Consider what meekness and self-control are not. Specifically, meekness is not being spineless, and self-control is not being stoic. Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus were certainly not weak men. Indeed, they were fierce and mighty for the truth and for God’s glory. Yet when it came to themselves, they each humbly and patiently endured all manner of slander and insults that were hurled against them. Let us follow their example.

But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

In studying the fruit that the Spirit produces in those who have faith in Christ, we have the final two of the nine virtues that Paul lists before us: gentleness and self-control. Alongside love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, these are graces that will grow in the regenerate heart of those who can say with the Apostle Paul: ” I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). As we shall see, Christ perfectly lived a life of gentleness and self-control, and through His indwelling Spirit, He empowers us to follow, however faltering, in His footsteps. Indeed, as Douglas Kelly notes, the fruit of the Spirit is the characteristics of God Himself being manifested in His people.

But even though these virtues can only come from the working of the Spirit within us, Paul goes on to say in verses 24-25: “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” Thus, Paul clearly expects Christians to cultivate “such things” in our lives throughout our earthly pilgrimage. Yet before we can make that application, we must define our terms.

What does Paul mean by gentleness? The Greek word πραῢτης is often translated in other texts as meekness. Indeed, it is the same word that Jesus uses in the third Beatitude: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Joel Beeke notes that it “does not refer to weakness but to an inward disposition of humility, peace, and strength that makes one slow to anger (Prov. 16:2).” Wilhelmus A Brakel gives this definition:

Meekness is the believer’s even-tempered disposition of heart which issues forth from union with God in Christ, consisting in self-denial and love for his neighbor. This results in having fellowship with his neighbor in an agreeable, congenial, and loving manner; in relinquishing his rights; in enduring the violation of his rights without becoming angry, being forgiving, and in rewarding it with good. (4:79)

Lloyd-Jones puts it like this:

Meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others. It is therefore two things. It is my attitude toward myself; and it is an expression of that in my relationship to others… A man can never be meek unless he has seen himself as a vile sinner… The meek man is not proud of himself, he does not in any sense glory in himself. (68-69)

These definitions help us make sense of what Moses meant whenever, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he wrote of himself: “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). Since this is Holy Scripture, we know that Moses was displaying a kind of false humility nor was he humble bragging. Rather, Moses’ meekness was precisely what made him such a mighty prophet of Yahweh. Moses knew his own frailty and sinfulness, and he did not seek the aggrandizement of his own name. he was content to be God’s servant and to also serve God’s grumbling people as their earthly leader. Whenever questioned or confronted, Moses was quick to rely upon the LORD. But, of course, even Moses did not display perfect meekness. In Numbers 20, Moses disobeyed God by striking the rock rather than speaking to it and by apparently placing himself alongside Yahweh, as if they were equals.

The Apostle Paul is another wonderful example of meekness. Now that may sound a bit absurd since Paul was able to readily give his law-abiding credentials in Philippians 3:4-6. Furthermore, he is not often the first example that springs to mind whenever we think of gentleness, especially in places like Galatians! But like Moses, what made Paul so great was how lowly he thought of himself and how highly he thought of God and God’s people. It was no rhetorical fluff that Paul called himself the chief of sinners. He glimpsed how unworthy he was of God’s grace as former persecutor of the church, and it fueled his life and ministry. Indeed, instead of shaming the apostle into weakness, the apostle’s meekness (his knowledge of his own sin and reliance upon the grace of God) gave him tremendous other-worldly strength to endure the sufferings that he faced and to be as bold for the truth as he was. For example, he was able to defend his apostleship in 1:11-2:10 because he was not concerned simply about his own reputation or respectability. Instead, he cared for the truth of the gospel and the souls of the Galatians.

