These are familiar words. As familiar words, they have much in common with other well-traveled passages. One common feature is the fact that the promise is not well-understood. The word to us is very clear — “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.“ A blessing is pronounced upon a certain kind of individual. Again, this is not speaking of someone who is shy, or naturally retiring. The virtue or grace spoken of is a spiritual meekness, humility, and lowliness. Those with this demeanor are blessed because they will inherit the earth.
This means that meekness must be rightly understood. As Christians, we are to understand meekness first by imitation. Our Lord himself is our example (Matt. 11:29). He is gentle. But such meekness or gentleness is not inconsistent with strength. We must imitate the Lord in all things. We see another example in Moses. He was a strong and decisive leader, and yet the Word says that he was very humble (Num. 12:3). By imitating scriptural examples, we will not fall into the error of trying to isolate one grace from all the others, and then living that isolated grace out to an extreme.
Toward God, meekness means we having a teachable spirit. We must be ready to submit to the providential will of God as revealed in events, and we must be ready to submit to the revealed will of God as displayed in His Word. The former is seen in the example of Job (Job 1:20-22), and the latter is seen in the words of Christ in the previous chapter (Matt. 4:4).
When it comes to others, meekness means, among other things, that we must:
First, refuse to be provoked by others. As it says in Psalms 38:12-13, “Those who seek my hurt speak of destruction . . . but I, like a deaf man, do not hear.“ Consider also Prov. 19:11. Second, we must forgive others. The opposite of meekness seeks to receive forgiveness without extending it. But Christ has closed that door to His followers (Matt. 6:12). We must forgive really (all the way down), fully (across the board), and often (as often as you are wronged). Why? This is how God forgives us. And third, we must love others. “Let this mind be in you . . .“ (Phil. 2:5).
But this brings us to the astounding promise. Jesus says that the meek will inherit the earth. We must not turn this upside down in our minds. Suppose someone tried to do this with the first part of this Beatitude. Suppose they said, “Blessed are the proud, for they will inherit the earth.“ Intolerable, we say. But these words are commonly distorted, and in just the same way. We think that the blessing is upon those who are meek, for “they will inherit heaven when they die.“ But this is not what Christ said. He said that the meek will inherit the earth.
How can this be? The Old Testament prophesies that the coming days of the Christian era will be glorious indeed. Just one example: “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations” (Ps. 22:27-28).
And Christ commands His followers to disciple the nations (Matt. 28:19) What do you suppose He meant by that? Perhaps He meant that we were supposed to disciple the nations.
St. Paul treats this as a commonly understood doctrine, and appeals to it in order to keep Christians from pursuing lawsuits before unbelievers. He says, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?“ Modern Christians say, “Um, no, we didn’t know that. Is that in the Bible?“
The writer of Hebrews encourages the saints with visions of conquest (Heb. 12:25-29). But keeping our hearts and minds set on this passage from the Beatitudes, we must remember that these weapons are not carnal, they are not earthly, they are not political. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.