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NASB | Philippians 4:5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Philippians 4:5 Let your gentle spirit [your graciousness, unselfishness, mercy, tolerance, and patience] be known to all people. The Lord is near. |
Subject: Strong AND gentle? |
Bible Note: Dear Searcher, Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus! Indeed, Jesus was meek, both strong and gentle. I think we have to be careful when we use Jesus' example, though. When Jesus used strong language, He had the advantage of knowing the heart of the person that was being addressed. We cannot discern at the level of the Lord, and do not know the hearts of men. So, it seems to me that we are to be more careful with our tongue, because our assessment of someone could be wrong. We cannot say, "Jesus was angry, and so am I!" :-) I think that we must sacrifice some of our strong words for the sake of trusting the Lord. It seems to me that our 'strength' should remain hidden for the most part. "Speaking the truth in love" should never be rude or impatient. (sometimes we are, though, even the best of us!) The kanji (Chinese characters) for strong and gentle mean about the same thing as the English words. However meek (nyuuwa) is closer to 'weak' than 'gentleness in strength.' In other words, more akin to the popular 'wimpy.' In Christ Jesus, charis |