I am guessing most of us are familiar with the word gentle. If you helped your friend move into an apartment, he probably told you to be gentle with the box containing dishes. When your son was holding his newborn brother, you said, “Be gentle with him!” We all know the meaning of the word gentle. But it does not always occur to us that gentleness is actually a Christian virtue. Some people think gentleness is a feminine characteristic. Although different cultures have different views, traditionally in our Western culture, the view has been that men should be tough, aggressive, and bold, while women should be gentle, meek, and tender.

Biblically speaking, however, men and women are called to exercise Christian virtues. All Christians are called to display the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness— and yes—gentleness. In this context, gentleness means “gentleness of attitude and behavior, in contrast with harshness in one’s dealings with others.”¹ Synonyms for gentleness include tenderness and warmheartedness. Gentleness is also related to the other fruit, including love, peace, patience, goodness, and kindness. When we consider gentleness as a fruit of the Spirit, this virtue is rooted in Christ. Christ is a gentle Savior, and Christians are called to follow in his footsteps by displaying gentleness in their lives.

Christ’s Gentleness

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus tells us he is “gentle and humble in heart” (NET). The reason he shared this truth with us is because he wants us to know that we can come to him for true rest. He is not harsh, aggressive, overbearing, or combative. In his tender mercy, he says, “If you come to me, I will be gentle with you and give you rest.” In this passage, Jesus calls people who “labor” and are “heavy laden” (Matt 11:28–30). People who labor or toil are tired and weary. People who are heavy-laden are similarly exhausted and fatigued. The archaic term laden is a sixteenth-century German word that means “loaded.” If you have all kinds of stress and hardships in life, you carry a heavy load.

Jesus’ gentleness shows up in his call to weary sinners. For those of you who are worn out, struggling with the trials, hardships, and difficulties in life, you can go to Jesus and he will deal with you in a gentle way. If you are struggling with the burden and toil of “striving under the sun,” which seems pointless, you can go to Christ for rest (Ecc 2:11). If you are weary from the monotony and worn out from the worries of life, you can find rest in the arms of our gentle Savior. He even provides rest for those weary with sin, which is “a heavy burden . . . too heavy for me” (Ps 38:4).

In Jesus’ day, the heavy burden may have even referred to the burden of the law’s demands. He rebuked the Pharisees for crushing people with unbearable legalistic religious demands (Matt 23:4). Because Christ is gentle, he will give you rest from whatever burden or load you are carrying: “Come to me . . . and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28).

It may go without saying, but we should not miss that Jesus calls people to himself. He is not calling them out to rub their sins in their faces. He is not calling them to do a list of things if they want to ease their burdens. Jesus calls sinners to himself for rest from weary, heavy, burdensome loads they carry. When people come to him, Jesus gives them true rest for their souls. This includes the forgiveness of sins: no more shame, guilt, or disgrace. Rest from Christ includes the free gift of salvation: people do not have to work for it or earn it. The salvation that Christ gives is truly restful for the soul because it is a free gift given by grace. Another aspect of rest that Jesus gives is the promise of eternal life: heavenly rest. For those of you who are weary and exhausted by the various stresses and burdens of life, never forget that Christ gives this kind of rest to all who come to him in faith.

Jesus’ call is a call to rest, but it is also a call to discipleship: “Come to me. . . . Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you . . .” (Matt 11:28–39 NLT). A yoke is an old-school piece of farm equipment that holds two animals together so they can pull a wagon or plow. Jesus uses the term in a figurative way. “Take my yoke upon you” means “Become my servant. Let me be your master and Lord.” It can also mean, “Attach yourself to me as one of my dedicated followers.” Being yoked to Christ includes learning from him and obeying his teaching. Disciples of Christ are students of Christ who hear his teaching and put it into practice.

To be sure, his teaching is not harsh, vindictive, or cruel. Jesus’ teaching does not reintroduce heavy burdens on people. He does not take away the rest he gives by later adding burdens. In fact, he says, “My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (Matt 11:30 NLT). Following Christ is sometimes difficult. It includes self-denial and a cross. The struggle against sin includes exertion and tears. But in the big picture, being a disciple of Christ is not a heavy, wearisome, soul-crushing task. Jesus is not a legalistic master who imposes all kinds of detailed laws on people to weigh them down. Jesus is not a harsh taskmaster who flips out in anger whenever one of his disciples messes up. If you follow Christ, it is an easy yoke and a light burden because Jesus is a gentle Master. He is not cruel, impatient, unloving, or heartless.

Jesus is a gentle Savior who is lowly, or humble, in heart (Matt 11:29). That is how he describes himself to us. He is not a tough guy who bullies people. He is not a manipulative “type A” person who can sometimes be a little too aggressive and unfiltered. He is gentle in a perfect way. He is kind, tenderhearted, compassionate, understanding, forgiving, and patient. So, following him does not include heavy burdens or difficult yokes that weigh down our hearts, minds, and souls. And when we mess up, he will discipline us—sometimes quite severely. But he will always do it out of love (Rev 3:19).

In a word, Jesus is a gentle Savior. He has a mild, tender, and kind disposition towards us. Isaiah 40 is the chapter where Isaiah describes God as a shepherd who carries lambs in his arms and tenderly leads his sheep. This is good imagery of how our Lord acts towards us. Or we could think about a mother gently holding her young child as she rocks him to sleep. She has a strong motherly hold of the child, but it is a grip of tender love and care (cf. Isa 66:13). To use more imagery from Scripture, we can think of a bent-over reed or a faintly burning candle. Jesus is gentle towards us: he will not break a bent-over reed, and he will not blow out a faintly burning candle (Isa 42:3). When we are bent over with the hardships of life or when our faith is barely flickering, he will not stomp on us or put us out, but will nurture us, revive us, and give us rest.

Application

Before Martin Luther really understood the gospel, he thought of Christ as a stern judge who was more than eager to punish him for messing up. I am afraid that some Christians today still have that view. Do you? Are you worried that Jesus is waiting to criticize and condemn you when you struggle or stumble? You should not be worried about that. The gentleness of Christ is good news for people who stumble, struggle, fail, and are stressed out. Christ’s gentleness sings a sweet song in the ears of those who are battered by life’s difficulties and burdened with the weight of sin.

When you sincerely come to Christ for rest, he will not curse or condemn you. When you mess up for the thirtieth time in one day, you can go to Jesus for help, and he will deal with you gently. Even his discipline is administered with a gentle hand. If you feel like a constant failure, Christ will not crush you when you go to him for relief. If you are Christ’s disciple, remember that you have a Master who is tender and kind. Do not let Satan trick you into thinking Jesus is going to hate you or condemn you for this or that. Do not listen to the lies in your head that tell you that you have failed one too many times for Christ.

This is also good news you can share with those who are not followers of Christ. You can tell people that Jesus is a gentle Savior who is tender and loving when bruised and battered people come to him for rest. You can tell your non-Christian friends and family members who are weary with the loads and struggles of life that Jesus gives eternal rest and relief to all who come to him in faith.

Since our Savior is gentle, his Spirit produces gentleness in us. We will look at how we are called to gentleness in part two.

Notes

1. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 748.

© Shane Lems. All Rights Reserved.

You can find this whole series here.

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Post authored by:

• Shane Lems

  

  Shane Lems is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California and has a DMin from RTS Orlando. He has been a church planter and pastor in the URCNA. Since 2013 he’s been serving as pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Hammond, WI. He is married and has four children. Shane has written numerous articles for Modern Reformation, New Horizons, and other publications. He is also the author of Doctrines of Grace: Student Edition and manages a book blog, The Reformed Reader.

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