Thursday

Related Verses
Matt. 11:28-30
28 Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

2 Cor. 10:1
1 But I myself, Paul, entreat you through the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who (as you say) in person am base among you, but while absent am bold toward you,

1 Cor. 6:9-10
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be led astray; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals
10 Nor thieves nor the covetous, not drunkards, not revilers, not the rapacious will inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal. 5:21
21 Envyings, bouts of drunkenness, carousings, and things like these, of which I tell you beforehand, even as I have said before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Eph. 5:5
5 For this you realize, knowing that every fornicator or unclean person or greedy person (who is an idolater) has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Related Reading
“If we are sorrowful and mourning, we will surely be meek…To be meek not only means to be humble and lowly but also to be willing to suffer and to lose something. If we are willing to suffer and are happy to lose something, we will receive a reward—the inheritance of the earth. When the manifestation of the kingdom comes, some will inherit the earth. According to Luke 19, some will inherit ten cities and others five cities. We must be the meek people. We must be poor in spirit, we must mourn for the present situation, and then we must be meek, humble, lowly, willing to suffer, and happy to lose something. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 2, “The Kingdom,” p. 277) 

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A person who is poor in spirit, who hungers and thirsts for God, and who mourns is also meek. Someone who is complacent in spirit and does not mourn is not meek…Meekness means not being resistant and not being hot-tempered. It is easy to be hot-tempered and resistant when someone strikes us…In Matthew 5 through 7 the Lord does not want us to be resistant. If someone slaps us on our right cheek, we should turn to him the other cheek; if someone wishes to take our tunic, we should yield our cloak to him also; and if someone compels us to go one mile, we should go two miles with him (5:39-41). 

The Lord promised that the meek will inherit the earth. After the fall of man, people must contend with one another in order to inherit the physical earth. Those who are stronger and better at contending gain more of the earth. A person who lives under the rule of the heavens and who does not contend or resist will not inherit the earth today. Others will take even what he has. However, the Lord said that those who live under the rule of the heavens neither contend nor resist but will inherit the earth. 

According to Hebrews 2, God in His ordination did not subject the coming world to angels but to man (vv. 5-7). Those who inherit the earth in the coming kingdom will not be the ones who are contending for earthly things today, nor will they be resistant; instead, they will be meek. They will not gain by contending but by inheriting. 

The words the earth in Matthew 5:5 do not refer to the world with its material enjoyment. People do not seek the kingdom of the heavens today, because they are occupied by the world. Someone who is poor in spirit and seeks God mourns because he has not gained enough God and because he is not under God’s rule. As a result, he regards the earth in this age as dung. He does not contend with or resist the people of the world, because he does not want the world. The Lord’s promise in this verse shows that in order to inherit the coming earth, we must forsake the present world. (CWWL, 1955, vol. 3, “The Living and Principles of the Kingdom People,” pp. 64-65) 

Meekness is like the flax bumper on the side of the steamer boats. When a steamer comes close to the pier, if there is nothing between the hard boards of the boat and the hard poles of the pier, one of the two will break. But if flax bumpers are placed in between them, both will hit the bumpers only, and nothing will break…This is meekness. If both sides are hard, neither side should touch the other. But if something soft is put between them, both sides will be preserved…The Lord said that He is meek. This means that He can withstand any bumping…Being meek is being changeable; it means taking what God wants you to take. It means being satisfied when you have something and being equally satisfied when you do not have something. When you have it, you can sing hallelujah and praise the Lord. When you do not have it, you can also sing hallelujah and praise the Lord. (CWWN, vol. 37, pp. 206-207) 

Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 37, ch. 32