and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [galatians 5:24]
gentle and violent
as you consider who–and whose you are today, standing in the presence of a holy God, know yourself as Christ is: gentle and violent.
we are to be gentle like Christ:
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [matthew 11:29]
but i was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. i did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, “let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.” [jeremiah 11:19]
he can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. [hebrews 5:2]
to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. [titus 3:2]
but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. [james 3:17]
but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. [1 peter 3:4]
brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. [galatians 6:1]
but as for you, o man of God, flee these things. pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. [1 timothy 6:11]
and the preceding verses to galatians 5:24:
but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. [galatians 5:22-23, emphasis added]
immediately after telling us to be gentle, paul commands this:
and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [galatians 5:24 emphasis added]
we know those who crucified Christ tortured him, spit on him, mocked him and nailed his hands and feet to that rough and splintered cross. This was not the sanitized cross that you see in a softly lit painting in your grandma’s parlor, but a violent instrument of torture designed to only to humiliate and kill. and yet, we are told to be like these roman torturers–in some way practicing a violence against our old man, our flesh–as the puritan john owen put it in his aptly named the mortification of the flesh:
“be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”
we are to be actively violent toward our sin!
for the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. [deuteronomy 4:24]
for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [romans 1:18]
put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. [colossians 3:5]
for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. [romans 8:13]
Christ is gentle, forbearing, winsome in calling sinners to himself, but there is no doubt for us in how we are to deal with sin. we aren’t to practice it, coddle it, excuse it, nurture it or give it an environment for it to thrive. let us be gentle with sinners–let us love people well and call them to repentance in Christ, but let us join hands in this fight against sin, and storm the gates of hell with violence!
but thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. [2 corinthians 2:14]
~ conor eastman