TEXT: Matthew 5:3-10

SUBJECT: Watson on the Beatitudes #3

Tonight, with the Lord’s help, we’ll carry on in the study we began two weeks ago. It’s called Thomas Watson on the Beatitudes. The book was written in 1660 and is as useful today as it was when it first came off the presses.

The word, beatitude means "blessed" or "happy". The Beatitudes, therefore, describe the kind of person who is happy in this life and will be happy forever.

The Beatitudes, unlike legalism, say hardly anything about what you ought to do—or not do. Instead, they tell you what you have to be if you’re a disciple of Christ and want to go to heaven. No one is saved by modeling his life on the Beatitudes, of course, but if you’re saved, your life will look something like them. Not perfectly, but still, the resemblance will be there.

Thus far, we’ve looked at the first two Beatitudes; now, we’ll look at the third,

The quality called for here is meekness. Now, what does that mean? It’s often mistaken for weakness. But if you’ve ever known a weak person, you know he’s anything but meek. Outwardly, he may wimp out all the time, but inwardly, he seethes with resentment. If you’ve ever known a meek man, you know he’s the opposite of weak, Proverbs 16:32,

So, if meekness is not a kind of weakness, what is it? Watson says,

In other words, it is controlling yourself when you’re tempted to lash out in anger.

The key word is grace. Watson doesn’t call it a discipline, because it’s not something you accomplish on your own or something your parents teach you (like good manners). No, it’s far more than this: It is a work of God’s Spirit in your soul making you accept the problems of life with a good attitude.

That’s meekness. Jesus Christ was perfectly meek. No one had more cause to grumble and lash out than He did, yet He didn’t do it. It’s not that He never felt anger or disappointment, but He controlled His passions, never allowing them to get the better of Him.

Having defined his term, Watson goes on to give the objects of meekness. They are—he says—"God and man".

At first glance, you’d think he made a mistake. How can you put God on the list of Persons you’d be mad at?

There is no reason to be angry or disappointed with God, of course, but, let’s face it, we’ve all felt that way at times. Meekness, though, dissolves the hard feelings. Watson says

By "submission to His will" he says,

As for "flexibleness to His Word", Watson adds,

This is what it means to be meek toward God. It means to submit to His will for your life. Again, our Lord is the Perfect Example, praying in bloody sweat,

This part of the chapter takes up less than half a page. Watson’s main thrust is meekness toward other people. And that’s what we need most, it seems to me.

Meekness toward man—the Puritan says—is made up of three things:

First, we have the bearing of injuries.

"Injuries" doesn’t mean broken arms or pulled hamstrings, of course, but being insulted, ignored or mistreated in some other way. When somebody does you wrong, you’ve got to take it with patience.

I’ve known some Christians who thought every misdeed has to be confronted and resolved. One man is this way about his marriage—therefore, it’s one of the unhappiest I’ve ever known. They quote Bible verses to support their case, but they leave some others out. The one I always cite in response is Proverbs 19:11b,

The great majority of offenses ought to be overlooked. When someone says something you don’t like, forget it, or assume he didn’t mean any harm by it, or laugh it off. What’s the big deal? God never told you to resolve everything in life. Watson says,

Secondly, if the offense is too serious to overlook, forgive it.

"Real" is the opposite of saying "I forgive you", while, in fact, you don’t. "Full" is the opposite of forgiving trifles while holding on to the big ones. "Often" means forgiving the same sin over and over again—something like,

As if forgiving injuries was not enough, Watson goes on to say meekness even recompenses evil for good. In other words, it’s doing others good who have done you bad.

The Scripture references are Matthew 5:44, Romans 12:20, I Peter 3:9, and Psalm 35:12-13. He might have added Luke 23:34,

This always seems un-doable to us. We can put up with people who treat us badly and be polite to them when we have to see them, but doing them good? From the heart? That seems impossible.

But I know one man who did it. He was married to a woman whose wife left him for another man. She became pregnant by the other man, who, when he found out about it, left her. When it came time to deliver the baby she needed someone to be with her. Do you know who she called? Her husband. He came to the hospital and helped her have another man’s baby. Here is a man who

This is a real man I know. If you met him, you wouldn’t see a halo over his head; he wouldn’t strike you as being a Super Christian. But he is. Because he did good for evil. That’s meekness at its best.

Why should you be meek? The Puritan give several reasons. Here are some of them:

The example of Great Saints.

He mentions Jesus Christ first, of course. Then Moses, whom Numbers 12:13 calls the meekest man on earth. David, too, when he overlooked the vicious cursing of Shemei (cf. II Samuel 16). Are these stories written in the Bible just to fill space? Or, are they there "for our example"?

This is one I would have left out. But Watson is probably right in including it. Some unbelievers are remarkably patient, forgiving, and good to their enemies. How can we let them be better than we are? How can we show Christ to the world unless we’re more loving and forgiving than the lost are?

The character of God.

Is God meek and patient? Or is He eager to strike down His enemies? Does He take pleasure in the death of the wicked, or does He prefer them to turn and be saved? If God is kind and slow to anger, we must be too. Watson says,

Do you admire people who can hold their temper? Or, do you look up to people who are flying off the handle about every little thing? I prefer the former. I don’t always do what they do, but I respect them very much for holding their tongues when provoked to say something stupid. No one is more noble than the meek.

Meekness melts the heart of an enemy.

This is not always true, but it often is. And the opposite is never true. You never win a person by screaming, nagging, and quarrelling. He may give in to shut you up—but he does it with a rotten attitude. But love will often change the person who mistreats you. Speaking to Christian wives married to unsaved men, Peter says win them this way,

The last time I tried it, gasoline didn’t put out the fire, but only made it bigger.

Consider the great promise of the text.

This runs contrary to everything we see now. Today, the ruthless have the earth. Bold men take what they want and leave little for the rest of us. But remember, the Lord is coming again to set things right. And the earth which men have seized by their power and cunning will one day be taken away from them and given to the meek. I take the promise quite literally. One day everything will belong the meek.

At the end of the chapter, Watson tells us how to become meeker than we are.