Of course, as we said earlier, Jesus is the only perfect example of meekness. Indeed, Jesus tells us to learn meekness from Him in Matthew 11:29 (but let’s ready that verse with 28 and 30 as well):

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

We see that truth in every aspect of Jesus’ life. Although He is the eternal Word, He becomes flesh and dwells among us. In doing so, He was not born into a royal palace of the highest order but into a stable and laid in manger. He grew up in Nazareth, which was as close to nowhere was you could get. He ministered chiefly in the unimportant region of Galilee. He was followed around by fishermen and a tax collector. He ate with sinners and prostitutes and called the religious leaders hypocrites.

But the most powerful example of Jesus’ meekness is His crucifixion. Two moments happen at Jesus’ arrest in Gethsemane that ought to inform how we read the whole passion narrative. First, in John 18:6, Jesus identifies Himself to the soldiers by saying, “I am,” which is clearly meant to make us think of Yahweh’s self-revelation to Moses in Exodus 3 as well as all of Jesus’ other I am statements in John’s Gospel. In response to these two words, “they drew back and fell to the ground.” As the ESV Study Bible notes, “Falling to the ground is a common reaction to divine revelation (Ezek. 1:28; 44:4; Dan. 2:46; 8:18; 10:9; Acts 9:4; 22:7; 26:14; Rev. 1:17; 19:10; 22:8).”

Second, in Matthew 26:53, after Peter cuts the ear off one of the guards, Jesus told Peter this: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” Given what two angels did to Sodom and Gomorrah, 72,000 angels would surely have been the end of the earth entirely.

Both of these verses give a mysterious glimpse into what was really happening during Christ’s crucifixion. Jesus was no passive and unwilling victim; He actively allowed Himself to be put to death. He was in control of the whole situation. Yet still He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. There will never be a greater picture of meekness than that.

Now, you may have already noticed that our other virtue clearly goes hand-in-hand with this one. Self-control is a key aspect of meekness. Yet meekness is also essential for true self-control. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, we must ask: what is self-control?

The word is ἐνκράτεια, which is rare in the New Testament. Elsewhere, Paul speaks of self-control, but he uses other words to communicate that idea. Although etymological roots can often lead us astray when trying to understand what a particular word means, it is a useful endeavor here. It is a compound word with the root being κράτος, which is often used in New Testament doxologies to ascribe power, sovereignty, or dominion to God. The prefix εν- turns the focus inward. It is self-dominion, being able to exercise lordship over oneself.

Indeed, the Greek write Isocrates argues that a man should exercise self-control because it would be shameful for him to be a lord over his servants but not himself:

Practice self-control in all the things by which it is shameful for the soul to be controlled, namely, gain, temper, pleasure, and pain. You will attain such self-control if you regard as gainful those things which will increase your reputation and not those which will increase your wealth; if you manage your temper towards those who offend against you as you would expect others to do if you offended against them; if you govern your pleasures on the principle that it is shameful to rule over one’s servants and yet be a slave to one’s desires; and if, when you are in trouble, you contemplate the misfortunes of others and remind yourself that you are human.

Yet George Bethune notes that Aristotle distinguished between self-control as temperance or as continence. By continence, he meant simple denial of a particular indulgence, but by temperance, he meant “the healthful regulation of our desires and appetites themselves, preventing their excess.” Bethune concludes from this distinction:

The one, it is easy to see, may be the result of virtue or not; the other is a virtue itself. A thief, who abstains from intoxication merely that he may more securely commit crime; a prize-fighter, who denies himself indulgences while training for the ring; an invalid, who fears inroads to excess on his life; or one who refrains only from a dread of worldly disgrace, can scarcely be called virtuous, though he may exert some self-command. It is in him one selfish principle overcoming another that is weaker.

Given that Paul was able to quote more obscure pagan writers like Epimenides and Aratus, he was surely familiar with Aristotle and the like. Indeed, I suspect that Paul might have intentionally used ἐνκράτεια because he knew that his readers would draw such connections. After all, Socrates says of self-control: “Should not every man hold self-control to be the foundation of all virtue, and first lay this foundation firmly in his soul? For what without this can learn any good or practice it worthily? Or what man that is the slave of his pleasures is not in an evil plight body and soul alike?”

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