Meekness Isn't Weakness

A Teaching on True Spiritual Strength

All year long in our church, we've been learning about power—who we are in Christ, what we have because of what God gave us, and what we can do with it. Walking powerfully in abundance and love.

I want to talk about meekness. And I want to clear up a misunderstanding right from the start.

Meekness isn't weakness.

A lot of people think being meek means being passive. Being a pushover. Never standing up for yourself. But that's not what the Bible teaches at all.

Here's the truth: If you can't do something, you don't get credit for not doing it. You can't call it peace if you never had the option of war. You can't call it restraint if you never had any strength to restrain.

Real meekness requires power first. And as believers, we have power. So let's look at what meekness really means.

THE JESUS EXAMPLE

Let's start with Jesus Christ. And let's start with something a lot of people skip over—Jesus was a working man.

In Mark 6:3, the people of Nazareth say, "Is not this the carpenter?" The Greek word there is tekton. It means a craftsman, a workman—someone who worked with wood, stone, and building materials. This wasn't desk work. Jesus spent years doing hard physical labor. He had strong hands. Calloused hands. He knew what it meant to work.

So when we picture Jesus, let's not picture someone frail. Picture a man who could handle himself. A man who worked with his hands his whole life.

Now look at what that man did in John 2:15:

"And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables."

Notice what's happening here. Jesus didn't lose His temper and grab the nearest object. He made a whip. Deliberately. He took the time to fashion it. Then He drove out the merchants, flipped their tables, and scattered their coins.

That's not weakness. That's controlled, purposeful, physical action. Jesus was capable—and He chose when and how to act.

Now look at Matthew 26:53. Jesus is being arrested in the garden, and He says:

"Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?"

That's over 72,000 angels. Jesus knew who He was. He knew what He had available. He could have ended it right there. But He chose not to—not out of weakness, but out of love. Out of purpose. He had a mission and He walked in it.

That's the difference between being harmless and being peaceful. Jesus wasn't harmless—He was the most powerful man who ever walked the earth. He knew it. And He chose peace. He chose the mission. He chose to do the work that had to be done.

That's where the virtue is. Not in inability. Not in ignorance. But in knowing what you have and choosing how to use it.

MEEKNESS: THE WORD WE'VE GOTTEN WRONG

In Matthew 5:5, Jesus says:

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."

Most people hear "meek" and think doormat. Pushover. But that's not what the word means.

The Greek word here is praus. And here's what's interesting—over 300 years before Christ, the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote about this word. In his Nicomachean Ethics, he said the praus person—the meek person—is one who feels anger "at the right things, with the right people, in the right way, at the right time, and for the right length of time."

Did you catch that? Aristotle didn't say a meek person never gets angry. He said a meek person knows when to get angry, how to get angry, and how long to stay angry. It's not the absence of strength—it's strength under control.

The word was also used for horses that had been broken and trained—powerful animals brought under the control of their rider. A praus horse wasn't weak. It could charge into battle, kick through a shield wall. But it was disciplined. It responded to its master.

That's meekness. Power under control.

WHAT SCRIPTURE, MARTIAL ARTISTS, AND LEADERS UNDERSTAND

The Bible makes this point crystal clear. Look at Proverbs 16:32:

"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."

Did you catch that? A man who rules his own spirit is BETTER than a warrior who conquers a city. The Bible is saying self-control outranks military victory. Ruling yourself is the greater accomplishment.

And the flip side is in Proverbs 25:28:

"He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls."

A man without self-control is defenseless. Vulnerable. Wide open to the enemy. His strength means nothing if he can't govern it.

This isn't just an ancient concept. People understand this today.

Think about a martial artist. They train for years—sometimes decades—to be capable of serious damage. They can break bones. They can end a fight in seconds. But the whole point of the discipline is not using it unless absolutely necessary. The better they get, the less they need to prove. That's meekness. That's Proverbs 16:32—ruling your spirit is better than taking a city.

Think about a police officer. They carry a weapon. They train to use force. But the goal is control, de-escalation, protection. The power is there so it doesn't have to be used. That's meekness.

Think about a boxer. Outside the ring, a trained boxer could knock out just about anyone who picks a fight with them. But that discipline translates to self-control, not street fights. They don't need to prove anything. That's meekness.

Think about a good leader—a boss, a father, a reverend. They have authority. They could throw their weight around, make demands, dominate. But real leadership is using that position to serve and protect, not to control people. That's meekness.

Trained. Capable. Even dangerous. But under control.

And here's something that needs to be said—especially to the young men hearing this. Masculinity gets a terrible rap these days. The world is telling young men that strength is the problem. That being capable and assertive and powerful is somehow toxic. That you need to be softer, smaller, less.

That's a lie.

We need men to be masculine. We need men to be capable. We need men to be strong. But we need that strength under control. Directed toward good. Used to protect, to provide, to serve.

The problem was never masculinity. The problem is masculinity without control. Strength without wisdom. Power without love. That's the city without walls. That's the man who can take a city but can't rule his own spirit.

God isn't looking for weak men. He's looking for strong men who know who they are, know what they have, and choose to walk in love.

KNOWING WHAT YOU HAVE

This connects directly to what we've been learning all year in our ministry.

When you confessed Jesus as Lord and believed God raised him from the dead—Romans 10:9-10—something happened. You received the gift of holy spirit. And with that gift came power.

Look at Ephesians 1:18-20:

"The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead..."

Paul's prayer is that you would know. That your eyes would be opened. Why? Because you already have it. The power is already there. The inheritance is already yours. But you have to know it to walk in it.

It's like having a million dollars in the bank and living like you're broke because nobody ever told you about the account. The money's real. It's yours. But until you know it's there, you can't use it.

Same with your spiritual power. Same with who you are in Christ. The knowing comes first—then the walking.

And once you know? Now meekness means something. Now you're not weak—you're a powerful son or daughter of God who chooses to walk in love. That's strength under control. That's abundance with purpose.

WALKING POWERFULLY IN LOVE

Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

That's the test. Not what you do when everything's easy. What you do when you know who you are, you know what you have, and you choose to walk in love anyway—even when you could do otherwise.

Galatians 5:22-23 lists the fruit of the spirit. And look at the last one:

"...temperance."

That word means self-control. The ability to govern yourself. To have power and use it with wisdom. To walk in abundance and still choose love.

Rocky Balboa said it this way: "It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

Rocky's not scripture—but even the entertainment industry figured out that real strength isn't just about what you can do. It's about what you choose to do. It's about standing. Enduring. Walking forward in love when the world gives you every reason not to.

When you believed and confessed, you were born again into a family. And this family isn't made up of weak, harmless people. We're sons and daughters of the living God who know who we are, know what we have, and walk powerfully in abundance and love.

CLOSING

So here's the question for this week:

Do you know who you are? Do you know what you have? Are you walking in it?

Because once you know—really know—then every act of patience, every act of kindness, every time you choose love when you could choose something else... that's not weakness. That's meekness. That's power under control.

There's no virtue in being harmless. There's no virtue in being weak. The virtue is in knowing you're powerful, knowing you're a child of God filled with holy spirit, and choosing every single day to walk in that power with abundance and love.

Jesus could have called down legions of angels. He knew it. And he chose to finish what God sent him to do.

Know who you are. Know what you have. Walk powerfully in love.

Main point to remember: Meekness isn't weakness—it's knowing who you are and choosing to walk in power and love.

You're the best!

Amen.