Gentleness
Philippians 4v5
17th May 2024
We've been looking at:
Philippians 4v2-4
I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.
Yes, and I ask you, my loyal yoke-fellow, help these women who have contended at my
side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my
fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
The next verse says:
Philippians 4v5
Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
The word translated "gentleness" here is epieikes. It's translated "considerate" in Titus 3v2, James 3v17 and 1 Peter 2:18. The ESV has "reasonableness" here. It can also mean "moderation". All these words mean "being careful to behave in a way that shows care for the other person".
This verse follows on the train of thought from the previous 3 verses. Euodia and Syntyche had probably allowed their disagreement to reach the point where they no longer spoke or acted gently towards each other. They were probably not rejoicing in the Lord quite as much as before. Disagreement can damage an individual, a friendship, even a whole church, especially when we allow it to affect our attitude and our conduct towards another person.
When we can't agree, can we at least disagree agreeably? When a brother or sister in Christ sins against us, can we forgive him or her? If the sin reaches the point where it needs to be addressed, can we confront him or her peaceably? Unity is important. Love is important. Love for sinners is important. We're all sinners.
Although it's not explicitly in the text, I think we can believe that Paul meant the "always" in verse 3 to apply here, too. Certainly The Lord is near always. And the phrase "to all" is significant. It's easy to let your gentleness be evident sometimes to some people. It' not easy to be gentle towards difficult people all the time.
At the end of his plea for us to be of the same mind in the Lord, to Rejoice in the Lord always and to Let [our] gentleness be evident to all, Paul encourages us with the words, "the Lord is near". Thus we know that His help is always available for us. It also reminds us that the Lord is gentle and considerate towards us, so it's only fitting that we are gentle and considerate towards others. This reminds us of the well-known Christian question, "What would Jesus do?" Jesus was gentle, considerate and also forgiving, even when being crucified.
We must be gentle to all because everybody needs gentleness. Non-Christians need us to be gentle, because they need us to represent our Saviour to them, so that the might seek Him for themselves. Immature Christians need us to be gentle because they need us to model mature Christianity for them, to set an example. People who are not themselves gentle need us to be gentle, to show them a better way. We need each other to be gentle because we will sometimes do something foolish or sinful, and need the reassurance of their continued friendship.
We must be gentle because the church is the one place where people ought to know they're safe from verbal - or other - abuse. I know people who left their church because another church member wasn't gentle with them. It's so very easy to speak an unkind or selfish word, but a failure to be gentle to all hurts our brothers and sisters, damages our church, disfigures its witness to non-Christians and dishonours our God.
And for our gentleness to be evident to all, we must engage with people. Staying out of difficult situations is (usually) not a manifestation of gentleness. We will sometimes need to be peacemakers, and gentleness is a key character attribute of true peacemakers.
The guards in the Roman jail that Paul was writing from probably weren't very nice people. The other inmates probably weren't, either. Yet Paul felt able to say, "Let your gentleness be evident to all". He had reached a place of such peace and contentment in the Lord, whom he knew to be near, that the opportunity to show gentleness to another human in Jesus's name was more important than his own comfort. This is an indicator of Christian maturity, isn't it?