one of the sins of the heathen to be ‘implacable’ (Romans 1: 31). A revengeful cankered heart is not only heathenish, but devilish. ‘If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, this wisdom descendeth not from above, but is devilish’…

10 If all that has been said will not serve to master this bedlam-humour of wrath and anger, let me tell you, you are the persons whom God steaks of who hate to be reformed. You are rebels against the Word…Will you walk with the devil? The furious man is possessed…

A father recently asked me what he should do if someone wronged him illegally and the police and courts did, or could do, nothing. He was struggling to grasp the idea that Christians should not take the law into their own hands by seeking retribution for such wrongs. Allowing an injustice without retribution was “weakness” in his mind.

Thomas Watson shows that real meekness is not weakness but demands “an Herculean work”

First, meekness consists in the bearing of injuries. I may say of this grace, ‘it is not easily provoked’. A meek spirit, like wet tinder, will not easily take fire…

The second branch of meekness is in forgiving of injuries. ‘And when ye stand praying, forgive’ (Mark 11:25); as if Christ had said, It is to little purpose to pray, unless you forgive. A meek spirit is a forgiving spirit. This is an Herculean work. Nothing more crosses the stream of corrupt nature. Men forget kindnesses, but remember injuries…

The third branch of meekness is in recompensing good for evil. This is an higher degree than the other. ‘Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you’ (Matthew 5: 44). ‘If thine enemy hunger, feed him’ (Romans 12: 20)…To render evil for evil is brutish: to render evil for good is devilish; to render good for evil is Christian. …Take a crab [apple], engraft it into a pippin, it brings forth the same fruit as the pippin. So he who was once of a sour crabby disposition, given to revenge, when he once partakes of the sap of the heavenly olive, he bears generous fruits. He is full of love to his enemies. Grace allays the passion and melts the heart into compassion. As the sun draws up many thick noxious vapours from the earth and sea, and returns them in sweet showers, so a gracious heart returns all the unkindness and discourtesies of his enemies with the sweet influences and distillations of love.