After reading John 3:16 this morning I read the commentary below it:
"The entire gospel comes to a focus in this verse. God's love is not static or self-centered; it reaches out and draws others in."
Does yours?
Meek...Like a friggin War Horse!!!
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5).
"The meek are those who submit themselves to God. Praus, the Greek word translated "meek" is a very interesting word. The ancient Greeks used this word to describe their war horses, among other things. The horse was perfectly trained, ready for battle, and would go into battle and trample enemies underfoot. It would participate in the war with the rider; this was called a meek horse. The words meek and praus are not identical; the translators did the best they could, but the Greek word carries a different range of meaning from ours.
"I'll tell you why the Greeks called their horses praus, or meek. When the horse got to the level of training where it would obey the master (the rider) no matter what was going on, it could be trusted in the heat of battle not to do something stupid or foolish. Once the rider knew that he could trust the animal, and it would obey him no matter what, he called it a meek horse even though it might be a powerful, thoroughbred stallion, capable of killing enemies in the battle.
"This horse has tremendous power, capacity, and ability, but it has given up its own way and is allowing itself to be guided and ordered by the master. That is what the word praus means; it means submission to the master. It doesn't mean submission to just anybody. A meek person in the biblical sense of the word is not someone who allows just anybody to tell them what to do. It is not someone who allows everyone to trample over the top of them and just goes with the flow. It is all of our gifts and abilities, everything that God has put into us, under His control and submitted to Him so that even in the worst crisis imaginable, we're not going to take the bit in our teeth and bolt on our own way. We will continue to go His way under intense pressure, persecution, danger, or need. This is what it means to be meek."
It goes on to say:
"Meekness has to do with faith in Jesus Christ, with submitting to Jesus Christ, with obedience to Jesus Christ. Faith and obedience cannot really be separated. When James says that faith without works is dead, he's not talking about self-works, but of God-ordained works. In other words, if we say that we have faith in God, but we are not doing God's works, the work that God has called us and empowered us to do, then we are just playing games (James 2:14-26). We won't be able to stand in a real battle; we'll be dominated by our fears; our fears will get the better of us. Satan will be able to hem us in, and we will live our lives in a cage of fear that we, ourselves, helped him build."
Taken from God's Plan for Spiritual Battle: Victory over Sin, the World, and the Devil by Russel M. Stendal
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