Thank you. Some people think of gentleness as a feminine trait, maybe even a sign of weakness.

But today on Truth for Life, we'll find out why it's actually a form of strength that is essential for spiritual growth.

Alistair Begg continues our Encore 2025 series with this message from Galatians chapter 5, verse 23.

This is one of the most requested messages from the past year.

Writing on the fruit of the spirit in 1839, a Dutch reform pastor by the name of Bethune observed

quotes, there may be no grace less prayed for or cultivated than gentleness.

177 years later, and I think we would be forced to agree that his comment still stands.

I wonder how long it is, since any of us actually knelt down and said,

Lord Jesus Christ, produce in me the fruit of a gentle spirit. It may be some time,

whether we as a church have actually gone to God and said, Lord Jesus, will you make amongst us

such a spirit of gentleness that those who are most in need of your care may encounter it here. One of the reasons that it is

neglected is because it is misunderstood. It is as misunderstood as it is undervalued. When people

think of gentleness, they often think that it means some kind of spinelessness or weakness. And so, particularly men,

who have been interested in muscles and being macho, I do not find themselves immediately drawn

to the idea of a gentle and a quiet spirit.

And indeed, many females in contemporary society apparently are not very interested in it either.

The Greek word is Proutis, that is the word that is most used.

It is translated meekness, almost routinely in the authorized

version, and variously here in the ESV and the NIV and the NIV and so on. Meekness or gentleness

is essentially strength under control. If you had opened your Bible at Galatians 5, you would see that gentleness

stands in direct contrast to the works of the flesh, which Paul points out before he comes to the

fruit. Works of the flesh, which include enmity and strife, rivalries, dissensions, and divisions.

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