Surely a follower of Him who said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls” (Matt. 11:29), must be a Christian gentleman. It is interesting that in the verse just quoted our Lord says of Himself, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” Meekness and lowliness were not merely thin veneers covering that which, was coarse and unsightly, but, as a blessed perfect Man down here, He was meek and lowly in Himself, in His nature, and therefore His ways were characterized by what He was.
It was said that someone remarked to the late G.V.Wigram, the well-known servant of Christ, “There will be no gentlemen in heaven;” to which he replied, “On the contrary they’ll ALL be gentlemen there.”
True we use the word “gentleman” in a technical sense, and certainly there will be no class distinctions in heaven. In Christ “there is neither Greek nor Jew [no national distinctions], circumcision nor uncircumcision [no religious distinctions], Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free [no social distinctions], but Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:11).
We have known men born in the social rank designated “gentle folk,” who were anything but gentlemen; and we have known men born in the humblest strata of society, who were true gentlemen, for they were “meek and lowly in heart.”
The origin of the word “gentleman,” is obvious—a gentle man. The world requires gentlemen. In the late war the seeds of roughness and brutality were sown by the writings of the mad philosopher, Nietsche. Gentleness was despised as effeminate.
Yet we read in Psalm 18:35, “Thy gentleness has made me great;” and in 2 Corinthians 10:1, Paul, whose Christian gentleness we are about to consider, wrote, “Now I, Paul, myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.”
We shall surely find in the Apostle Paul, who so evidently had taken the yoke of the meek and lowly One upon him, the traits that mark the Christian gentleman.
We find Paul joining the name of Sosthenes with his own in the first inspired letter to the Corinthian assembly; in the second epistle we find Timothy’s name associated with that of the Apostle; in the Epistle to the Colossians we find the name of Timotheus again linked up with that of the Apostle Paul; in the two Epistles to the Thessalonians we get the names of Silvanus and Timotheus associated with that of Paul.
A beautiful delicacy of feeling marks the Apostle in this. Instead of lowering him and putting him in our mind on an intellectual and spiritual level with the ones associated with him, our admiration for Paul is only heightened. A little man would not have acted thus. He was the chiefest of the Apostles, his rank and authority unchallenged by all the spiritually minded saints in his era. The flesh in the Apostle might be jealous to maintain such a position, and pride would certainly have kept the names of his associates out of the ascriptions of these epistles.
But no, with his heart set in following at all costs Him, who was meek and lowly in heart, Paul was characterized by the traits that marked his Master. And so he beautifully associates these brethren with himself in writing these Epistles.
In the Corinthian assembly leaders arose, who were of a different spirit to the Apostle. They allowed themselves, possibly courting the position, to become leaders of factions in the assembly. The assembly was likely to be rent in pieces. But how delicately he administered the rebuke. He did not mention the names of these leaders, holding them up to opprobrium all down the ages from that day to this. He wrote, “Now this I say, that every one of you says, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptised in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor. 1:12-13). But Paul and Apollos and Cephas were not in the Corinthian assembly. It was other nameless brethren and their foolish followers that were responsible for the sad state of things.
But Paul tactfully and beautifully administered the rebuke all the more effectively by using his own name and those of Apollos and Cephas (see 1 Cor. 4:6). If he had rebuked the parties concerned by using their names, they might have retorted, “It is all very well brother Paul, to rebuke us. The fact is you are jealous of your position, and therefore seek thus to dispose of us, that you may be unchallenged.” How effectual was the rebuke when he used his own name—and meant it. The Church of God was one, and it was too precious to Paul, who wrote of these very Corinthians, “I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2), to allow him to become the leader of a faction or a party. He acted as a Christian gentleman, “meek and lowly in heart.”
Another instance of Christian delicacy of feeling is beautifully seen in the verse, “As touching our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come to you to the brethren: but his will was not at all to come at this time; but he will come when he shall have convenient time” (1 Cor. 16:12). One can discern no pique in the mind of the Apostle. He might have thought his position as chiefest of the Apostles warranted instant submission on the part of Apollos. A little man would have acted differently. There is a breadth of graciousness that is refreshing.
We have the spectacle of popes big and little in the world. Diotrophes, loving to have the pre-eminence was a pope. The first of a long line of troublers. The Apostle was not one such. “Meek and lowly in heart,” he comported himself as the Christian gentleman, one who lived in the sense of the grace of God. He allowed others freedom before God, and did not try to over-ride his brethren in virtue of his apostleship.
May this meekness and lowliness characterize us all.