Is Being Gentle a Weakness?

The heart is a muscle that pumps blood through your body to bring oxygen to your cells. With oxygen, the cells are able to generate around ten times more energy (anaerobic glycolysis produces 2-4 ATP & aerobic glycolysis generates 36-38 ATP). Like any muscle, it must contract and relax to do its job. In a day, the heart will pump 2,000 gallons of blood. Let’s be clear this thing weighs like 10 ounces. (WebMD)
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What if the heart were not a muscle but hard like bone, would that make it stronger? Of course not. If it were constantly contracted and could never relax, you would not be able to pump blood. If we were hard-hearted, our heart wouldn’t work. A heart of bone would be pointless and make the entire body weak…well dead. But being soft-hearted, our heart can work and deliver life to the body. It is a tender heart that is the strongest.

​I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 
Ezekiel 36:26 NIV

To look at this metaphorically, the Bible often references the heart as the seat of one’s desires and emotions. It will often describe the heart as either “hard” or “tender”.

What is hard? Stubborn. Selfish. Set on one’s own way.  

What is tender? Attentive to God. Acceptable of change. Selfless. One who is ready to put another person’s needs above their own. Huh, that last one sounded like the definition of love. How ironic. 

We are getting around to our question: Is being gentle a weakness? Gentle falls into the category of tender, I think we can agree. We think of gentleness as being attentive to the needs of others and assertive to another’s emotions. 

You know what gentleness also is? Yup, a Fruit of the Spirit. I like how my pastor once said that the Fruits of the Spirit are descriptions of God’s personality. Jesus even reiterates this and describes His heart as gentle and humble (Matthew 29:11). So why does gentleness kind of sound like it could be a weakness even though it literally describes God?

​Well, this little essay, I will remind you, is written in English probably because it is the only language I speak and possibly the only one you can read. The Bible was not written in English which is odd since Jesus clearly spoke in the King James Version with a thick English accent. But who knows who decided they should write the New Testament in Greek. So “gentleness” was used not with our definition exactly in mind but with the Greek definition for “gentleness”. Yes, I am going to tell you what it is also because it is my favorite word, ever. 

Prautes; from praus, meek. Meekness, but not in a man’s outward behavior only, nor in his relations to his fellow man or his mere natural disposition, but an inwrought grace of the soul expressed primarily toward God (Jas 1:21;3:13; 1 Pe 3:15). It is that attitude of spirit by which we accept God’s dealings with us as good and do not dispute or resist. Prautes, according to Aristotle, is the middle ground between two extremes, getting angry without reason (orgylotes [n.f]), and not getting angry at all (aorgesia [n.f.]). Therefore, prautes is getting angry at the right time, in the right measure, and for the right reason. Prautes is not readily expressed in English since the term “meekness” suggests weakness, but it is a condition of mind and heart which demonstrates gentleness, not in weakness but in power. It is a balance born in strength of character.

(Hebrew and Greek Keyword Study Bible NIV pg. 1665)

​I still want to say “wow” after I read those last two lines. Probably didn’t have to write anything but that definition to answer the question. But then you wouldn’t have been able to enjoy hearing my voice through the page. You’re welcome.

References:
​1. ​www.webmd.com/heart/features/amazing-facts-about-heart-health-and-heart-disease_
​2. Zodhiates, Spiros, editor. Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible: New International Version, Bonded. Amg Pubs, 2009. ​