Meekness is a tricky thing...

There's one monster work of theology I havn't acquired. It's by a Dutch theologian named Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635-1711), and is called The Christian's Reasonable Service. A four-volume work. It's known for it's practical level teaching of the faith. Here's a sample I found recently.

But this grace of meekness... It's tricky because it's the most common feature of a truly graceful nature that is most impersonated by the devil and his followers. That 'soft spoken' thing that you know is purely whited-sepulchre behaviour. Kind of demonstrated classically in the "Mean people suck!" refrain you hear the same kind of people launch into eventually.

Also, meekness can be a trap to being merely lukewarm. I mean, don't we all see this enforced meekness in language and behaviour in the most coercive, policed environments associated with left-wing political-correctness? Don't say anything that is truthful or bold, like...this environment is police-state like and sucks. Oh, that's not being 'meek.'

And don't say: "Well, it's all in the delivery!" No it's not. No matter how you say the truth to a person looking to be outraged they will get the message and be outraged.

So, I have trouble with this call to meekness. Not with meekness as a thing in itself, but how it is demonstrated in thought, word, and deed. To be meek shouldn't contradict the command not to be lukewarm, or not to be merely a whited sepulchre.

Also - a big thing - people should only be worried about their own meekness, and not about other people's meekness. You see this in Christian environments all the time where some aspect of meekness (or lack thereof) is used as an accusation against another person (often in pack-attack, group-think events against somebody they've determined to be 'not one of them').

Also, people will automatically accuse you of not 'being meek' if you just use striking rhetoric to give somebody or group of people a needed shock to their system. I mean, such things can be said in a controlled, intentionally dramatic sort of way. Is all that realm of rhetoric off-limits if one is to be 'meek'? Only if 'meek' has the definition people give to it. The biblical definition, as stated, can't contradict the command to not be lukewarm or to not be a whited sepulchre.

So, there are alot of problems with meekness. Not the biblical teaching, but how it is seen and how it is practiced by people. (This is why the devil and his followers - conscious and unconscious followers - use 'meekness' the way they do. Because they know since it is not well-understood by people they can exploit it in various ways...)

[Note: the a'Brakel book has that perception in my mind that books one doesn't yet own take on. Then once you acquire them they become, usually, just another addition to your library. Truly striking and rare practical theology is contained in Work books like the Fourth Way (and the Bible itself). The most striking and rare knowledge is contained in the combination of Work knowledge and actual effort...]